Seeing red: Jack
Wilshere clatters into Birmingham's Nikola Zigic and is sent
off
England starlet Jack Wilshere
severely embarrassed his Arsenal manager yesterday when the
teenager was sent off for precisely the kind of reckless challenge
Arsene Wenger wants outlawed from the game.
And Birmingham boss Alex McLeish
was quick to highlight Wenger’s inconsistency after the Frenchman
insisted 18-year-old Wilshere had not intended to hurt striker
Nikola Zigic, but had simply mistimed his injury-time tackle
during Arsenal’s 2-1 victory.
Wenger accepted that Wilshere
deserved to be sent off by referee Martin Atkinson but he publicly
defended the midfield star who is expected to have a big future as
an England international.
‘He got the red card he
deserved, but he didn’t want to hurt the player,’ said Wenger. ‘He
just mistimed the tackle.’
But McLeish said Wenger’s claims
warranted little sympathy as the bad blood between the clubs,
emanating from Martin Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo in February 2008
which caused the former Arsenal striker sickening injuries,
surfaced again.
‘We’ve had to put up with the
Eduardo stuff for a couple of years,’ said McLeish. ‘It’s
scandalous. Martin Taylor committed a mistimed tackle that caused
terrible damage to Eduardo.
‘We are not citing Jack Wilshere
as a dirty player, but it was a bad tackle and Zigic was lucky
today. He could have been caused terrible damage, too.’
Walking away: Wilshere leaves the scene of the
crime
Wenger’s stance in taking the
high ground against those who impose themselves physically
rebounded on him when Wilshere became the third Arsenal player to
be shown the red card this season, following Alex Song and Laurent
Koscielny.
Wilshere’s tackle on Zigic,
striking the giant Serbia striker’s right ankle with a raised foot
and studs showing, happened in front of Wenger. The Frenchman
complained: ‘He was one of the best players on the football pitch
today but you only want to talk about this tackle.’
Embarrassingly for Wenger, he
even highlighted his views in his programme notes. He wrote: ‘We
must fight to keep beautiful tackling — and that’s tackling with
the desire to get the ball back, rather than jumping in at any
cost. Managers have an important part to play — we are all
responsible for the behaviour of our teams.’
Last night a contrite Wilshere
admitted: ‘I mistimed the challenge on Zigic and accept that I
deserved
to be sent off.
‘I have no complaints about the
red card and I will learn from this. I’m missing three matches
now,
which I’m really disappointed about, but I just want to say that I
deserved the red card.’
Foul play: Arsene Wenger reacts to a Stephen Carr
challenge on Marouane Chamakh
Earlier, Arsenal defender
Emmanuel Eboue escaped with a yellow card after wrapping his legs
around Liam Ridgewell.
Yet Wenger reacted tetchily when
questioned on the subject that he has placed on football’s
agenda.
‘We are the team with the most
fouls committed against us,’ he argued. ‘I’ve spoken with Wilshere
and he will be punished, as he will be suspended from the next
three games in the Premier League. But he said he mistimed the
tackle and I accept that. He was reliable defensively and creating
offensively. Overall, he had a very good game.’
No love lost: Roger Johnson snarls at Marouane Chamakh
after the Moroccan striker won a penalty
Birmingham’s Roger Johnson could
yet face trial by TV after an aerial challenge on Arsenal’s
Marouane Chamakh went unpunished. Replays showed the Arsenal
striker was struck in the head by Johnson’s elbow.
Arsenal won Wenger’s 800th game
as manager with a penalty from Samir Nasri and a goal by Chamakh
after Zigic had headed Birmingham into the lead.
