"The tackle was bad. The tackle was very bad. I cannot protect the players, only the FA can do that. I love the English game, but people are more interested in controversy than protecting the players. Why should I create another story? You asked me how the tackle was, and it was bad."
Only an idiot would deny this was a red card tackle, even the vast majority of Bolton fans have conceded this since the game. The FA have done so little in recent years to ensure that all these leg breaking tackles are properly punished, whether seen by the referee or not. Either this one was seen by the ref and he is so bad that he thought it a fair tackle, or he missed it and the FA should be doing something. Either way it shouldn't matter whether the ref saw it or not, violence like this should always be punished retrospectively and should never slip through the net. The FA's useless incoherent disciplinary process cares more for not undermining referees than consistently punishing violent and reckless play, this is the disgrace.
"You can say Cahill's red card was harsh, but he had no intention at all to play the ball. Tackles from behind with two feet off the ground are a red card. If you have technically a good tackle on a sliding pitch where the player takes the ball I say it's fantastic. It's as good to see as a player scoring a goal. But when a guy closes his eyes and jumps with anger it's not right."
Arsene has no doubt that Cahill's tackle was a red card, something I also have agreed with from the moment. Arsene also had a veiled dig at the likes of Mark Hughes and Sam Allardyce:
"I have never encouraged one of my players to kick somebody, if you find a player who tells you I have told them to kick somebody on purpose I would like to see him."
It is a disgrace that some managers in the Premier League tell their teams to go out and kick the other team off the park. Robbie Savage clearly stated that Mark Hughes did this routinely while managing Blackburn Rovers, if that doesn't make him a thug I don't know what does?
So this weekend David Moyes has been charged by the FA for having the audacity to accuse a referee of blowing at a rather suspicious time in the game, just after Manu had failed to score from a corner and just before Everton had a great goalscoring opportunity. However the FA have done absolutely nothing to retrospectively punish the leg breaking tackle that injured Abou Diaby. The FA's lack of action speaks volumes, they are an utter disgrace in my eyes, their inconsistent approach is effectively condoning the violent and reckless play which routinely threatens to end players' careers prematurely.
