After a foray into the mix zone after the English League Cup final, the injured Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe replied to one journalist who asked him why he had cut all his hair off.

“I had to, I only ever seem to get injured when I have longer hair,” he said.

I am neither a hairdresser nor a medical man but I thought this was a bizarre theory, but perhaps a lengthy spell on the sidelines makes you think this way?

Defoe’s superstition was the second recent football oddity to have grabbed my attention after Arsenal’s Kolo Toure received an unnecessary yellow card in the Champions League tie against Roma.

The Ivory Coast defender failed to ask the referee for permission to enter the pitch after missing the kick-off at the start of the second half.

Toure’s delayed entrance was because he waited for team mate William Gallas to finish receiving treatment so he could maintain his routine of being the last man to leave the dressing room.

Despite this odd behaviour from the two Premier League players, my favourite football superstition remains Laurent Blanc’s serial smooching of goalkeeper Fabien Barthez’s head prior to each match in France’s victorious 1998 World Cup run.

Unless you can come up with another to change my mind?

PHOTO: Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermain Defoe celebrates scoring against Portsmouth during their English Premier League match at White Hart Lane in London Jan. 18, 2009. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

The William Gallas saga behind them, Arsenal have reached the last 16 of the Champions League after a 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev.

A late winner from substitute Nicklas Bendtner was enough to send the Gunners through with a game to spare but will Arsene Wenger have to change things if his young side are to progress further in the competition?

Vlogonthepitch regular Owen Wyatt discusses Arsenal’s chances with Joe Brock in the video above. Let us know your views.

“There’s a lot of cover-ups sometimes and players need to stand up and be counted. I’m not sure that happens a lot at this club.” — Roy Keane, May 7, 2002.

“When you play for Manchester United nothing should interfere with what you are doing during the week and during a match. I have felt that one or two of the younger players have slackened off in training. I have not been happy about it. I have said it to them but maybe I have had to say it in public for them to sit up and take notice.” — Roy Keane, Feb 19, 2004.

And he did it again in 2005.

So what’s new about William Gallas revealing ’secrets’ from Arsenal’s dressing room? Nothing. And what’s so terrible about a captain hitting out at his team mates when they fail to deliver?

Gallas was doing the job of a captain at a club without a trophy since 2005.

Alright, Gallas is no Keano, but we cannot blame him for trying.

After all, it can get a lot worse in Germany. I remember in 1999 Bixente Lizarazu reportedly slapping Lothar Matthaeus in the face during a training session at Bayern Munich.

Perhaps some people will see a pattern emerging, and seek to blame the French, but then you may also remember the Italian Giovanni Trapattoni criticising players by name.

PHOTO: William Gallas trains with Arsenal, November 24, 2008. REUTERS/ Eddie Keogh

For 12 years, Arsenal fans have been used to a manager so loyal it borders on the belligerent, but that quality appears to be lost on the team’s captain, William Gallas.

According to reports this morning, Gallas has been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy. For the sake of the club’s future, the manager may have to go even further and boot him out altogether. (more…)