Anti-football

Barclay: out of control

Some teams simply cannot beat Arsenal at football so they go about it in a different way and it's down to referees to stop them from things like yesterday.

Neil Custis
Quotes of the week

Tackling in English football is out of control and must be addressed by the authorities before more damage is done to the game.

That's the view of Patrick Barclay of The Times , who was reacting after seeing Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey taken to hospital with a badly broken leg after a red-carded tackle from Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross.

The injury was reminiscent of the bad injuries suffered by Ramsey's team-mates Eduardo and Abou Diaby in previous seasons, and while Barclay does not believe there was any malice on Shawcross's part, he feels there are too many wild challenges which would not be tolerated abroad.

"What we saw yesterday for me was completely unacceptable in the same way as it was unacceptable when Martin Taylor inadvertently, accidentally broke Eduardo's leg," he told Sunday Supplement.

"There's a wildness and a physicality about the English game which I don't think is healthy."

"During the match yesterday one of the best chances fell to Eduardo," he added. " A challenge came in from the side, a fairly lose desperate one, and Eduardo didn't put his foot through the ball, and that's because he broke his leg before.

"Now that is why this is unacceptable, because it is anti-football. And Eduardo's career will probably never be the same again."

Furious

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was furious in the aftermath of the match and suggested that too many teams were over-physical against his side.

Neil Custis of The Sun agreed with Wenger's comments and believes most sides adopt physical tactics against the Gunners because they simply cannot cope with their technical brand of football.

"I have a lot of sympathy for Wenger and I think he is absolutely spot on," he said. "I think teams do go to be over-physical against Arsenal, outside of the laws.

"Their football is quick and fantastic and so wonderful to watch and when they're on form they're probably the most entertaining team around and teams go out to stop them.

"They go out to wind them up, they go out to... I wouldn't say injure them, but they certainly go out to foul and to shake Arsenal up.

"Because Arsene Wenger is not a friend of all the managers - he's not the one who has a drink with them afterwards, he's doesn't do things with the LMA and stuff like that - I think he is an easy target for a lot of managers to have a go at him as well as paint this picture that 'Wenger's just whinging' or 'Wenger's just whining'".

"You can also point to Arsenal's disciplinary action, which isn't the greatest, but I think often that is more of a reaction to referees not defending them.

"Some teams simply cannot beat Arsenal at football so they go about it in a different way and it's down to referees to stop them from things like yesterday."