Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
Watch the games. The refs allow our players to be kicked for at least the first 20 minutes, it's kind of a PL tradition. The opposition get that period for free, no bookings, and selected clubs will make it right up until the 80th minute in some cases. Cazorla, primarily, but also Theo, Alexis and Ozil are the targets. Nasty stuff too, studs down the calf, late lunges into the top of the foot, you've seen it. Meanwhile our lads get booked for a first offence.
Happened in the usual way last Sunday. Ramires and Ivanovic were deliberately trying to injure Cazorla and Ozil. Foul after foul. Cazorla has got used to it, he's a tough little bastard. Some of our other players aren't as tough. All it takes is one nasty little lunge by a scrote like Ramires to set up a niggly chain of injuries that can eventually disrupts a season. It's not just the rough and tumble of the PL, it's calculated fouling and for whatever reason the refs let it pass. Must go back to that, "don't like it up 'em", bullshit the media were so fond of. This is where the media plays a role. Pansy Arsenal, lightweight Arsenal, moaning Wenger, must be that, can't be the despicable tactics employed by most managers in the PL to even up the play.
Works the other way too. Azzah only has to flop to the ground and the whistle goes. He likes "avoiding injury" does that lad. Most "fouled" player in the league, you know? The media liked defending Bale too. People can call it a conspiracy theory, as they do, or they can watch the games and interpret things without the predictable assistance of Michael Owen.
So Wenger might have his issues with training, and he could even be contributing to the problem. But he's not the only cause.
