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In the wake of Arsenal's stirring 3-1 win of Stoke at the weekend, two men were left to ponder very different futures. Aaron Ramsey,…
Arsenal striker Eduardo faces a two game ban for allegedly diving in the Gunners 3-1 win over Celtic midweek. On Saturday Arsenal travelled to…
Arsenal’s Andrei Arshavin has predicted that Britain’s plans to increase the maximum payable tax rate will result in an exodus of the Premier League’s…
[caption id="attachment_16233" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Liverpool\'s Jay Spearing, foreground right, gets past the tackle of Real Madrid\'s Rafael van der Vaart, left, during their Champions…
It is certainly a contact sport and no one would want to see the slide tackle removed, but it is interesting that you point out that there are tackles every week that could potentially result in similiar incidents to the Ramsey leg break. This indicates that there isn’t a great fear of the repercussions for tackling recklessly, if Shawcross was suspended for say 3 months (just a random number) it would at least ensure that players we more aware of the risks that an agressive playing style can lead too and could lead too.
EPL needs to clamp down on rough tackling
All of the strengths you mentioned are correct, but right now his weaknesses are more detrimental. Wenger is more of a business man and people manager. He knows how to keep Arsenal financially viable and to instil confidence in players that have never been touted as stars. That said, he doesn’t know tactics or how to win ugly. His substitutions are seldom effective and once an opposition team gets on top physically the story becomes all too familiar. Wenger can’t teach defence either. Arsenal has been struggling from set pieces for a decade. Right now the club has two truly world class players, Fabregas and Arshavin, these two won’t stay around to see if the “plan” comes to fruition. The deficiencies in the team are obvious and yet again Wenger did not address them this summer. He has brought a lot of success and some wonderful memories of scintillating football, but at some point the message loses its impact with the players. The game has changed directions and Wenger hasn’t gone with them. I would love him to turn Arsenal’s fortunes around, but am sceptical he is the man to do it.
Love him or hate him, Wenger brings results
I am a Gooner and also agree that it clearly was a dive, but to be honest UEFA lost credibility when they charged Eduardo in the first place. Prior too and since Eduardo players have been diving and yet out of the blue Eduardo is charged for the offence and slapped with a ban. More appropriate would have been for UEFA to publicly condemn Eduardo. Yes no ban, but as most real football fans know Ronaldo is a diver and now Eduardo will wear that tag as well. The ban was always destined to fail because UEFA were writing the rules as it happened. The appeal exposed that and as such Eduardo gets off, but his reputation will never be the same.
UEFA throws credibility out the window
Perth will surely play finals this season in the expanded set up, alot to like about their squad. Can’t wait for kick off next week, looking forward to seeing Robbie and the first GC game down in Melbourne. Hopefully it all comes down to a Victory v Sydney FC GF at Etihad.
Five great reasons to watch the A-League
I think that she can make the grade, but probably needs to be herself and create her own commentating identity. Listening to her call she seemed to use too many old football clichés.
AFL's first female commentator under fire
It is actually neither of those Ben’s. Ultimately if they sustain injuries to key players and the fringe players don’t pull their weight – Liverpool will struggle – But after 20 years it might just be their year. I am actually a Gooner, but alas you have to be realistic about who is going to push for the EPL title this year.
Liverpool set to reclaim EPL record
I think its a good point that most people that follow the HAL also follow other codes. With NRL and AFL finals around the corner a lot people probably start thinking A-League come October/November. If I was promoting the A-League I would go pretty agressive at this time to try get the unconverted on board and have them hooked by seasons end.
Does the A-League season need more promoting?
I agree that there is no club that isn’t guilty of reckless challenges and Arsenal is also in this category, but if we look at AFL and the Matthew Lloyd/Brad Sewell head high bump it has really set the agenda in AFL circles that if you go in with that approach whether you intented to make contact or not you will be severely punished. Now if the result was a broken neck – one would imagine even more serious reprecussions. Your right it isn’t transparent in England where a similar incident that doesn’t cause injury is not dealt with consistently. Some may remember a horror tackle by a lad called Proctor in a FA Cup games years ago against Vieira. It was appaling, yet he wasn’t even booked! So for me the start is hard lines on tackles and again like the AFL the impact needs to be a determining factor in the penalty.
EPL needs to clamp down on rough tackling