We asked Tottenham fan Dan Fitch to give us the lowdown on what to expect from Emmanuel Adebayor and how to get the best out of him.

The important thing is not to get too carried away.

Emmanuel Adebayor has scored on his debut for Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham. A complex and troubled individual, Adebayor is someone who enjoys fresh starts but can’t help pressing the self-destruct button to ultimately ruin things for himself.

When you delve into his background in Togo, where he has shouldered the burden of being the financial saviour for a large family, only to be repaid with black magic curses and threats against his life, it’s perhaps unsurprising that he is drawn to chaos.

But you don’t want my cod-psychological evaluations. All you care about is whether he’ll score goals for Palace.

He will. Adebayor has scored goals wherever he’s gone and will enjoy being the focal point at Selhurst Park. Still only 31, it says much for his ability that he could overhaul Didier Drogba to become the top scoring African in Premier League history. Drogba, who had stability on his side at Chelsea, has only scored eight goals more than a player who has been regularly frozen out by the managers he’s fallen out with.

Some have doubted whether Adebayor can hit the ground running after such a long time without a club, but it should be noted that his career has regularly been punctuated with spells in the wilderness, from which he’s emerged with his powers seemingly unaltered.

He starts quickly. Adebayor scored four goals from his first eight games at Arsenal, four in five after joining Manchester City and nine in 14 during his opening loan deal at Spurs.

In that first season at White Hart Lane it looked as if the club had found the world class striker that we’d long craved. Scoring 17 Premier League goals in 33 appearances, Adebayor was the most important player in Harry Redknapp’s team that finished fourth in the 2011-12 season.

To be the most important player in a team that contained talents like Gareth Bale, Ledley King, Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart is high praise, but it’s not hyperbole. Adebayor didn’t just score goals that season. He lead the line superbly, holding up the ball to give Tottenham’s attacking midfield talents the opportunity to shine. Without Adebayor, the system simply failed to work.

Yet despite the high esteem I held Adebayor in during that campaign, I couldn’t help but feel nervous when he was signed permanently in the summer. History suggested that the move would go sour.

My fears proved correct. He just wasn’t the same player in his second season. The work rate dipped and his finishing became less reliable.

Redknapp had been sacked and replaced by Andre-Villas Boas, who would eventually fall out with Adebayor when the player refused to take off his hat during a team meeting.

In retaliation, AVB refused to play him, which became a source of tension with Daniel Levy when the team were struggling. Eventually Villas-Boas would also be sacked and Adebayor returned to the side successfully under caretaker manager Tim Sherwood.

His career at Spurs effectively came to an end when Mauricio Pochettino was appointed as manager. Adebayor was never going to fit into Pochettino’s pressing system and he was used sparingly by the Argentine.

Tellingly, Pochettino decided to leave Adebayor out of his squad this season, despite the fact that he had no real cover for Harry Kane. Pochettino had no desire to be brought down in the same way that Villas-Boas had and wisely refused to deal with him.

Though popular with his teammates, Adebayor can undermine the authority of a manager. Pochettino identified him as a disruptive influence on his young squad and made the right call. Tottenham fans largely supported that decision, having grown sick of the lack of application from the club’s highest paid player.

What Palace should learn from all of this, is that Adebayor can only be successful in the short-term. Given the lack of goals in recent weeks he is the perfect solution, but only until the end of the season.

Should he prove successful, the temptation for Alan Pardew and Steve Parish will be to sign him on a free. Under no circumstances should they do this. This is a player who can get managers sacked and drain much-needed resources from a club while he rots in the reserves.

Instead, at the end of his contract, Palace should simply thank Adebayor for his efforts and point him in the direction of China, Qatar, or some other desperate Premier League club needing a quick fix.

Adebayor is not someone you settle down with, but as a brief fling he’ll put a spring back into Palace’s step. Enjoy him while you can and make sure you’re brave enough to say goodbye.

Dan is the editor of Tottenham Blog and writes for Sabotage Times and Unibet. Follow him on Twitter here.

1. Important not to feel disheartened

Four league defeats in a row. It's easy to feel disappointment about our dip in form. There were however positives to take from the performance against Spurs, where despite Tottenham's dominance, Palace came close to scoring goals which might well have won us all three points. Instead, we were defeated by two wondrous strikes.

The context to this run of defeats is that Palace have lost three of the four matches against top sides - Including Chelsea - with an  international class of talent capable of beating most teams they face. If we are to take one performance to heart, it would be the Aston Villa defeat - a calamitous, listless performance that was worthy of a loss.

There is plenty for Palace to build on. The next few games are crucial in terms of shaping how the rest of our season will go. 

2. Quality attacker needed, but at what price?

The transfer window has been a point of irritation for Palace fans, myself included, and the club are seemingly facing myriad difficulties when it comes to finding a striker.

What kind of player do Palace need? A foreign star? A young talent capable of being built around? Does he need to be a competitor for Wickham or the kind of player that is selected alongside him? What constitutes value? Where can Steve Parish find that kind of value?

