Arsenal crack after a double bad break

ARSENE WENGER’S retraction of his emotionally-charged and vehement condemnation of Martin Taylor’s tackle, that left Eduardo fighting to save his career, is more than simply the action of a man renowned for being the voice of reason within the Premier League.

It must also be viewed as the first stage of the Frenchman’s attempt to restore a sense of calm and order to an Arsenal title challenge that looked on the verge of meltdown at St Andrews, amid the harrowing scenes of the Croatian’s excruciating pain and William Gallas’ raging sense of injustice.

Wenger’s admitted that his initial outburst that the Birmingham central defender should never again be allowed to play the game, because of the challenge that left the Croatian international requiring surgery for a double compound fracture of his left leg, was “excessive and made in the heat of the moment.”

He knows that Eduardo’s further participation in the game he has lit up since his €11mlilion move from Dynamo Zagreb rests on the expertise and care of Arsenal’s medical staff. Physically the Brazilian, with little reason to celebrate his 25th birthday today, stands a chance of being repaired.

He was moved from Selly Oak hospital to a London infirmary yesterday and will now undergo further treatment. The Gunners expect to make a statement on his condition and likely length of absence today, but Eduardo is already certain to miss this summer’s European Championships and may not feature again until 2009.

More pertinently, Wenger is acutely aware that his own skills in re-focusing his charges for the crucial months ahead will be under scrutiny more than ever before. The mental challenge of channelling the anger will determine whether Arsenal can travel to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and stay on course to claim a first title in four years.

The frightening sight of a wild-eyed Gallas booting advertising hoardings and his sit-down protest on the pitch after Gael Clichy’s aberration gave James McFadden his penalty equaliser was the epitome of frustration for the Arsenal captain.

There will be a sense of embarrassment, too, with it being screened to the watching world on TV. Any chink of weakness will be seized upon by a ruthless Alex Ferguson, who will no doubt cast his mind back to the famous Kevin Keegan outburst at Newcastle United all those years ago and smell the sense of fragility about Arsenal’s mental state and Avram Grant will do likewise. The character test for Wenger and his young charges starts right here and he knows it.

There will be some sense of solace to Wenger that Theo Walcott’s first Premier League goals, which overhauled McFadden’s earlier free-kick, were a demonstration of fortitude and freakishly, the stricken sight of Eduardo, who required almost eight minutes of treatment for his shattered leg, evoking memories of David Busst’s career-ending injury at Old Trafford 12 years ago, could assist the Frenchman’s cause.

“We want to win the title for Eduardo now. We wanted to win it before, but now we want to win it also for him. He is not going to be with us for a long time, so of course we want to win it for him,” said Mathieu Flamini.

“It is a terrible injury. I went to see him on the pitch and I have no words to describe what I saw. Everyone was shocked and it was difficult for us, but we showed great character and that is the only positive thing to come from the game.”

Mental strength is something McFadden has in abundance, judging by the way he accepted referee Mike Dean’s decision to award the late penalty, despite TV replays confirming that Clichy played the ball before Stuart Parnaby crumpled in a heap, but Wenger’s retraction cut no ice with the Scottish international. “I heard what Arsene Wenger said about Martin and thought it was ridiculous for a manager of his stature to be saying a player should never play football again.

“ Wenger is an intelligent man and it is scandalous to be saying things like that. I think it is out of order and think it is unfair on Martin,” said McFadden.

“Martin has to live with the fact he has broken someone’s leg unintentionally. I don’t think comments like that should ever be bandied about in football because you can see he has not tried to injure the player and he doesn’t have a history of being malicious.

“Martin is cut up. It was not intentional and he broke someone’s leg so he is going to be shaking from that but he is a gentle giant and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous.”

Taylor apologised to Eduardo and sought out Wenger in the tunnel to defend his reputation after learning of the criticism and he too faces a battle of mental strength which will last far longer than his three-match suspension. But it is the collective mood of Arsenal’s players that will be under the microscope now and Wenger has much rehabilitation work to do, but there will be no alteration in his methods.

Despite his feeling that teams genuinely set out to kick Arsenal, to prevent them from creating pretty patterns with the ball. There will no fighting violence with violence.

“Where do you go if you do that. We want to play football,” said Wenger.

Hopefully Eduardo will get the chance to do so again.

BIRMINGHAM (4-4-2): Maik Taylor 8, Kelly 7, Martin Taylor 0, Ridgewell 6, Murphy 6, Larsson 6 (Nafti 66,6), Johnson 6, Muamba 6, Kapo 6 (Zarate 59,7), McFadden 9, Forssell 2 (Parnaby 15, 6).

Subs Not Used: Doyle, Jerome.

ARSENAL 4-4-2: Almunia 6, Sagna 6, Gallas 6, Senderos 5, Clichy 5, Walcott 8 (Denilson 89,5), Fabregas 7, Flamini 7, Hleb 6 (Silva 89,5), Eduardo 0 (Bendtner 8,7), Adebayor 5.

Subs Not Used: Lehmann, Justin Hoyte.

REFEREE: Mike Dean 5 (Cheshire): May have over-reacted with the sending off of Taylor, because of the severity of the injury and got the penalty wrong that led to Birmingham’s equaliser.

MATCH RATING: *** The sickening injury to Eduardo cast a dreadful shadow over the game, but there is no escaping that Arsenal slipped up in their bid to wrestle the title from Old Trafford.