Arsenal v Fenerbahce:ARSENE WENGER labelled Stoke City's players "cowards" yesterday and accused them of deliberately setting out to injure Arsenal players in Saturday's encounter at the Britannia Stadium.
The Arsenal manager said that Bacary Sagna, Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott had picked up injuries in the 2-1 defeat, which undermined the club's Premier League and Champions League hopes, and insisted they were all the result of bad tackles.
He added that he did not care whether the English Football Association took further action against him for his furious broadside.
"I read that my team were not brave," he said. "They are brave and for me, you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is tackling you from behind without any intention to play the ball. The only intention is to hurt. The brave one is not the one who tackles from behind the player who tries to play football. That is the coward.
"All of the players have been injured deliberately. Do you think (Rory) Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott? Or that (Ryan) Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch? If Walcott is in front of me, do you think I am stupid? I know he is three times quicker than I am and I still tackle him from behind? Do you really think I try to play the ball? You think that I am in football for 30 years and I do not see (whether) the intention is to play the ball or not?"
Although Sagna has recovered from his damaged ankle to be named in the squad for tonight's Champions League tie at home to Fenerbahce, after he was caught by Andy Griffin, the prognosis is somewhat gloomier on Adebayor and Walcott.
Neither will feature against Fenerbahce and Adebayor will be out for at least three weeks with an ankle problem. His absence is a serious setback given that Robin van Persie, his strike partner, is suspended for the next three domestic matches after his sending-off at Stoke for raising his hands at the their goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.
Arsenal play Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday and Wenger said he could only hope that Walcott would be fit for then. Walcott injured his shoulder when he landed awkwardly following a challenge from behind by Delap.
Wenger's rage was stoked by newspaper articles on Monday in which Sorensen suggested that the Arsenal team lacked courage and "that bit of spine that you need". The Frenchman has not been so livid in public for some time.
"We accept the physical side and we relish it but I can never accept it when somebody plays without any intention to play the ball and then comes out as the brave guy. Do you want me to tell you the players we have lost here? (Abou) Diaby, deliberate foul; (Tomas) Rosicky, deliberate foul; Eduardo (da Silva), deliberate foul. Now we lost Walcott, deliberate foul . . . we have lost Sagna, deliberate foul. And on top of that, you want me to sit here and say 'Sorry, we are not brave'? I am not ready to listen to things that are completely untrue and make people look brave who are cowards."
Wenger felt Sorensen had contributed to Van Persie's red card: "Have you seen what he made of Van Persie? Where did he (Van Persie) touch him? He (Sorensen) acted like he's two months in hospital. He is one of them who talks a lot."
It was put to Wenger that the FA might want to look into some of his comments. Did that bother him? "No," he said. "I say what I think and I am entitled to have my opinion. I don't accept that my players are treated as they have been treated and on top of that, they are the cowards. To (also) come out and say that I bring the game into disrepute, that is a little bit too much."
Yesterday Wenger sounded as if he wanted not just the game's officials who, he said, did not "protect" his team at Stoke, but also opposition players to take the proverbial long, hard look and emerge wiser and cleaner.
