There are ridiculous stories in the world of football and then there are those certain stories that take the absurd to a whole new level. A day after accusing Tony Pulis and his Stoke City squad of dirty tactics, Arsene Wenger is back in the news again; only this time around he’s being called a liar by Stoke’s manager!
Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has responded to claims from Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger that the Potters “deliberately injured” his players during Saturday’s Premier League clash by ridiculing the Frenchman for hypocrisy and trying to fool the public.
Wenger claimed that Stoke set out to intentionally hurt his players during the Gunners’ 2-0 defeat at the Britannia Stadium after Emmanuel Adebayor (ankle), Theo Walcott (shoulder) and right-back Bacary Sagna (ankle) were all injured.
Wenger said: “The only intention is to hurt you and I can show some tackles where I can prove what I say.
“Do you think (Rory) Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott? Or that [Ryan] Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch. All the players have been injured deliberately.” (ESPNSoccernet)
This whole issue is far from over. The tackles on the three players in question seemed to be dirty; however, a tackles, clean or not, can be construed to look a number of different ways. Regardless, it looks like Pulis and Wenger won’t be getting together any time soon for a pint at the local pub!
Are Arsenal supporters enraged with the tackles? Do you think something should have been done?