Wenger reveals nearly dropping striker from squad
Fear over a traumatic response from Eduardo following the prolonged incident against Celtic almost caused Arsene Wenger to omit the forward from Saturday’s squad.
The Croatian has grabbed the headlines since earning and converting a very controversial penalty against Celtic on Wednesday.
There seemed to be just an inch of contact between Eduardo and goalkeeper Artur Boruc, but the 26-year-old’s fall was immediately adjudged to be a dive.
UEFA failed to give Eduardo the benefit of the doubt and charged him with “intent to cause an official to make an incorrect decision” on Friday.
That may be very harsh on an often well-behaved Eduardo who was subject to a potentially career-ending tackle just over a year ago and has seen his football colleagues make “diving” a habit.
Arguably one of the game’s most professional personalities, Eduardo will find this allegation hard to accept and so does Wenger who has revealed he nearly decided to give the Croatian a time out on Saturday.
“It crosses your mind,” said Wenger.
“I don’t know, I just imagine him walking out at Old Trafford and the first tackle him going down. There can be some restrictions there [in his mind].”
Whether or not Eduardo, tripped, stumbled, lost his balance or did a simulation only he knows, myself I prefer to think he stumbled. What ever the truth my only comment is that I feel he should have walked away and let some one else take the penalty.
Also, spare a thought for the Celtic goalkeeper.
boruc clearly strokes eduardo, and the speed at which eddy is running obviously causes him to fall, also the added factor hes trying to move out of the way of the big fucking pole also adds to eddy’s trip.
Whether Eduardo went down controversially or not, I
I believe that players will do whatever they can to gain advantage so as to win a match. Be it diving, faking injury to get another player booked, time wasting and even using hand ( Maradona’s goal against England ).For me, whether it becomes legal or not is clearly up to the referee. Its no fault of the players. If were Edurdo, I would do the same though it can be risky.
arsenekidz i agree with you 1000 percent mate.
Eduardo will shine,wenger should keep faith in him, his real No.9
Eduardo fears to get another injury,the goal keeper of celtic come in an attacking way,so he had to avoid him buy falling down
Thats a sign of good things to come our way this season even if uefa+the fucking platini hates u.
I find it suprising no one has mentioned the disgusting behavior of the Celtic players towards the referee? there is no excuse to abuse officials as Drogba did last year who was then villified and punished – its good to see UEFA’s non knee jerk reaction and consistancy.
There are calls for Wenger & Eduardo to come out and apologise. i have never ever heard of a manager or player in the history of the game admit to this. it would be a good thing if he is banned as it will serve to highlight and bring attention to all the other cheats. hopefully M Utd will now be on their best behavior at the weekend, though i do hope they apologise if the injury time gets close to ten minutes, which is quite common at their place! –
Celtic gave a good account of themselves & played some good football with a scoreline that did not reflect the two legs but they must realise that we were in complete control throughout the tie. – it was unfortunate that their extremely slim hopes were dashed due to a contencious decision.
As for the holier than thou clubs & pundits pursuing a media witch hunt, i say to them:
if Eduaudo is punished then so be it – if it was a dive there have been far worse offending players so hopefully they will also be brought to task in the future and when they are – let them remember their big noise about Arsenal. Ultimately we all want diving out of the game, unless ofcourse our team or England get a penalty in a major final. lets wait & see the flippant dismissive reactions when this happens!
“he was definately caught they will all shout”
lets all watch closely now for the pundits future biased opinion’s and UEFA’s (consistant) hardline approach to diving. its going to be fun to watch them trying to keep a lid on the can of worms they have now opened.
No cesc..No eduardo against Man utd!
Here..I already am seeing predictions lIke 2-0..3-0..
No1 thinks we’ll be able to score!
everyone else dives e.g ronaldo but never gets bad press about it, and any way a personally believe the goalkeeper caught his leg maybe not worthy of a penalty but definetly not a dive.
Well well, diving is an issue that cant be totally outlawed becase most of the time its difficult to prove. Beside its always the one against your team you dislike while you keep mum when your team is accused. Boruc was naive to commit himself like he did and I am sure his ankle touched Dudu. Wait, you will see UEFA vindicating our boy.
AA the weakest link so far
Gosh …if Alex Song isnt our best player then call me mad man….this kid is impressive and he is going to even get better….Thank you Arsene
hey fellows…can I take back my statement about AA? i am embarrassed now lol..
What a goal!!! Come on Arsenal control that mid!!! You can notice, Cesc’s absence! Diaby/Denilson need to step UP! Van Persie, isnt showing too much. He needs to concentrate more! Game is tight at the moment.
You can sense Arsenal creeping up to win this!
damn our luck………almunia was stupid
so was, Diaby!
what a bad luck..but,no..almunia performed well,he saved us from a major defeat..i really think that we should’nt play diaby..