Time to Separate the Men from the Boys

It has been a tragic week in Arsenal land. A great deal has been said about the Eduardo injury already and I fully endorse 1979Gooner's stance on this issue. Unfortunately, apart from Gary Lewin, no-one has come out well during the week and the media and FA should be ashamed of themselves. I expect there to be a lot of emotion at the Emirates tomorrow for Eduardo and we shall all wish him to a speedy recovery. I expect there may even be the odd tear.

I also suspect that Arsenal's season now rests on how we react to the emotion and the absence of so many key players. Lets not forget that Toure, RVP and Rosicky are all still injured and Eboue suspended. Thats 4 players (5 including Eduardo) who are genuine contenders for a starting place in the first XI. As I have been saying for some time now, the squad is now stretched to the limit.

We have Aston Villa and AC Milan within 4 days. Win both games and I think we will be set next week in an ideal position for the run-in. The next games will be Wigan (a) and Boro (h). Another 6 points there and you begin to dream....

Unfortunately, it could also go badly tits-up in the next 4 days. Losing on Saturday is likely to allow Man U, who are away at Fulham, to overtake us at the top of the table. If we then get knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday, then the season really is on shaky legs.

Of course, its one of football's truisms that the most important game is always the next one, but given the week we have just had then its even truer than normal. Its truly true.

If the experience of the last 7 days has brought the squad together, then I really think we can do it this season. If the season was a Hollywood script, then this would be the moment for someone like Theo Walcott to rise to the challenge and score a bag full of goals. A Bonnie Tyler style hero. Or maybe a Christopher Wreh - he was suddenly so good in 1998.

Of course, this could also be one of those crappy foreign films where the plot just peters out, most of the characters disappear and the final shot is of some forlorn figure standing in the rain and ranting at the bitterness of the world.

I don't know why, but I just think that Bruce Willis is with us on this one. Despite the enormous car crash of the last 7 days, we can dust ourselves down, smear the trace of blood from our mouths, adjust our white vests and give Aston Villa an almighty thumping tomorrow. Just Maybe.

FA covering themselves in manure

The FA's inconsistent and useless disciplinary system continues to work its wonders, as Martin Taylor is banned for three games for a dangerous straight legged lunge while Jeremie Alaidiere is banned for four games for a little slap.

As Arseblogger says, the FA are weak cowards who have been refusing to address the problem of violent tackles for a long long time. The sheer inconsistency of punishments astounds, as petulant little non events like Aliadiere's are jumped on, while genuine career ending tackles are just lumped in together with everything else.

There should be some way of punishing the more violent offenders more severely to try to stamp this nasty streak out of the game. It also should not matter if the referee has or has not seen the incident, if it is violent and dangerous then it should be punished whether seen or not. The FA have preferred to ignore flaws in the system, as dealing with them would be far too much like hard work.

The way people are expressing their sympathy for Martin Taylor beggars belief, Alex McLeish has come out of this affair looking like an utter ignoramus, even commenting that Taylor would have to make challenges like his tackle on Eduardo again. Taylor does not deserve to be demonised, however he should be thinking long and hard about his woeful tackle, and if he is feeling shattered then he should think how he would like to have a shattered ankle covered in a plaster cast.

Anyway while Eduardo recovers, Arsenal will be taking on Aston Villa at the Emirates. One of the few positives to come from Saturday's game was Theo Walcott's performance, hopefully he can use this as a platform to move on from. We badly need three points from the Villa game, and it will be interesting to see how Arsene shuffles the pack.

Eduardo latest

I was wrong, it appears that Eduardo has sustained a fractured fibula and a dislocation of his ankle joint:

"Eduardo has fractured his left fibula and sustained an open dislocation of his ankle joint in the same leg."

The club appear rather optimistic about Eduardo's prognosis:

"It is hoped that Eduardo will be running again in six months time and making a full recovery after nine months."

I do not wish to appear pessimistic, however the outcome of these kind of serious injuries is not always good. In fact the prescence of a fracture dislocation of the ankle is a predictor of poor outcome:

"Logistical regression analysis indicated that fracture dislocation could be used as a predictor of a poor outcome for either group."

I hope I am wrong, however it is possible that Eduardo may not return quite the player he once was. Let's not get carried away, there's a long slog ahead for Eduardo and we should see any progress as a bonus, rather than the other way around.

The 'beautiful' English game

Some people have no shame. Arsene is not optimistic regarding Eduardo's injury with good reason, it's a particularly nasty injury which allegedly involves the ankle joint as well as the break higher up. These kind of injuries can end careers even with the best surgical treatment. Arseblog queries as to whether it is just the fibula that is broken, unfortunately this is unlikely to be the case, the tibia is likely to have gone having seen the pictures, the prognosis will depend on how involved the ankle joint is.

