Two bits of unsurprising news yesterday; firstly Emmanuel Eboue has been banned for three games which following the result at Ewood Park are Reading, Aston Villa and Everton. That he is injured for at least one of them highlights the folly of the Suspension System. Alas though Pederson’s stamp has given him a touch of ankle-knack and there is no comment yet as to whether he will be fit for the PSV game. The second piece of expected news was the FA’s request for clarification and explanation of his comments about the honesty of the lino at Cardiff. Let me help them with this:

“I don’t agree at all with the match report, with what the linesman said”

Arsene believes that the Lino got it wrong; presumably a copy of his report was sent with notification of the charges against the player and someone - maybe even Arsene himself - watched the tape and believes the report to be incorrect. Pretty straightforward so far.

“This is a lie — a complete lie. The linesman said Adebayor punched Lampard. If Lampard says yes then we accept it.”

Well, Fat Frank pulled his head up from huis Jellied Eels and Pie & Liquor long ehough to claim that he had not been hit although given he has the nearest physique to Jabba The Hut seen on a Premiership football pitch, it would not surprise me if he did not notice being slapped by anyone. In fairness to Lampard though, he has stuck his head above the parapet when he could quite easily have ducked for cover and said nothing. The aftermath of Cardiff has nothing to do with him per se, so he has little or nothing to gain by getting involved. Where Arsene gets stuck in the stuff that you really do not want to be stuck in is by using such emotive language. I cannot see what the linesman had to gain by deliberately deceiving the Referee other than to feed some sort of power crazed ambition. However, not knowing the man in question, it is impossible to say whether or not this is the case so one has to give him the benefit of the doubt on any accusations of an intentional deception. That does not preclude the fact that he appears to have misinterpreted the actions of Adebayor and got things wrong. It still looks to me from the TV pictures that Adebayor did throw a punch but such were the flailing limbs at that point in time, it takes a confident man to assert what he saw at pitchside.

Arsene then continued with a few choice words about the ‘dishonesty’ that he perceived to be within the Disciplinary System, believing that the Club are being made Scapegoats which I have to say, I agree with. When you consider the number of players involved and the events it seems somewhat improbable that the only villains of the piece wore red and white shirts. When the hearing gets going, perhaps the FA can explain that one. Who knows, maybe even Arsene can point out the unpunished punches in the shenanigans? In The Independent there is an interesting theory proferred,

It is not because the FA’s football regulation unit is biased against Arsenal. It is both because it wishes to support match officials and because it is wary of provoking any more conflict with the game’s leading clubs than is necessary.

As for Drogba, assuming the unit had access both to the film and equipment required to view it frame-by-frame, which is a reasonable assumption, it should have seen the slap. But it has not been repeatedly shown by the electronic media (who prefer not to upset the bigger clubs) so charging him would have been a surprise, and evoked a furious Chelsea response. The FA took the easy option but, in avoiding a row with Chelsea, it has exacerbated the dispute with Arsenal.

If this is the case, then the FA are the ones in the Dock. It is a serious accusation to make and needs answering. If true then the FA is compromised by its own incompetence, a pacifist reasoning is no defence. There are yet many more twists and turns in this one.

But more than anything else, I am pleased that Arsene said what he did. The outburst shows that the man cares about Arsenal and even after a decade in charge, he is still passionate about his job and he showed it by getting himself into such a tizz. Whilst there may be an unfortunate side-effect in either a ban or fine handed down from this outburst, Arsene, you keep on getting worked up about things; I would rather that than have someone display indifference towards the situation, just keep an eye on the Blood Pressure old bean.

Talking of which, despite attempts to portray it otherwise, neither is Cesc Fabregas. Just to prove how scurrilous they are, certain outlets have interpreted his desire to finish his career in Spain as a ‘Come And Get Me‘ plea to either Madrid or Barcelona. Carefully omitting his sentences about how happy he was at Arsenal gives them the chance to spin their tangled webs. At least we know which player is the target of the continued media speculation over what will be a long and tedious summer in the football press.

Back to team matters; Rosicky is out for the next week or so, definitely missing the Reading and PSV games. In the meantime, Henry is also out on Saturday and classed as ‘doubtful‘ for PSV. Rosicky is going to be the biggest influence the side feels for the PSV game; Adebayor is back when the Dutch come to town next week so there is a recognised striker available. By then I believe his case will have been heard and I can sense that he will be a man on a mission, a sense of injustice pervading his mind, waiting to take it out on someone. So he will either have a blinder or be totally useless, my money is on the former. Not all doom and gloom on the team front, Djourou and Fabregas will be back on Saturday.

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