Arsenal 3 Birmingham 1: AFTER MORE than 13 years in English football Arsene Wenger is not easily shocked, but on Saturday a section of the Birmingham City supporters left the Arsenal manager appalled.
As Theo Walcott received medical attention after a crunching but fair tackle from Liam Ridgewell, a number of them broke into a chant of “There’s only one Martin Taylor”. Quite what was going through Eduardo da Silva’s mind is anyone’s guess but Wenger was aghast.
No one at the Emirates needs to be reminded of the challenge that resulted in Eduardo breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle two seasons ago, let alone hear Taylor’s name reverberate around the stadium at a time when one of the Arsenal players was face down on the turf. It was crass and, although it has emerged Walcott did not suffer serious damage, the Birmingham fans could not have known that at the time.
Wenger, looking on anxiously from the sidelines as the 20-year-old struggled to his feet, made no attempt to conceal his disgust afterwards. Asked whether he was disappointed to hear the song, the Arsenal manager replied: “Yes, that’s frankly atrocious. They will not be remembered for their taste with those kind of remarks.”
Eduardo was watching from the stands. “I don’t know how he felt about the chants,” said Wenger. “I just put it in the ranks of stupidity. People like that, one starts to say something stupid, everybody follows, even intelligent people. People lose their identity together.”
Alex McLeish, the Birmingham manager, found himself in an awkward position. Criticising your fans is not the brightest thing to do when you have lost your last four games, yet there was a moral issue to address. “We don’t condone that kind of thing,” said McLeish, who claimed he had not heard the chanting. “Our fans gave us great support but I wasn’t aware of what they were singing.”
McLeish was certainly within his rights to defend Ridgewell, however. The left-back made contact with the ball before his momentum carried him into Walcott, leaving the winger in a heap, clutching his right knee.
“It was like watching Stuart Pearce again,” said the Birmingham manager. “The problem sometimes is in the follow-through. But what do you do? You’ll end up not making a tackle at all.”
Walcott returned but lasted only another 26 minutes before signalling that he was unable to continue, bringing his first start of the season for Arsenal to a premature end.
A scan yesterday confirmed Walcott had tweaked the medial ligament and faces three weeks on the sidelines. He is now likely to miss out on England’s friendly against Brazil next month.
By the time Walcott departed, Arsenal were two goals to the good, courtesy of Robin van Persie’s angled drive and Abou Diaby’s tap-in. Carson Yeung, the new Birmingham president, must have wondered what he had let himself in for at that point, but the combination of Arsenal taking their foot off the accelerator and Vito Mannone handing Lee Bowyer a goal before the break enabled the visitors to remain in the game until Andrey Arshavin struck in the 84th minute.
That goal means Arsenal have scored 27 in eight matches, a record at this stage of a Premier League season. Birmingham have managed only six in nine games, prompting McLeish to point a few fingers. “We have really got to start picking up points now. I threw the gauntlet down to the strikers, the (James) McFaddens of this world, to get us up the league.”
The January transfer window should help to improve Birmingham’s position, and McLeish admitted that, with Yeung promising up to €40 million to ensure Premier League survival, he is now revisiting a list that under the previous regime was titled “Wouldn’t it be great if we could afford that kind of player?”
It is not only the side of Birmingham that would benefit from a little more class.
Guardian Service
