WENGER DEFENDS EBOUE TACKLE
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has defended the tackle that has left
John Terry sidelined for up to six weeks by insisting it was not
motivated by revenge. Terry was angered by Emmanuel Eboue's
first-half challenge that forced him off with a broken metatarsal
in Chelsea's 1-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium last
Sunday.
The England skipper believes Eboue should have been shown a red
card for the offence. But Wenger insists Terry himself was lucky to
still be on the pitch following a cruder lunge on a prone Cesc
Fabregas earlier in the match. "I watched Eboue's tackle again and
I don't think he wanted to 'do' John Terry," he said. "He touched
him and I'm really sorry that John was injured. Ideally, Eboue
shouldn't have put his foot in there. We do not encourage our
players to do that.
"But John Terry should not have been on the pitch at that time
because his tackle on Fabregas was the worst of the match. "I don't
think he would have been sent off had he not been England captain.
If you start to think like that you become mad.
"But the referee did not see exactly the violence of the tackle.
Terry got away with it and good luck to him. "But that didn't mean
we wanted to injure him. I want my players to behave well and we do
not want to injure people."