The ignorant and ill informed comments continue to appear in the media, Stephen Kelly being the latest to try to defend Martin Taylor's tackle with some truly incoherent comments:

"It was harsh Tiny (Taylor) being sent off. Tiny has gone in and it wasn't a malicious tackle and the reason the ref has sent him off is because he has seen Eduardo has broken his leg. I don't think you can send a player off for that. That's football. It can happen. It is an accident. Tiny didn't go in two-footed. He didn't lunge. He didn't dive in. Everyone knows what Tiny is like. He is such a nice bloke. He has no got a malicious bone in his body so it was very harsh for the ref to see the broken leg and then send him off because of that."

Stephen Kelly is at best a stupid fool, at worst a lying idiot. The red herring of intent and maliciousness is an irrelevant sideshow here, used by people who want to see English football stuck in the dark ages where agricultural challenges are part of the so called 'beautiful' game. As ANR makes clear, these kind of tackles are reckless by their very nature; it matters not the intent, it is the recklessness that has to be punished:

"But it is like dangerous driving, overtaking, and causing an accident when the law says don't. Lengthy bans and/or disqualification follow. A three game ban for a potentially wrecked career will invite ridicule. It would also edge the game in favour of attacking play; protect attacking players more; and help bring back the art of tackling, giving it far more value."

Other bloggers have made the point that this is more than a one off incident, the English game is blighted by an ugly mentality, a regressive footballing culture that allows violence and over aggressive play to flourish. On one hand foreigners are blamed for the lack of home grown talent emerging, while on the other hand the mass media are happy to encourage the unfair physical bullying of those with skill and technique; to me it is clear that the two are linked, our ugly footballing culture means that those with skill and technique have the odds stacked against them. Birmingham's behaviour since the incident has been pretty embarrassing to say the least, a dignified silence would have been better than their incessant disrespectful comments.

The symptoms of the disease are the likes of Martin Taylor, very average footballers with limited technique who are favoured in our thuggish English environment. I am not angry with Martin Taylor, however I do not feel for him either; my heart goes out to Eduardo and his family, get well soon and hopefully something positive can come out of this terrible incident.

The scum settles on the surface

The reaction to the Eduardo injury in the English media has quite frankly beggared belief. I don't know how anyone can genuinely have any faith in its objectivity, when Martin Taylor's tackle is defended by so many 'experts' and pundits; compare and contrast this to the way that Eboue's tackle from last week was roundly called reckless and malicious, and a 'definite red card'.

Eboue's tackle was idiotic and stupid, however it was never going to do anything more than graze Nani's thigh. Taylor's tackle was with a straight leg and studs up, and was a genuine leg breaker. Intent does not matter in these cases, if one goes into a tackle out of control in this fashion with a straight leg then one runs the risk of ending a fellow professionals career. Steve Bruce reckons:

"He would never, ever do anything malicious. He has mis-timed the tackle, and I've seen it. Some would say it is not even a yellow card."

The 'some' in 'some would say' are therefore cretinous halfwits that we would be better off without. While a Birmingham City club statement reads:

"But Martin Taylor is adamant there was no malicious intent in the tackle and he is deeply upset by the extent of Eduardo's injury. Having reviewed the incident, this (no malicious intent) is clearly the case."

I don't care whether Martin Taylor feels remorse, he should have thought of this before he went into a tackle completely out of control with a straight leg and studs up. It's like someone setting a building on fire, burning to death the people inside and then claiming there was no intent to kill the people as it was not known that the building was occupied.

Andy Gray, David Platt, Mark Lawrenson, Garth Crooks, Mickey Quinn and others have all tried to defend the tackle by claiming 'it was just clumsy', 'he's not that kind of player' or 'it wasn't malicious'. Radio morons like Terry Christian and the regressive Dj Spoony were happy to compare Taylor's tackle to Gallas' kick out at Nani the week before. It's hard to find words to describe this kind of illinformed verbal diarrhoea. These comments seem to echo exactly what happened when Andy Cole ended a young Australian's career a few years ago, with Andy Cole claiming:

"I don't have a malicious bone in my body....I have not spoken to Colosimo. Why should I? I went for the ball. I don't think I did anything wrong."

The media then leapt on some rather emotional post match comments made my Arsene Wenger in a completely unsympathetic and disrespectful manner, comments which he has since retracted. The malignant way in which the media have looked to excuse the tackle, while jumping on the victim's manager, has neatly revealed their overt bias for all to see.

