In his post match interview with BBC, Arsene was asked whether he thought the sending off was fair or not. We got a classic Wenger response,
It looked to me a tackle from behind; it looked to me that Cahill was upset because they didn’t get the penalty on the other end and he got his frustration out on the tackle. And it was a dark orange, maybe a light red. In the heat of the moment it’s difficult to say.
I think that’s a perfect diplomatic response that covers the issue well and avoids much controversy. It was indeed a two footed, high, studs first lunge from behind and we could see that it was rash. I only saw it from an angle that gave a view from behind, which didn’t reveal much. I’ve a feeling the diagonal view, more from the angle that the ref saw it, would have given us a better idea.
Interestingly, most pundits seem happy to focus on this particular decision and the one that wasn’t given just before. I’ve not seen anyone say that Davies should have been sent off or Robinson for that matter.
In his post match press conference Wenger gave an update on Diaby,
I believe it was a bad tackle on Diaby, he is not in a good shape.
It is ankle or shin – he cannot move his leg at the moment so we will see.
I’ll be gutted if we lose Diaby for any length of time.
Le Boss also made some other interesting, insightful observations. First, from that interview with the BBC,
You can dominate Bolton and lose against Bolton.
We all know that’s happened to us in the past and how it feels. Just because there is some debate about the Red Card we should not take anything away from this performance. Coming on the back of a win at Blackburn it was a really important result. Big credit goes to our defenders, especially the central ones and Arsene was quick to point that out,
What I like is, for example, when Koscielny was knocked down he came back and still won every header after that. For somebody coming from the French league that is a good sign.
It’s the kind of succinct insight that we get from Arsene, which most pundits fail to offer despite going on and on about something.
Wenger was also diplomatic about Bolton. He didn’t call them a long ball team even though they undeniably were. A hack tried to push Wenger on that but Arsene was diplomatic,
He [Owen Coyle] uses the strong points of his team. Davies and Elmander are good in the air. I still believe they have a good mixture between playing on the ground and they kept their strong points. It was a good test for our centre backs today and they did very well.
Towards the end Le Boss made a joke about Wilshere staying out late,
He didn’t do a lot wrong apart from the fact that he should be maybe an hour early in bed. That happened, I’m sure, to all of us.
Q: Even you Arsene?
Even to me
I saw some headlines that said Wenger was worried about Wilshere or unhappy with him but those were just sensationalist pieces that twisted his words out of context. There is no doubt that Arsene is fully behind the youngster.
It’s a real shame that even on a day when an ‘English’ player Zamora had his leg broken by Karl Henry (yes, the same one who attacked Rosicky last year), pundits don’t realize that defending the physical game and unnecessarily rough tackling players does not do any good for the League or the national team. I’ve not seen the incident but judging by the way Wolves targeted Barton last week, it’s not a surprise, is it?
Haha..I Liked The Way Wilshere Played Today.
That Ball he Did That Led Up To The First Goal..Whoaa Man Now Thats Percision
Daily Mail is covering it saying that Bolton was lucky to escape with only 1 red card.
Good to see at least someone’s talking about it.
Most headlines highlight “10 man Bolton” as if the team started with 10 men and gave Arsenal a handicap game. We won the game and could easily have won with a wider margin, even at 11 men.
Completely rite
The only way the offial and FA will stomp out the hard tackles and physical games when in the same week England lose the like of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand, Scholes and John Terry break their leg because the bad tackle from the foreign players.
I agree.
Thought it was exactly what Wenger said, who’ll be ‘a nice lad’ if Chamakh twisted his ankle and was out for 2months for a tackle nowhere near the ball and almost outside the pitch- light red for my money…
Arsene is always shrewd in his answers, he is one of the many reasons why I started loving Arsenal.Seems like the club is named after him,isn’t it ?. I am a little worried about Diaby though, hope he is alright.These english refrees would never allow technical football to grow in England. I have seen on more than one occasion the attacker being sympathised and ridiculously defended rather than the victim. Arsene would have won 10 titles by now had it been not for the detrimental and third class refreeing
well said,
tackle on diaby was even worse, definite red i reckon
Thanks.
No doubt. That was a shocking challenge.
Just so you know, I’m an Arsenal fan.
The tackle on Zamora from Henry was actually a very good tackle. He won the ball initially, but it was a tangle of legs. I agree that there are some hard tackles flying in, but we cant overprotect players, if the ball’s there to win, then win it. I dont have a problem with a player who tries to win the ball fairly, and out of bad luck, a player is injured.
I also don’t know how davies stayed on the pitch, especially after headbutting kos.
Robinson is a filthy, horrible player, mouthing off at diaby after slashing him down. Standard Bolton really.
Well said, Dave.
The idea is not to look at one incident.
If you see the way Wolves literally attacked Joey Barton (I don’t like him at all) last week then it’s not difficult to see sooner or later they will hurt someone. Occasionally one might win the ball before breaking a leg but that doesn’t make it right.
There are plenty of good players who make clean tackles which have very little chance of hurting players. Unfortunately, too many teams in England don’t even want to acknowledge that they can improve in this department and many are happy with the kind of defence that you’ve given.
It’s not limited to winning the ball fairly occasionally and giving a foul on other occasions. The technique used, the potential risk, the benefit to the national team of carrying on this way, all this needs to be considered. By and large the tackling is very poor and of primitive standards.
