Wenger: 'Did they hurt us deliberately? Of course they
did'
A furious Arsene Wenger has accused Stoke players of
deliberately trying to injure Emmanuel Adebayor, Theo Walcott and
Bacary Sagna, branding those responsible cowards.
The trio were forced out of the defeat at the Britannia Stadium
on Saturday as Arsenal failed to cope with Stoke’s physical
approach. But although Wenger insisted he had no qualms about the
result, he was incensed at Ryan Shawcross’s tackle on Adebayor,
Rory Delap’s on Theo Walcott and Andy Griffin’s on Sagna.
I read that my team were not brave,’ raged the Arsenal manager.
‘I can say that 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 you and I can show some tackles
where I can prove what I say. The one who is tackling is not the
brave one. For me the brave one is the player who is trying to play
football.’
Asked whether the intention had been to deliberately hurt his
players, Wenger said: ‘Yes, of course. It happened at the weekend.
'Do you think Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott?
Or that Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor
off the pitch. All the players have been injured deliberately.
‘We cannot stop it. We can be guided by the way we want to play
the game by showing courage, being resolute and being determined to
dictate the way we see the game.
'I think that’s the right one. I am not ready to listen to
things that are completely untrue and make people look brave who
are cowards, for me.’
Wenger will be without Walcott and Adebayor for tonight’s
Champions League encounter at home to Fenerbache but Sagna is in
contention. Looking to bounce back from the capitulation against
Spurs and the defeat to Stoke, Wenger said: ‘The problem this
season is that we have not been efficient in some games but as well
we have just had a run of seven games unbeaten and I still think on
Saturday we had a little hangover from a huge disappointment we had
against Tottenham.
‘We lost a game but we are six points behind the leaders, it is
the start of November and we have plenty of quality to get it back.
The same people who say we are not good, let them say in three
weeks when we are the best.
‘For example, we drew 4-4 against Tottenham but we had an
outstanding performance. That's what I believe. Let's re-establish
what we have not done well recently, defend together as a team and
continue to play in a positive way.’