UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP PHASE: GROUP H:IN THE three weeks since Eduardo da Silva's infamous tumble against Celtic in the Champions League play-off, it is no exaggeration to say the striker's world, and that of his club, Arsenal, has been turned upside down. The Croatia international, in the words of club manager Arsene Wenger, has been subjected to a "witch-hunt" and treated as if he had "killed someone".
There has been the Uefa trial, which effectively labelled Eduardo a diver and a cheat, and banned him for two Champions League matches. Then, more improbably, came Monday’s U-turn at the appeal hearing that cleared his name and overturned the ban.
Wenger spoke yesterday of international incidents, forensic scientists and paranoia. It has been a whirlwind.
Emmanuel Adebayor, the former Arsenal striker, remained very much on Wenger’s mind as he prepared in London early yesterday for the trip to Belgium. Asked to detail the absentees from his travelling party, the first name off his lips was that of Adebayor. Cue general amusement.
Wenger is pleased Eduardo has made the trip, and, with Robin van Persie, Andrey Arshavin and Theo Walcott injured, Eduardo will start. He will doubtless see it as the opportunity to put the turmoil of the recent past behind him.
Yet Wenger expressed the view that the fall-out from the controversy had already been damaging, and he could only hope referees would not have any preconceptions about the striker.
“What I feel,” Wenger said, “is that we didn’t get the penalty at Manchester United with Arshavin (after the challenge from Darren Fletcher), and it was a direct result of that (the incident against Celtic). We didn’t get the penalty at Manchester City with the Gareth Barry handball; again, it was a direct consequence of that.”
Wenger is also without Denilson, Samir Nasri, Carlos Vela and Johan Djourou, plus the goalkeepers Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski, meaning the 21-year-old Italian Vito Mannone will play only his second match for the club.
If Arsenal are nursing a persecution complex, Liege have been forced to digest a swingeing punishment for their star player. Axel Witsel, the 20-year-old midfielder who was the player of the year in Belgium last time out, was banned for 11 domestic matches for a horror challenge on Anderlecht’s Marcin Wasilewski a little over two weeks ago. Wasilewski’s leg snapped in two places. The punishment, however, was reduced on appeal to eight games and the Belgian FA’s desire to ask Uefa to extend it to Champions League matches did not happen.
“I’m aware of the Witsel tackle, although I haven’t seen it,” Wenger said. “To get the right level of punishment is very difficult. We have seen that with Eduardo’s case, when he was injured for 18 months; Martin Taylor (of Birmingham City) got a three-match ban. I think we progress slowly but comparing different punishments is difficult.”
Interpretation was the theme of the day. “We employed a forensic expert in our appeal to Uefa and he proved that Eduardo had been touched (against Celtic),” Wenger said. “Did (Wayne) Rooney not make the most of it when he dived at Old Trafford against us (to win United’s penalty)?
“That’s a reflex. What people say is that sometimes a striker makes the most of it because he wants to cheat, sometimes because he wants to protect himself and sometimes because he wants to show the referee that he has been touched. You have to identify the right reason behind it.”
Wenger went straight from Liege airport yesterday into the Uefa press conference. In it, he doubled up as the translator for the local French-speaking media. “You can pay me later,” he said, with a smile, to the interpreter.
Alongside Wenger sat Thomas Vermaelen, on his return to Belgium. “Sometimes, it’s a big circus in the Premier League,” the centre-back said.
Welcome to the asylum.
GuardianService
