Wilshere gives Wenger a lesson in straight talking

AS Arsène Wenger tied himself in knots attempting to distinguish between Jack Wilshere’s clumsy, ill-timed lunge on Nikola Zigic and the rash of other shocking challenges this season, the teenager offered his manager a lesson in the art of plain speaking.

“I just want to say that I mistimed the challenge on Zigic and accept that I deserved to be sent-off,” said the 18-year-old.

Clear and to the point, Wilshere’s reaction was everything that Wenger’s wasn’t as the Frenchman’s capacity to backtrack reached new levels.

The Frenchman’s professorial approach frequently impresses and, when he articulates his views on tackling in the manner in which he did in his programme notes for Saturday’s clash, he makes a compelling spokesman.

Wenger denied he wanted to sanitise the sport, insisting instead that he wanted his fellow managers to take the lead and instruct players to cut the dangerous scissor and two-footed tackles that have already broken bones this year.

Fair point, well made. Yet it was quickly forgotten as Wenger attempted to diminish the severity of Wilshere’s tackle by claiming the youngster is not a dirty player and refusing to condemn Emmanuel Eboue who scythed down Liam Ridgewell midway through the second-half.

“You have to make a difference between an accidental red card and a team who tries to kick you from the first to the last minute,” he said. “There’s is no comparison.”

And instead of winning admirers by offering a rounded, balanced view of the game, Wenger once again appeared to be as driven by self-interest as any of his rival managers.

Wenger’s general complaint is that his players are more sinned against than sinners although Zigic would probably offer a contrary view, as might Birmingham substitute David Murphy who left the field with a cut to his head which manager Alex McLeish claimed was the result of a punch.

“Did you see Murphy get punched in the face in the last minute when it took off, with a cut eye?” McLeish asked reporters. “He says he got a punch in the face. Whether it was deliberate, I don’t know.’’

Wenger doesn’t disagree about his side’s ability to fight fire with fire. “No matter what we do, it is wrong,” said the Frenchman. “If we get kicked the whole game and do not reply, people say we are too soft.’’

Some of the recent concerns about dangerous tackling can be traced back to Wenger’s emotional reaction to Martin Taylor’s challenge on Eduardo that left the Croatia striker with a broken leg when these two teams met in February 2008 and McLeish was quick to point he hoped the Wilshere challenge would draw a line under that incident.

“This over-reaction to tackles puzzles me because it’s still going to happen,” he said. “You are still going to get the occasional stray tackle. Everybody’s got to understand Jack is not a dirty player. He’s a young lad and he’ll work at his tackling.’’

Wilshere’s tackle distracted from his all round performance that was, until the 90th minute, one of the highlights of a distinctly average game that was sparked into life by Zigic’s 33rd minute header.

Marouane Chamakh tumbled to win a 40th minute penalty, converted by Samir Nasri, before striking the winner two minutes after the restart.