Arsenal supporters the world over are breathlessly waiting for the 4th estate to weigh in and see if they are to maintain their anti-Arsenal bias or if they are going to take on the culture of English football which glorifies leg-breaking tackles.

Unfortunately, there are some scum, the Tony Cascarino’s* of the world, who are still banging on about the “speed of the game” and how “such a lovely lad” like Shawcross could never harm a fly much less a Welshman. Fortunately, from what I can tell, their numbers are getting smaller as thinking folks, like Patrick Barclay, weigh in and blame the establishment for what happened on Saturday.

Here’s a round-up of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in today’s media.

The Good

There was a remarkable interview on the SkySports Sunday Supplement with Sam Wallace of the Independent, Patrick Barclay of The Times, and Neil Custis from The Sun. If you only have time for one interview or article today about this issue, this is the one. It starts slow, with Sam Wallace doing the whole “just too quick” and “he’s not that type of player” bullshit but then Patrick Barclay and Neil Custis step in and take the interview over.

Barclay is adamant that the problem is that there’s a “wildness” to the English game that is considered not only acceptable but is encouraged. Moreover, his example of this wildness is last season’s tackle by Ryan Shawcross on Adebayor which happened 5 yards off the pitch. It’s a subtle dig at the whole notion that “Shawcross isn’t this type of guy” when so very clearly after breaking Francis Jeffers’ ankle two years ago, then the Adebayor tackle, and now the Ramsey tackle, Ryan Shawcross is that type of guy. If by that type of guy you mean “someone who is at best serially reckless and at worst intentionally out to harm his fellow professionals.”

But Barclay makes another important point and that is how in England a player can tackle another with their studs 8 inches off the ground but in other leagues that is simply not acceptable. He then reiterates my point of yesterday that this is the fault of the refs and the FA; players wouldn’t tackle like that if they were red carded for it irregardless the broken legs.

And then Neil Custis from The Sun weighs in with his criticism of the teams which simply come out to kick Arsenal off the pitch. In this he backs up Arsene Wenger’s claims and again points the finger directly at the FA for not doing anything about it.

But it’s what Barclay says at the end that’s truly remarkable. As they are getting ready to fade out, the presenter asks if Arsenal can win the title. Barclay says no, but he praises Arsenal as the team in England with the most fiber and mental strength, which they showed with their 3-1 win over Stoke. Again, it’s spot on. I have never seen a team recover from a tackle like that and go on to dominate their opponents the way that Arsenal did on Saturday. Truly amazing grit from this team. Truly.

Meanwhile, Martin Samuel asks how three broken legs in 4 years can be simply down to accident. The best part of this article was the quote, from 2007, about Ryan Shawcross breaking Francis Jeffers’ ankle:

There is no way that was a malicious challenge,’ said David Kemp, assistant manager of Stoke City. ‘Ryan isn’t that sort of player. It was probably a new experience for him to get frustrated, that’s why he chased down the ball and made that tackle.‘There was no malicious intent. It was a genuine attempt. We’ve seen far worse challenges go unpunished. It was just one of those football injuries, one of those incidents that frequently happen in the game. Before long Ryan might be on the end of one himself.

Maybe he’ll get on the end of one himself? Amazingly, that is the mentality in English football isn’t it? Don’t end the wild tackles which cut down people’s careers, tackle back just as wildly.

The Bad

Graham Poll came out against the Shawcross tackle but doesn’t add to the debate. So, I’m putting that here, in the bad. Besides which I can’t really have a Graham Poll article in my good category, can I?

John Cross from the Mirror, who tweeted the other day about how sick to death he is about fans complaining about an anti-Arsenal media bias, puts out what on it’s surface looks like an even handed article which simply details the events and where Ramsey is in the recovery but he ends the article in a peculiar manner:

But Stoke boss Tony Pulis has defended his player, pointing out that he has never been sent off before and also said his team have been victims in the past.

Pulis said: “It’s a disappointing challenge and as I say it’s so ironic that Ryan’s involved in it because of all the players that we’ve got here he’s such a gentle kid, such a gentle lad.

