Fa Barclaycard Premiership News Update

Fa Barclaycard Premiership News
( 04 November 2008 )

English Premiership football News

Wenger furious at Stoke tackling
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has accused Stoke aggressive tactics after the injury of two of its players in the Gunners' 2-1 defeat Saturday.

Wenger Sentenced Rory Delap and Ryan Shawcross after Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor were both injured.

"Do you think Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott?

"Or that Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch?" Champions League Wenger told a press conference Tuesday.

Stoke City chairman Peter Coates strongly rejected claims that his team had deliberately injured in September opponents.

"I am very disappointed because I do not think that is the case at all," Coates told BBC Radio Stoke.

"We do not play like that. We're not that kind of team.

"I am sure that none of our players are going to deliberately hurt a person if it is most disappointing to know someone like that Arsene Wenger to comment but that is it."

Walcott (shoulder) and Adebayor (ankle) will both miss the Wednesday night Champions League game against Fenerbache at the Emirates Stadium as a result of their injuries.

And Adebayor is also certain to miss Saturday's Fa Barclaycard Premiership match against champions Manchester United.

With critics accusing Arsenal of lacking enough courage to tackle following the defeat at Britannia Stadium, Wenger launched a strong defense of his team.

"I am not prepared to listen to things that are wrong and the people who are cowards, for me, watching brave," said the Gunners boss.

"I read that my team are not brave," he said.

"All I can say is that they are courageous and, for me, you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is the fight against you from behind without no intention to play the ball.

"The only intention is to hurt you and I can show you some tackles that I can prove what I say. Whoever is the fight is not against the brave one.

"For me, brave is the one player trying to play football."

Wenger also claimed that this is not the first time the teams had used physical tactics to disrupt Arsenal free football while striker Nicklas Bendtner insists the Gunners are no pushovers.

"We know that other teams have but we also GAMEplan. If other teams are physical, we can answer that," he said.

"We just had to think about our own game and how we play. If we do quite well which should be enough to win games.

"If teams want to blow us and treat us who are still in the lead. We have to stick our foot in and tackle and play our football when we have the ball. "
by bbcnews.