There's no denying that Eduardo was, in the vernacular, "F*ckin' at it" on Wednesday night, when he won himself a penalty in Arsenal's match with Celtic.
His manager's claim that there is not "conclusive" proof that Eduardo took a dive is laughable. There's proof right here (0.30)...
...or does Wenger expect us to believe that he "did not see ze incident", as per his normal line whenever one of his players is caught cheating?
Of course, it comes as no surprise that Wenger has once more leapt to the defence of his star - that's part of his job, and no one would expect anything else of him as Manager.
He does, though, begin to make sense later in this interview, in which he claims that UEFA's decision "...singles out a player to be a cheat". While UEFA should be applauded for taking this actively and demonstrably anti-diving stance, there does not seem to be any real reason for them to start taking action now, other than good old Gordon Smith sticking his oar in. I did not see any of the games on Wednesday night, nor Tuesday or Thursday this week, but I would bet my life that there were no fewer than ten instances of "simulation" in the Eduardo mould that will have gone unpunished: so much a part of the modern game has cheating in this manner become.
UEFA's action is the "right" thing to do - they may well struggle to justify it, though, and to put this action into place regularly, without every club, player and manager contesting every single penalty decision given against them, or every instance where they feel an opposing player has been "at it" in the way that Eduardo was.
I don't know the French for "a can of worms", but Arsene Wenger was 100% correct about one thing - that is what UEFA have opened here.
His manager's claim that there is not "conclusive" proof that Eduardo took a dive is laughable. There's proof right here (0.30)...
...or does Wenger expect us to believe that he "did not see ze incident", as per his normal line whenever one of his players is caught cheating?
Of course, it comes as no surprise that Wenger has once more leapt to the defence of his star - that's part of his job, and no one would expect anything else of him as Manager.
He does, though, begin to make sense later in this interview, in which he claims that UEFA's decision "...singles out a player to be a cheat". While UEFA should be applauded for taking this actively and demonstrably anti-diving stance, there does not seem to be any real reason for them to start taking action now, other than good old Gordon Smith sticking his oar in. I did not see any of the games on Wednesday night, nor Tuesday or Thursday this week, but I would bet my life that there were no fewer than ten instances of "simulation" in the Eduardo mould that will have gone unpunished: so much a part of the modern game has cheating in this manner become.
UEFA's action is the "right" thing to do - they may well struggle to justify it, though, and to put this action into place regularly, without every club, player and manager contesting every single penalty decision given against them, or every instance where they feel an opposing player has been "at it" in the way that Eduardo was.
I don't know the French for "a can of worms", but Arsene Wenger was 100% correct about one thing - that is what UEFA have opened here.
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