“Just by the effect it had as he was walking off the pitch and what’s happened since it will be devastating for him. We’ll have to make sure we keep a close eye on him. My condolences go out to Aaron and Arsenal. No one likes to see that happen.

“I honestly don’t think that Ryan is the type of a person who would ever go out to do anything like this. We’ll see what effect it has on him. But he’s a great lad.

“Rory Delap broke his leg in a challenge with a Sunderland player a few years ago and was out for nearly eight months. We dealt with it in-house and got on with it.”

Of course the lead sentence is the most important in any article, but second is the ending and here he ends with what many Stoke fans are pointing to as a reason why Shawcross’ red card should be appealed. In the demented minds of cavemen like Tony Pulis since they had one of their legs broken at one point, that makes it ok for them to break legs. And John Cross from the Mirror, gave credence to that by printing that retarded quote — you know, to “balance” his article.

The Ugly

These article are easy to find, open the Independent and you will see they run the gamut from pro-Shawcross pieces which claim the footballer is simply “unlucky” to articles describing the pain that Shawcross is in and how his teammates are rallying around the poor lad. That first, the Sam Wallace piece is most remarkable since it sets out to describe what a great guy Shawcross is and how we shouldn’t label him as dangerous, despite the indisputable fact that Ryan Shawcross broke Francis Jeffers’ leg in 2007, tackled Adebayor off the pitch last season and put the striker out for 3 weeks, and broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg this year. What exactly does the kid need to do to earn the label dangerous? Hit someone with a brickbat?

There are so many of these type of articles out there right now that it’s not even funny. Each paper has a variation on the “Stoke rally around wounded Shawcross” story that it almost seems they are taking copy from each other. The Times’ piece by Oliver Kay is almost comical in its strident defense of the “passion” of the English game: as if passion can only be expressed in leg breaking tackles. Kay even makes the claim that these leg-breakers are what make the EPL so marketable. I’ve heard that before, over here in the States in relation to our American football where “big hits” are a part of the game that many are seeking to stamp out. I guess that sport is no fun to some people unless they can turn it into blood and guts, “modern gladiators” and all that pablum.

But the final word has to go to two of my favorite columnists Shirtless Jaime Redknapp and Tony Cascarino** who both simply say something stupid, don’t back it up, and move on. Redknapp calls Aaron Ramsey “unlucky.” UNLUCKY! Like there were some fans in the stands who witnessed Ryan Shawcross break Aaron Ramsey’s leg and said “ohhh, unlucky Aaron, unlucky!”

Cascarino*** takes this “unlucky” theme  and compounds the douchenozzlery by throwing in his two-cents worth in saying he didn’t even think it was a red card. Fucking mind-blowing, really. Just fucking mind-blowing.

How much are these two guys paid to say this stuff and how the fuck do I get THAT gig?

Conclusion

I want to end with a Rafa Benitez quote. After playing Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn Rovers and seeing his players kicked all over the pitch by a pack of cheats and scum like El-Hadji Diouf, Rafa coughed up this gem:

We try to do our talking on the pitch. If they are pleased with the way they play under this manager it is their decision. They have a style and they are a team that plays this way under this manager.
I think it is a model for all the managers around the world, their style of football, his behavior. It is the perfect model for all the kids and I’m sure all parents will enjoy this model and encourage their kids to be the same. The style of football, I think, Barcelona are thinking of copying

The same could be said about a dozen or so teams in the EPL, Rafa. A dozen.

*I apologize for my language here, I know how rude it is to use that word.
** Again, my apologies.
***7amkickoff sincerely regrets the use of such language and will attempt to not say this word ever again.

Dear Football Association,

In light of the fact that Arsenal have suffered three leg-breaking tackles in four years at the hands of teams who publicly state that they are going to use violence against the Arsenal side, I would like to submit a selection of teams for your referees to watch out for as the 2009/2010 season winds to a close. These teams and their players are not “just good lads” nor are the tactics they deploy “accidents.” These teams intentionally deploy dangerous and reckless tackles on Arsenal because you and the media perpetrate the myth that Arsenal don’t like rough play.

Let me make this clear, I’m not asking you for special treatment, rather just some clarification. If your desire is to have games such as this year’s Merseyside derby, or Stoke v. Arsenal define English football, then so be it: good luck winning the World Cup with players like Ryan Shawcross.

