Arsenal's Manager Arsene Wenger Slated for Calling Out Foul Play

It seems like our fantastic Champions League win over Braga is only just behind us and now we have another game tomorrow already. We travel to Sunderland for the 5.30 evening kick-off, which will be broadcast live on ESPN. It's a ground where we haven't had too much luck in the last couple of seasons but hopefully we can change that this season and I'll do a full preview tomorrow.

For today, it would seem that the main talking point is the criticism of our boss by both Sam Allardyce and Owen Coyle. Allardyce had a go at him for trying to influence referees ahead of games and he said that our boss is very clever in how he does it.

According to him, the boss only had a go at Stoke's rugby tactics against Aston Villa as Arsenal were due to play Blackburn and he wanted to influence the referee in our game. He also claims that our boss has most journalists in his pocket and he's not a happy man about it. 

First of all, the journalists have a good relationship with our boss because he answers their questions and talks freely to them, unlike certain other managers who will only answer pre-approved questions or refuse to give interviews to certain media outlets.

I think I am right in saying that Allardyce has refused to talk to certain media outlets at times as well due to their insistence on telling the truth on occasions. I have no idea if he still has his ban on talking to the BBC in place, but I would imagine he doesn't as he loves the sound of his own voice.

Funnily enough I don't think this is the first time we have heard complaints from the Walrus affectionately known as "Big Fat Sam" about our manager and I don't think it will be the last time either.

If our manager chooses to point out the rugby tactics employed by Stoke and their ilk, that is his prerogative and quite why Allardyce has chosen until now to talk about it I'm not sure as we played Blackburn on August 28 and they don't have a game against any of the big clubs this week.

Maybe he's doing it because the boss has been complaining about the challenge on Diaby by Bolton's Robinson and they're a former club of his and after all it was the type of challenge that he would see as acceptable. His opinion is that the boss thinks you can't tackle Arsenal but clearly he didn't read what the boss said.

He said that he loves the physical aspect of the English game but it has to be kept within the rules of the game and the FA should be able to act retrospectively on challenges like those on Diaby that are potential leg breakers.

Of course, the FA position is that once a referee has seen what happened and decided to do nothing about it then the matter is closed as it is against FIFA regulations to do otherwise. There's a very good article on it today by ReZnuK and it includes his correspondence with the FA on the matter.

If I am correct, the FA have previously gone against FIFA regulations and acted after the disgraceful assault on Pedro Mendes by Ben Thatcher and I wonder will it take a similar incident for them to act again. Serious foul play must be stopped and the challenge made by Robinson had no place in football and should be stamped out.

Two players have had severe breaks this week and Arsenal have suffered from three similar injuries in just over four years and failure to prevent players from tackling like that will only result in even more of these dreadful breaks.

As for Coyle, he was pretty unhappy with a challenge by Gallas in the same fixture last season, but he obviously forgot that as he said our boss should have mentioned the Robinson challenge to him after the game but failed to do so. Our boss is famous for not seeing things as they happen and I would imagine that he didn't realise how bad the challenge was until he saw the video of the incident.

Added to that Diaby has had his leg broken in a similar tackle in the past, and you can understand his annoyance at what happened. If it influences referees to act against similar challenges in the future I can't see that it's a bad thing because it was a dreadful challenge.

I would like to hear what Coyle thought of the challenge and if he thought there was any intent in it or if he thought his player went for the ball. At least it means he's another manager that I no longer have to like as I find it hard to like anybody involved with Bolton.

Cesc Fabregas and Jack Wilshere

Young Jack Wilshere has been talking about how he is going to learn from the master as he plays and trains with Cesc. And in a mutual show of appreciation, Cesc said that Wilshere is better than he was himself at that age. Indeed, it would seem that most of the players are taking turns to tell us how good Cesc is and how he is back to his best and I have to agree with them.

No matter what happened with Barcelona in the summer, he is playing great football for us and showing that he is the best attacking midfield central player in the world. If we are going to win a trophy this season it will be his form that inspires us and drives us on.

Finally

The boss will hold his press conference ahead of our trip to Sunderland later today and I'm sure there will be plenty to report on tomorrow from that press conference but I'll leave things there for now. Don't forget that there  will be a Premier League predictions blog later tonight as I look to do better than last week when I got six correct outcomes but no correct scorelines.

See You Tomorrow.