Palace have spent money. Wickham and Gayle were not cheap options. Is signing someone like Islam Slimani, who has been excellent for Sporting Clube, a guaranteed goalscorer for a side like Palace? Wasn't Ricky van Wolfswinkel that when Norwich signed him from the same club, only for him to score zero goals in the season they were relegated?

Much transfer activity is essentially gambling, especially when signing players who haven't played in the Premier League. If Palace do sign a striker, it has to be with a consideration of the facts - and that takes time. It's an approach that has worked since CPFC2010 took over.

3.  Are we expecting too much from our squad?

Palace have a strong 11. Take two or three players away from that, and it begs the question - is the rest of the squad that strong?

With the loss of Bolasie, Palace's lack of depth on the wing has been highlighted. It's destabilised the squad to the point that we've had to play Puncheon, a player who looks best in a central role, on the wing, which in turn meant that James McArthur has had to take Puncheon's place, and for Joe Ledley to fill in alongside Yohan Cabaye in defensive midfield.

Our lack of genuine attacking depth has been highlighted by the inability of Fraizer Campbell to make an impact when he has played, and Marouane Chamakh to challenge for a starting place.

The progress Palace have made in the last two seasons has been significant. The squad will need to catch up.

4. Let's see the Wickham elbow for what it was...

A violent moment of stupidity. Whether it was in reaction to having his shirt pulled or not, Connor Wickham's elbow on Jan Vertonghen was incredibly foolish and dangerous - at a time when the squad needs the player the most.

There is no excuse. I've seen a few suggest he was just trying to shrug the player off - a laughable response to the incident. Wickham's intention was to elbow his marker, so much so that he swung twice for him. It was unacceptable, and a three match ban is the least he deserves.

The most disappointing aspect to that incident was that Wickham had had a decent game for Palace. Committing such a stupid foul makes the rest of his performance insignificant. 

5. Is it time for a goalkeeper change?

I have a tendency to see the good in most situations, much to my detriment, and that tendency makes this question a very difficult one. Should Wayne Hennessey be dropped?

If we were to take the goals conceded against Manchester City and Aston Villa, I would have said no. I think a player deserves the benefit of the doubt initially, and Hennessey deserved it after a series of winning performances. But there's something to be said about the nature of the goals we have conceded recently.

The majority have been long-range efforts. Two of the three that Tottenham scored yesterday were just that - low and from distance. With an ultra-critical look at both, it could be argued that for the second, in the build-up to Dele Alli's goal, he wasn't as prepared as he should have been. Instead, we saw him adjusting his gloves just before the strike came in. The third goal seemed to indicate that he was slow to react. Hennessey's footwork has been a point of concern before, too.

That said, Hennessey has shown he's capable. You don't suddenly become a bad goalkeeper, and Palace as a defensive unit have become a bit too porous, too.

Should Pardew try and see out Wayne's dip or should he swing the axe and bring in Alex McCarthy or Julian Speroni? I don't envy his position, but I'd argue that a change might need to come sooner rather than later.

Follow Robert on Twitter. 

Making his FYP debut is Jay Crame, editor of The Eagles Beak, on why the former Spurs man could be perfect for Palace.

The January transfer window is just full of frustration for football fans. Your club signs a player in good time and it is not the one fans want.

Leave the signing of players until deadline day and fans are at the end of their tether having spent the previous thirty odd days waiting desperately for news like an expectant father (although I would not want to be that father waiting that long during labour let alone the mother!)

Do not sign a player at all and the fans are up in arms. It is a no win situation.
You can probably tell that I really am not a fan of the transfer window along with Jim White’s exaggerated dulcet tones and his yellow tie. It is a media wet dream and if social media is anything to go by, it is solely responsible for breeding so called accounts and groups that are allegedly ‘in the know’ that all too many people believe. My Mum knows more than any of these self-confessed experts, I am sure of it.

Now I have had my rant, I turn my attention to Palace and what is now a much more urgent need for a striker before White toddles off to see in the window slam shut live from the bongs of Big Ben.

It is no secret that Palace have been lightweight up front this season. We have scored goals but it has been from the rest of the side. The defence has scored more goals than the striking department so far. Connor Wickham, Frazier Campbell, Dwight Gayle, Marouane Chamakh and an all too brief cameo by Patrick Bamford has totalled a massive ONE goal to date.
With the FA about to throw the book at Connor Wickham for his ill-advised swing of his elbow into the face of Belgian defender Jan Vertonghan on Saturday, I would be surprised if he gets away with anything less than three games out with immediate effect.

That would see the former Sunderland and Ipswich Town striker miss games against Stoke City, Bournemouth and Swansea City in the space of seven days. It would sum up his stop start season with us since signing. Two spells out through injury and now facing time out through suspension. It is a real shame as the team has looked a much better outfit with him leading the line as the lone striker. The problem we face is when we have to replace him.
None of the current personnel fit the mould to our current formation. While we continue to miss Yannick Bolasie, boss Alan Pardew has eluded to the fact that he would not be adding to the defensive or midfield ranks. It is the attacking department we need help with, especially goals.