But since the unveiling of the Football Association’s multi-million pound National Football Centre and the public pronouncements that this means a sea change from the old “lump and crunch” football to a modernized game, I suspect that you too understand the problems in the English game and want to stamp them out. So, I’m not asking for special treatment, but rather that you simply instruct the referees to call a foul a foul and put an end to this pernicious lie that only Arsenal don’t like getting kicked.

Unless, of course you think that potentially career ending tackles are acceptable in the modern game. In that case, by all means carry on and ignore this dossier I have prepared.

Hull City v. Arsenal: March 13th

Hull City, managed by Sam Allardyce (we’ll get to him in a second) acolyte Phil Brown, has quite a number of potential leg breakers on their side but none stands out as much as Stephen Hunt.

Don’t get me wrong, Hull have plenty of dirty players, all you have to do is look at the ugly scenes last time the two teams clashed. Sparked by the constant fouling of Craig Fagan and stoked by Stephen Hunt’s constant recklessness, the match threatened to devolve into a scrum until the referee stepped in and calmed things down.

So, I’m not saying that none of the other players will act recklessly, I’m just saying you might want to pay attention to Stephen Hunt a little. This is the guy who nearly killed Petr Cech and who still constantly goes into challenges with keepers and pretty much every other player in a reckless and dangerous manner.

Birmingham v. Arsenal: March 27th

To say that there’s some prior here is an understatement. Birmingham boss Alex McLeish is a known proponent of the “reducer” tackle and his public pronouncements about kicking Arsenal off the pitch prior to the match where Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg combined with his statements after the match are all you really need to know about how this match will go.

How, exactly, a player like Lee Bowyer has been able to keep playing after his catalog of offenses is one of the miracles of the Premier League. Bowyer has already broken one leg, this season, and I’m sure that when Arsenal come to town McLeish will have a word with him about attending to Cesc Fabregas. I would hope that the FA would have a word with the match official about attending to Lee Bowyer.

Arsenal v. Manchester City: April 24th

Unlike the other teams listed here, Manchester City don’t set out their stall to kick other teams off the pitch. In fact, by-and-large they are a good attacking side who play relatively fair football but they have one player who, in particular, tries his hardest to maul Arsenal players when they meet: former Arsenal player, Emmanuel Adebayor.

Your offices might remember him, he’s the player who tried to break Fabregas’ leg and then tried to rip van Persie’s face off before he ran 90 yards in order to cause a minor riot in front of the Arsenal away fans.

The problem is that Adebayor has both a poor disciplinary record and an unhealthy obsession with his former club. I mean, how obvious is it that this guy is going to be a problem in this match when he gives yet another interview about Arsenal, while serving a compound suspension for his dirty play against Arsenal and Stoke?

Adebayor clearly has a personal vendetta against Arsene Wenger, the fans,  and judging from some of his interviews certain personnel in this Arsenal side. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he pulled a Roy Keane and tried to end Bendtner’s career, after all he head-butted him when they were teammates. How much further is it from head-butting a teammate from going in studs-up knee-high against a player you feel did you wrong, who plays for a team where you think the manager did you wrong, surrounded by fans you hate?

You may want to keep an eye on him, just sayin’.

Blackburn Rovers v. Arsenal: May 1st

The father of the “kick Arsenal” brand of football, Sam Allardyce, will be in charge for Arsenal’s penultimate  match of this season and could have an impact on both the title chase and England’s World Cup hopes.

Allardyce briefly enjoyed success against Arsenal back when he was in charge of Bolton Wanderers in the 2005/2006 season and has done more than any other manager to perpetuate the myth that Arsenal aren’t tough enough for the Premier League. At his peak, in 05/06, Bolton managed 4 points against Arsenal in the league and also knocked them out of the FA cup — it was and will always be the pinnacle of his pathetic career.

November 25th 2006 was the last time a Sam Allardyce led team beat Arsenal but it hasn’t stopped him from talking about how much he knows about beating them. Nor has the non-stop string of humiliations stopped him from employing the same tactic.  And neither has it stopped the lazy members of the British press from using this minor aberration as “evidence” of some larger flaw.

