Gunnerblog

More thoughts on Eduardo + United Preview

230 guns August 29th, 2009

Yesterday those of you who follow me on twitter might have heard my rambled audioblog on the Eduardo situation.  If you didn’t, why not give it a listen now:

Unsurprisingly, Arsene Wenger made similar points more eruditely and succinctly than I ever could:

“I find it a complete disgrace and unacceptable.  We won’t accept the way we have been treated in this case for two reasons. One, I believe that you can debate whether it was a penalty or not. This charge implies there was intent and a desire to cheat the referee. Having watched the pictures again there was nothing conclusive.  Two, it singles out a player in Europe to be a cheat and that is not acceptable. I believe that, first of all, there are two cases in this case and that Uefa has taken action that is not defendable.”

I don’t know if it’s a “disgrace” to punish a player retrospectively, but it is a disgrace that this case has, as Arsene points out, been ruled principally by the media:

“This case has been ruled by the media and emotionally by Scotland, by the Scottish FA and by Scottish people working at Uefa.”

The fact that football’s European governing body has allowed themselves to either be ruled by such pressure, or use it to bring about rule changes it has desired for some time, is as shameful as any ‘dive’.

Anyway, enough of this.  We’ve got other things to worry about and bigger fish to fry - this afternoon we face Manchester United at Old Trafford, no less.

Fortunately, our good start to the season takes some of the pressure of us going into this game - United may be favourites, but they need a win a lot more than we do.  If we were to come out on top, however, it would start to make all that talk of title challenges a fair bit more credible.

Cesc Fabregas will miss the game with a hamstring injury, but Arsene believed in the in-form Diaby, Denilson and Song can compensate.  Ahead of that I’d expect Van Persie and Arshavin to be joined by Bendtner, who might be picked to utilise his height advantage over the hateful Patrice Evra.  The back four has begun to pick itself, and Manuel Almunia may well wear the armband between the sticks.

Arsene Wenger spoke yesterday of the temptation not to involve Eduardo today.  Frankly, I can’t think of a more fitting end to the week than if he were to nip off the bench to score the winning goal.

Come On You Reds.

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NEWS: Arsenal will face West Brom at home in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup.

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