Arsene Wenger Lets Himself and Arsenal Down for the Second Time This Week.

Arsene Wenger is normally a dignified man, but his actions and words this week have let himself and his fans down very badly.

The week started well.

Arsenal were 1/200 to go through to the next stage of the Champions League, as bookmakers decided that the Gunners' 2-0 lead over Celtic was pretty much unassailable.

They were right, but it still took a dive from Croatian international Eduardo to make the unassailable lead utterly impregnable.

Wenger's stance on the dive, a steely silence as his portable stanchion blocked his view again.

"The referee has given it. But, if the TV pictures show it should not have been given, so be it," said Mowbray of the penalty won and scored by Eduardo. "Over the two legs, Arsenal had more quality and deserved to go through."

Tony Mowbray showed Le Prof that you can still keep your dignity with defeat.

Although, if you read Wenger's comments on the Aug. 8, you would perhaps understand why he said nothing after the game they were always going to win.

"It is vital for the club, not only for the prestige, but also for the money," he said. "It would be a tragedy not to be in the Champions League."

Yup, Arsene knows the true value of sportsmanship in this era—dive if you've got to.

The dive row escalated further the next day after the Scottish FA called on UEFA to ban Eduardo for his simulation.

Surprisingly enough, UEFA actually listened.

They've really opened a can of worms now, as they charged Eduardo with deceiving the referee.

But Arsene wasn't taking that one lying down, and he rounded on UEFA for "singling out" the diving Croatian.

"I find it a complete disgrace and unacceptable, and we will not accept the way Uefa treated this case for two reasons," Wenger said. "I believe that you can debate, was it a penalty or not? This charge implies that with intent and with a desire to cheat the referee, Eduardo did act. And it singles out a player in Europe to be a cheat, and that is not acceptable.

"Uefa has taken an action that is not defendable. For me, it is a witch hunt that we see, not an objective judging of the case.

"Eduardo has been touched by the goalkeeper, and we can prove that. And that I wish you good luck to prove that having seen the pictures again. It's funny in football because you can break the legs of players and it doesn't make a debate for anybody, but this case has been treated all over the world like Eduardo has killed somebody. It is a witch hunt. What else is it?"

The Arsenal boss went on to accuse UEFA of undermining referees, and that UEFA have now created a precedent that must be followed up.

Actually, the precedent was set long ago by UEFA when it banned Saulius Mikoliunas, after studying video evidence of the Lithuania versus Scotland European Championships qualifier, and the Scottish FA handed a two-match ban to Kyle Lafferty this month for feigning injury, but none involving such a high-profile club.

But Wenger wouldn't stop.

"The man is not treated fairly, and the existing rules of football have been changed just for this one case," Wenger said.

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