The problem with a Sam Allardyce team is that he doesn’t just employ one player to do his dirty work but rather tries to assemble an entire team full of assassins. Witness what Allardyce did to Newcastle; assembling a side who counted Nicky Butt, Steven Taylor, and the infamous Joey Barton among their numbers.

Sam Allardyce has employed a similar tactic this season with Blackburn Rovers adding such ill-luminaries as Pascal Chimbonda and El-Hadji Diouf to teach young players like Steven Nzonzi the ropes.

It’s a tough call for you all as for who to focus in on. In the run in last season Diouf tried to break Manuel Almunia’s ankle with an obviously intentional foul and I if he didn’t try something similar in this match, I would be shocked.

But Nzonzi has the most to prove to both his manager and the rest of the league and after watching him throw Lucas to the ground against Liverpool today, I suspect he’ll be one of the ones to really keep an eye on. After all, he’s touted as the “new Vieira” and what better way to show how “Vieira” he is than to constant foul Vieira’s namesake, Arsenal?

Conclusion

So there you have it, FA, there’s a list of squads that I would watch out for against Arsenal as the season winds down. It’s not that these clubs have the monopoly on dirty play, Arsenal’s play can be dirty as well. Nor am I the type of fan who wants to turn football into a non-contact sport.

It’s that these teams have a history of being allowed by your referees to be overly aggressive, especially against top sides like Arsenal, Man U, and Chelsea. It’s no coincidence that Stephen Hunt nearly killed Petr Cech and has been involved in several similar incidents against Arsenal. Ryan Shawcross has damaged no less than three player’s ankles in just 4 season in the EPL. Judging by the fact that the first was a tackle from behind, the second was an intentional foul of his colleague off the pitch, and the third was a recklessly high challenge on the young Aaron Ramsey this can’t be down to just bad luck: the player must be dangerous.

Considering the other teams and players I have listed above also have a similar track record, you can’t also say that it’s just bad luck that they are involved in many incidents. You have to admit that you are responsible for not reigning these players in with suspensions. That you are responsible for not instructing your referees to reign these players in with cards during matches. And you have to decide what you want the English Premier League to become; a league where the best players in the world compete for world trophies, or a league where borderline criminals like Ryan Shawcross are allowed to end a colleague’s career in a moment of madness.

Football is supposed to be a beautiful game, and football in England is in danger of becoming a glorified rugby scrum. You are the only one’s who can do anything about it, the ball’s in your hands.

3 players in 4 years, 3 different tackles, 3 different reasons, all the same result, all the same culprit.

Dan Smith from Sunderland was the first break an Arsenal player’s leg in the modern era when he did Abou Diaby in the 90th minute of a match that Arsenal was winning 3-0. Dan Smith’s tackle was, at the least, reckless and many would even say malicious. Smith was given a yellow card by Dermott Gallagher for his work and after, Sunderland’s manager said:

Yes, it isn’t an injury you want to see happen to a player. But he went for the ball and the player passed it quicker than Dan could get there. In my opinion, I felt Dan Smith did go for the ball and the lad knocked it away and he accidentally caught him.

This is a criticism you will see repeated as we go on; Arsenal are just too quick and besides which, the other guy just went for the ball, it’s hardly even a foul they will say, much less a yellow card.

Dan Smith played the next day while Diaby was out for 6 months and has never fully recovered. Many people point to his trail of niggling injuries in the aftermath as evidence that the player’s career was essentially cut short  by a reckless challenge in the dying minutes of a meaningless game.

At the time, Wenger decried the tackle saying that the referee was the only person who didn’t see the tackle as a red card. He’d be wrong about that last bit, by the way.

That injury was followed by a horrific challenge by “Tiny” Taylor on Eduardo in the opening minutes of a relatively important League match. That match is the starkest in my memory where the manager came out before the match and admitted that teams kick Arsenal and that they wanted to emulate the Bolton’s and Blackburn’s who “get up Arsenal’s noses” by playing them rough. After the match, Alex McLeish was quick to defend his player saying:

Martin is absolutely gutted. Eduardo was just too quick for him. I didn’t think it was malicious. He has come down on his ankle with studs and his standing foot is in the turf, and that can make the injury much worse. People in the game know Martin, and I’m sure he will get their support because he’s hurting. Martin would always go for the ball honestly.

