Birrmingham's Manager Tries To Influence the Ref Ahead of Their Trip to Arsenal

The Birmingham game is drawing closer and closer and with it the memories of that fateful day in February 2008, when Eduardo had his leg shattered and we had our title dreams shattered too. It was a game that was so full of drama that it's hard to forget and when you hear their manager harping on about our boss trying to influence referees, it becomes more than a little annoying.

In that game Martin Taylor was rightly sent off for his brutal assault on Eduardo which left the now ex Arsenal player with his leg shattered. After going 1-0 down, Arsenal came back with a brace from Theo Walcott and we looked to be heading for the win we needed to keep us on top of the table, as the season drew closer to an end.

With only a few minutes left an Arsenal player was clearly pulled back by the shorts in the penalty area right in front of the referee, but he chose to play on instead of giving us the penalty that would have sealed the win.

As the game entered injury time, Clichy had a brief lapse in concentration in our penalty area and when he recovered he just managed to get to the ball ahead of a Birmingham player.

However, the challenge knocked the Birmingham player over and the referee gave a penalty, to the bemusement of the Arsenal players. Gallas was the captain on the day and his reaction left a lot to be desired, as he threw a tantrum and failed to show any leadership whatsoever.

After that Arsenal couldn't buy a win and only managed seven points from their next seven games, before winning their final four games to finish only four points behind the eventual league winners, "Manure." It's hard to tell whether it was the horrific injury to Eduardo, the late equaliser from Birmingham, or the reaction of Gallas that ruined our season, but I have no doubt that our season died that day. 

Fast forward to last season, when Birmingham were back in the Premier league again, after being relegated two seasons previously. We went to their ground, still in the hunt for the league and despite not playing too well, we were 1-0 up as we entered injury time.

We had already had a perfectly good goal disallowed and Cesc had suffered a very bad knee-high tackle, which the referee decided wasn't worthy of a red card. Birmingham scored a freak goal in that injury time, that was offside although Almunia made a mess of it as well and cue the end of our title chances yet again.

To hear their manager complain that our boss is trying to influence referees is a bit rich, to say the least, as we have suffered severely at the hands of poor refereeing against them on the last two occasions that we have visited their ground. Not only that but in his comments about our boss trying to influence referees, he is clearly trying to do the very same thing himself.

Does he want his players to get away with more of the tackles like the one on Cesc last season? Or maybe he feels Taylor was roughly treated for his assault on Eduardo. After all, it only happened because Eduardo was so quick and it had nothing to do with the studs first lunge, at full pace from Taylor.

There have been a lot of red cards in Arsenal's games so far this season, with our opponents getting three straight red cards and Arsenal players getting two, for their second yellow card of the game.

I'm sure the Birmingham manager is well aware of those statistics and is trying to safeguard his players from receiving a red card themselves. With the likes of Ridgewell and Bowyer in their team, I'm sure there will be plenty of questionable challenges during the game and he will be hoping to plant some doubt in the referees head, to benefit his team.

I'm hoping the referee will be strong enough to stand up and referee the game by the laws, as they are and not by some stupid standard, whereby you're allowed to kick Arsenal because they don't like it. I'd like to know, what team does like being kicked.

Arsenal Injury Update:

Ahead of that game against Birmingham, the injury news is slightly encouraging, with both Bendtner and Gibbs set to return and Walcott possibly being ready too. I had thought that Cesc would be available also, but apparently he won't be available for another week.

He tweeted 10 days ago that he was ready to play and had only just missed out on the Chelsea game by two days, but either he misjudged his recovery or he suffered a slight setback. Whichever one it is, it certainly didn't stop him going to Capri for three days last weekend. 

I suppose the team won't be too different to the last game against Chelsea, as I would imagine that none of the returning players will gain an automatic starting place. We played pretty well in that game, but we will need to take our chances when they arrive, to make sure of the three points, which are absolutely essential.

There can be no excuses, as anything other than three points will be nothing short of a disaster, against a team near the foot of the table, who don't travel well either. 

Arsenal Ladies:

Finally for today, our ladies team beat ZFK Masinac of Serbia 9-0 last night in the second leg of the first round of the Champions league. It means they're through to the last 16 on a 12-1 aggregate scoreline and they will be hoping to do well, as it's the only meaningful football they have before next March.

As the ladies game has switched over to a new Premier League format, they won't be starting until next March and they finished last season in May. It's a long time to go between league games, but hopefully it will benefit the ladies game in the long run.

That's it for now but hopefully I'll be back at about 10 tonight with my predictions for this week's Premier league fixtures. I will definitely be back tomorrow with my preview of our game against Birmingham. 

See You Tomorrow.