English football needs to come out of the medieval age, a rather nasty undercurrent of xenophobia seems to emerge as a way of blaming foreigners for our failings, rather than taking any responsibility for them ourselves. Small minded bigots like Andy Gray are more comfortable living in a state of perpetual denial, than productively moving forward by learning from our own mistakes. Players with skill and technique have it rough in England, cloggers like Martin Taylor are produced by a system that favours thuggery and violence over technique and craft. It's no wonder the English game is so poor technically, but in the media's opinion it's all the fault of the foreigners, how they could do with a mirror.

Change should come from yesterday's horror show, change that outlaws this kind of violence that has no place on a football pitch. The FA's useless disciplinary system is in desperate need of a major overhaul, how can a tackle like Eboue's recieve the same punishement as Taylor's violent assault?

Refereeing of the lowest order

I am still fuming following the disgrace that was Martin Taylor's 'tackle', Sky's pathetic double standards and Mike Dean's retarded officiating; the combination of which has deprived us of a very gifted player for months and maybe his whole career, and of three deserved points.

The games started with a truly appalling tackle from Martin Taylor that may well end Eduardo's career. He lunged in, completely out of control, and broke Eduardo's tibia and fibula in two. Mike Dean got about his only decision right when he pulled out a red card for the disgraced Taylor.

Sky refused to screen the tackle again. A strange position to take, given how they have shown many similar breaks in the past such as David Buust's and Henrik Larsson's leg breaks. Andy Gray and David Platt should be ashamed of their pathetic comments. Gray tried to claim that there was no intent in the tackle, showing his complete lack of objectivity and understanding when it comes to deciding what constitutes a bad tackle. Platt then insinuated that it was partly Eduardo's fault for overrunning the ball. Compare and contrast Taylor's red card to Eboue's red card, this is the perfect contrast between the stupid and the genuinely dangerous.

Referee Dean gave Birmingham their first goal with a non free kick as McFadden threw himself to ground for the umpteenth time, good old British players never dive though do they? Arsenal played outstandingly in the second half and should have been out of sight, only for the incompetent buffoon Dean to point to the spot in the very last minute when Clichy clearly won the ball fairly in the box. I don't even have time to mention the countless examples of Dean's brain dead incompetence, they had to be seen to be believed.

The boys don't deserve any criticism today. Events outside of their control conspired against them in a tragic way. Mike Dean showed his weak character by gifting the home side two undeserved goals, while our thoughts should be with Eduardo this evening as his season and possibly his career have been ended by a disgraceful tackle. The FA need to come down hard on these violent challenges, if Taylor gets no extra punishment for his filth then it will show yet again why the English game is being held back technically due to an environment that encourages violence and not flair.

All to Play For in Milan

The 0-0 result last night did not reflect Arsenal's good performance last night against AC Milan, one of the true greats of European football. Although not at their best this season, form counts for little at this stage of the Champions League and AC Milan boast some players of true class - Kaka, Maldini, Nesta etc alongside some exciting youngsters, such as Pato (which I believe translates to 'Duck' in English).

However, the Arsenal team were more than a match for the opposition and some excellent performances were seen. Big Phil Senderos deserves a particular mention, who was a 7th minute substitute for Toure. Reports this morning suggest that Kolo twisted his knee quite badly and will be out for a month. We are now dangerously short of cover at the back, but if the current back four can stay fit then we should be fine. But thats a big 'if'.

The Senderos / Gallas partnership is also looking more solid at the moment than the Gallas / Toure partnership. Whilst this is no doubt down to the fact that Big Phil is playing well, I also wonder whether Gallas prefers the right centre-back berth that Toure usually plays in?

Following on from 1979Gooner's post of yesterday, Mad Jens did have a good game, when called into action. Also, his distribution when throwing the ball out to restart play was excellent.

Most of Arsenal's best chances came in the second half, when we played with genuine tempo and verve. The press point this morning to Milan's experienced defending in resisting the attack, and that was true to an extent, but our shooting was also pretty hopeless, with Eboue, Eduardo and Bendner all blazing well wide when decent shooting opportunities presented themselves. This generosity then came fully home to roost in the last minute of the game, when Adebayor's header hit the bar from two yards out.

Its a shame that we did not win the game but I have always thought that we would need to score in Milan, and nothing has now changed. The run to the final in 2006 was based on good away performances against Real Madrid and Juve in particular, whereas we were almost caught out trying to hang on to a lead against Villareal. So I think we are well placed against a Milan side that will have to come at us in two weeks time, hopefully offering us the opportunity to counter-attack.