A new wrinkle is added to the story; we kick because we have to, Arsenal are just too quick, and now they are just honest lads, they don’t mean to end a player’s career.

The other bit of follow-up that happened across the country was this pervasive notion by several managers that Taylor’s tackle wasn’t even a foul with Steve Bruce issuing the definitive statement on the incident for many:

Martin Taylor is the biggest, gentlest man, there will be nobody more upset and sickened than him, there is not a bad bone in his body. He would never, ever do anything malicious. He has mis-timed the tackle, and I’ve seen it. Some would say it is not even a yellow card.

Eduardo has still not really recovered from Taylor’s tackle, still suffering small injuries and setbacks and despite it being two years on is only sporadically able to feature for Arsenal.

And today we have this horrific tragedy to the third Arsenal player in 4 years as Ryan Shawcross had come in recklessly and simply done the 19 year old Welshman. Shawcross left the pitch in tears, no doubt upset about what he had done and much like the person who recklessly drinks and drives only to find out he has harmed someone I’m sure he has true regret. Regret’s the least we can expect from him, he’s a human being after all and not a monster like Joey Barton.

Tony Pulis takes a familiar line in defense of his player, immediately after the match, saying:

It is a bad challenge but I know Shawcross, I signed him as a 19-year-old. He has got no bad blood in him whatsoever and there is no way in a million years he would ever go out to hurt anybody. I really mean that.Everyone else at this football club sends their condolences on the incident, we wish him well for a speedy recovery and as a fellow Welshman I am devastated. But Ryan has come off the pitch broken-hearted, met his mum straightaway and gone straight home.

Maybe in a sense we’re seeing a change, 5 years ago the challenge wasn’t a yellow, 3 years ago it wasn’t a red, and now, it’s finally a bad challenge. But frustratingly, the familiar old ghosts are there; Shawcross is a good lad, let’s not get too down on him.

And here’s the thing: I don’t. I don’t blame him, just like I didn’t blame Taylor, ultimately. Sure, the individual shoulders some blame, he doesn’t have to go in high and hard in a 50-50, or worse, studs up, like Taylor did. I blame the footballing establishment which refuses to join the 21st century.

I blame the writers who pen articles with titles like “Taylor backed to recover from Eduardo tackle.” I blame the knucklehead fans who glorify “full-blooded” football over 21st century ball movement and goal-scoring. I blame the managers who take English kids and turn them into talentless leg-breaking hacks. How many injuries would it take before Ryan Shawcross made the Spanish national team?

But I lay ultimate blame for this third broken leg for an Arsenal youngster in four years on the FA and their inability to create competent match officials who referee the game the same for everyone. I say it’s incompetence because, like Wenger, the other opinion, corruption, is almost unthinkable.

I have been on about this last problem all year as teams come out and tell the world that they are going to foul Arsenal, proceed to foul them all over the pitch, and then call Arsenal for small fouls when they try to kick back.  The City match away was the worst example up till this point, with Adebayor barely adjudged to have put a foot wrong during the match despite the match official seen on video watching as he scraped his studs down Robin van Persie’s face.

Today’s match, though, is where this philosophy reached its zenith. Song was pulled and punched in the back of the head for shielding Delap from the ball, and it was Song who got a yellow card — he’ll reportedly serve a 2 match ban for that being his 10th yellow. When the score was tied, Stoke committed as clear a penalty on Aaron Ramsey as I have seen all season; it was a no-call that I think changed the game. Had Arsenal gone up 2-1 at that point (which they deserved) it would have opened the game up a bit and might have prevented the type of challenge that Shawcross felt he needed to commit in order to keep their share of the points. But Shawcross did go for the ball, full blooded. No doubt goaded on by his manager at half-time to “get stuck in.”  But also given free reign by the match official, Peter Walton, after he saw his teammates kick and cheat their was into the game.

When the FA allow teams to simply kick technically proficient sides like Arsenal off the pitch there are consequences. Let’s hope today’s consequence isn’t the end of 19 year old Aaron Ramsey’s bright career.