Whilst you do have a point in general desi, on this occasion it was genuinely a clean tackle, and the injury was an unfortunate accident.
It is ironic that Henry managed to break someone’s leg with one of his rare honest and fair tackles. Maybe it’s some kind of twisted karma at work…
I’m trying to discuss the general issue. Diaby, Modric, and Zamora have all been injured in one day. And this happens far too often.
The key point is that unless there is serious punishment for dirty tackles and genuine encouragement for clean ones chances of serious injuries due to fouls or ball winning tackles remains high.
If the overall attitude to tackling changes, the accidental injuries will automatically come down.
A lot of tests passed and positives out of this match. It was very satisfying watching Farca lose 0-2 at home to Hercules as well! Gunning for the title.
I was just looking at the team sheet and wonder who will be left at home when Vermaelen comes back? And then who will Arsene leave at home when RVP, Theo, and Bendtner come back? There really is a very fine line between having not enough players and having too many!!
i have thought about this also. people say that we have no depth, but i think we have a massive amount of players (alot of them versatile) we just havent ever had the luxury (curse?) of them all being fit at once.
take someone like vela for instance. most everyone rates him, like him, and want wenger to use him. but if every player is fit and ready to go, how much action will vela see?
having said that id take the selection headache over the injury fever anyday!!!
We certainly have a lot of depth. But as John said a selection headache is much better than the injury fever.
I think if we have all players fit on a consistent basis Wenger will do an amazing job of rotating them and we will see football at a completely different level as many players will be really fresh and eager to perform.
Didn’t Gibbs do a good job of getting up and down the pitch while actually causing a threat on attack? A run of games for him would hurt no one. Clichy could do with a break and the competition would surely boost him as well? I was stoked with Arsene’s line up but would have preferred Wilshere was the substitute for Diaby. Still, he may have felt that Wilshere was one of the ‘safest’ as you can hardly imagine a Bolton player injuring him when they have such obvious respect for him. Vela is definitely a good replacement for Walcott but means that maybe Arshavin will have to rest for a couple of weeks? I just don’t see the problem of subbing bigger name players. They will be bound to get plenty of games over the season when injuries occur and have a smaller chance of injury. Arsene sure does look a lot happier lately, I think he can see what Arsenal are capable of doing this season!
Well said, although I do believe Vela is not ready for a run of games. He needs a few more sub appearances before he can get starts. And Carling Cup might be a good one for him.
I knew Gibbs was good but he surprised me in this game. He was much better than what I remember.
I believe i said it recently, Vela deserves a chance to start. he hasnt been selfish in his gameplay and a goal (that wasnt a chip) will only give him the confidence he needs to show up on the bigger stages….
Gibbs is a phenominal player and did nothing but shine in the pre-season; Definitely Cashley Coles replacement. I hope he replaces clichy soon as i feel he is better in a positional sense and is far more a threat when going forward
I have to commend you on the quality of your blogging Desi Gunner. One gets tired of all the negativity that too many so-called Arsenal websites spew… one in particular recently asked that Arsenal should look at the Real Madrid business model and try to copy it… that is THE REAL MADRID… Believe it or not!
Anyways it was good to see Arsenal overcome the over-physical nature of Bolton’s approach and win in style at the end. The frustrating thing is the idiots in the press who keep talking about Cahill’s sending off being harsh (which it wasn’t by the letter of the law) but forget to mention that the Bolton Captain, and chief fouler, Davis shouldn’t even have been on the pitch.
I also agree that there’s a cultural issue when it comes to tackling in the Premiership in particular and British football in general. In a single day the premiership has lost players like Zamora, Modric and Diaby to what look like serious injuries and we are lucky that Chamakh is not amongst them. I find it curious that there are people who still defend the crudeness of English tackling which isn’t tolerated in any other league.
If we can avoid the most serious injuries, which I doubt but hope we can, we could surprise a few people this season and shut up a lot of the rubbish blogs out there, which won’t be a bad thing.
Thanks.
The “cultural issue” is a good way to explain the agricultural nature of the game in England, eh
It’s unfortunate that people don’t realize they are breaking their own international aspirations by encouraging such play.
Arshavin has better “get clinical” in front of goals rapidly or get replaced by Vela or somebody else. The game would have been over if he had finished 1 of his 3 chances in the first 40 minutes. That was not acceptable.
Slowly, I am recognizing that w/ Kos, I am not so afraid of corner & set pieces. We are actually ahead in those categories to the bolton & bburn.
I’m really happy with our central defenders. Whole of last season I was talking about our Keepers needing better support from the people in front of them. Now that it’s happening we can see a clear and positive change.
I defintiely agree. We have solid Ball winners at the back now. Squillaci seems strong at the back as well. It was one of the few times i saw davies non existant in the air. Usually teams terrorize us on set pieces but thus far we have been strong at the back. Lets see how well they do against the likes of Chelsea though. Drogba and Anelka are efficient in the air and on the ground. We need a real test to see how much we have improved but i am definitely optimistic withb what they have shown thus far
[...] Classic Wenger: “It Was A Dark Orange, Maybe A Light Red” In his post match interview with BBC, Arsene was asked whether he thought the sending off was fair or not. We got a [...] [...]
zamora injured??damn..he was in the form of his life, but still no response from pundits and epl that’s very depressing.