There has been much speculation, as there always is, about who Palace will be signing. All the usual suspects have been linked such as Charlie Austin and Loic Remy but there are two more which have caused quite a divide among Eagles fans.

The self-confessed fruit cake that is ‘Lord’ Nicklas Bendtner is currently plying his trade (if you can call it that) at German outfit Wolfsburg. He is looking a less than likely option now but the other one is very much on the cards if reports are to believed.

Missing Connor Wickham through suspension has perhaps pushed the club towards the direction signing of free agent Emmanuel Adebayor. A striker who is not the first to have admitted to falling out of love with the game and only playing for the money. A player that has an over inflated ego and previously caused problems at former employers.

Palace need a player to compete for that lone striker role with Wickham and when he is not available, then the position is his. Step forward Adebayor. Question marks over his match fitness are a concern, as are his personal views and attitude towards the game of football. However, facing facts, this is a player that has scored goals at the very top level.

Everywhere he has been, he has scored goals. From Metz where he began his career to his last club Spurs as well as on international for Togo. In over 360 appearances for various clubs that include Monaco, Arsenal, Manchester City and Real Madrid, he has netted over 130 times.

The 31 year old striker only appeared for Real Madrid fourteen times but managed 5 goals in that time. That is a similar run of games he could feature for Palace between now and the end of the season should he sign. Five goals could be of real value but it is not just that. The all round play of a big lone striker will bring the midfield into play. This is a player with an awful lot of experience.

While I am not completely convinced, I remember very similar feelings towards the signing of Marouane Chamakh and that did not work out too badly.
The signing of Adebayor until the end of the season could well be a gamble worth taking.

Jay Crame is editor of The Eagles Beak, a brilliant website for news and views on CPFC - check it out here.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of standing three rows in front of an absolute moron.

If he wasn't shouting out cringeworthy and offensive references to terrorists apparently owning Manchester City, he was aggravating other Palace fans by jumping into them and hitting them in the back of their head but I'm going to concentrate on one element of his behaviour I found especially odd.

Criticism of our own players leading to xenophobic abuse of those players we were there to support is something I've personally not heard in my 21 years of watching Palace; at least, I've not been aware of it to the point it made the afternoon uncomfortable for those around the bloke blurting out this rubbish.

I actually do think that Yohan Cabaye has another 10-15% in his locker that we could really do with seeing during this tough run. That said, do I think the midfielder is a 'f****** French c***' or a 's*** French c***'?

No, no I don't.

A player's nationality, for some reason, is often used within torrents of abuse but the aggression that this guy in particular was oozing was over the top, unnecessary and judging by the vein that looked ready to pop on his neck, a health risk. Cabaye's misplacing of the pass that led to an especially unseemly outburst had nothing to do with his nationality. Whether he was born in Limoges or Luton, Cabaye should've made that six yard pass; he knew it, Pardew knew it and we knew it.

Cabaye is perhaps a little more fair game and more likely to be on the end of stick than some of our other players considering the grandeur that came with his signing and the fact it's known we're paying him so handsomely but misplacing a pass in the middle of the park happens. Players make mistakes and when a team is stuck in a rut, they happen more frequently.

In all honesty, we could have been beaten 4-0 at The Etihad having been on a run of five wins on the bounce. City, when on form, are in a different class to most other sides. On paper, Saturday’s fixture is probably the toughest we’ll have all season. If we’d lost 4-0 at Sunderland or Norwich, I’d have left the Stadium of Light or Carrow Road despondent but we didn’t. Manuel Pellegrini’s side moved the ball better than any side I’ve seen this season and in David Silva and Sergio Aguero they possess two of the best players in European football.

Ok, losing 4-0 is never great but it’s hardly the end of the world and says that a man who left Bexhill at 6.40am and returned at 11.24pm.

Expectations are at an all time high. The club is flying and have at times in the last three seasons provided the Palace faithful with memories that will last a lifetime. With an increase in expectations comes a natural frustration when the good times are halted and a side embark upon a shoddy run of form. Whatever the reasons for this dip in form, it's time for those tearing themselves apart to take a moment.

Having read through a few pages on Palace forums and seen Twitter's mild implosion in recent weeks, it's clear that some fans are becoming fed up with constant references to five years ago and being told that we should just be grateful that we have a club. I agree, five years is a long time in modern day football; our opponents last Saturday are a fine example of that.

For me, what's more pertinent is the comparison between where we are now in contrast to the same stage of the previous two seasons.

It's great to think about Palace potentially becoming a firm fixture in the Premier League's top eight in years to come but this time last season, just after Super Al took the reins, we'd all have taken scraping 17th at the end the season. Admittedly, we don't want to drop down the league too much further between now and May and undo the good work put in before Christmas but at least the club can plan ahead to the summer with a degree of certainty that Crystal Palace will be a Premier League club at the start of the following season; something they've not been able to do previously. That's progress.

Take from this piece what you will. I'm not here to tell other fans that pay their hard earned money to travel around the country following Palace how to behave but abusing our own players when they could do with our support more than at any stage during the season seems a little short sighted to me.

Follow Jack Pierce on Twitter. 

(Photo Credit: @hulfie)