Tackling the blame game

It didn't take long after Aaron Ramsey's sickening injury - literally sickening, for two players reportedly threw up on the pitch - for the blood to boil and the finger-pointing to start.

Arsene Wenger is normally the most calm and phlegmatic of managers, but was understandably emotional after the match - as he was two years ago when he initially claimed that Martin Taylor should be banned for life for his leg-breaking tackle on Eduardo. Predictably, large areas of the media have chosen to play up his post-match complaint about the length of Ryan Shawcross's inevitable ban - for which he has already been roundly lambasted by fans and several pundits alike -  but if you delve into his comments you will see that Wenger is attributing very little in the way of blame.

"I would like to say that it was a committed game. I didn't see many bad tackles in the game. But this one was horrendous and I am very sad. He is the third player we have lost to tackles that are not acceptable - Abou Diaby, Eduardo and now Ramsey today. That is not football for me and I refuse to live with that.

"I cannot do anything about it. The players are professional. They have to respect the rules and each other. The players who don't do it have to be punished. A three-match ban is just ridiculous.

"But I would prefer to give my support to Ramsey rather than to play the judge. For a boy of 19 with his talent to be kicked out of the game like that is beyond words. I cannot even enjoy the win tonight because it is so sad to see that."

Obviously, though, it's much sexier if the Sunday newspapers spin it as 'Wenger blasts Shawcross, Tony Pulis and Stoke, calls everyone in Staffordshire the scum of the earth', that sort of thing. After all, everything's justifiable in the noble quest of selling a few more copies, isn't it?

Wenger should probably have held his tongue on the matter of Shawcross's ban, but surely his reaction to a potentially career-ending tackle on a 19-year old player is understandable? Can you imagine the volcanic response we would have seen if it had been not Wenger but Sir Alex Ferguson? Or Sam Allardyce? Or Jose Mourinho, who decided to have a pop at the Ambulance Service after Petr Cech's head injury at Reading?

Stoke subsequently issued a statement on behalf of Shawcross, saying:

"There was absolutely no malice in the challenge. I would never, ever go out to hurt a fellow professional. I am deeply upset that Aaron has suffered such a bad injury and my thoughts are with him. I would like to send him my best wishes too for a speedy recovery."

And I am inclined to take that carefully worded statement, which ticks every box a PR officer would script ask for, at face value. Shawcross was clearly distressed and in tears long before referee Peter Walton brandished his red card. And the tackle, while certainly reckless and misjudged, appeared to lack any kind of pre-meditation and was certainly much more of a 50:50 challenge than, say, Taylor's on Eduardo, or Roy Keane's on Alf-Inge Haaland.

It's unfortunate that players sometimes make poor judgements in the helter-skelter environment of a football match. But it happens. I didn't blame Shawcross in the immediate aftermath of last night's game. After sleeping on it and watching the replay on YouTube five times, I still don't.

While we're at it, let's not lay all the blame at the door of the media either. For sure, repeated comments about how Arsenal 'don't like it up 'em' aren't exactly helpful, but neither are they falsehoods. Less-talented teams have to up their commitment levels when faced with technically superior teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. It's just that such tactics have historically proved to be more effective against Arsenal than their other title rivals. It's hard to blame teams for following a formula which has proven successful - there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, as long as there is no malice aforethought. It is up to Arsenal to demonstrate that they can win in the face of physical intimidation. Last night they did just that, albeit in terrible circumstances.

Finally, I would like to tip my hat to Stoke's Glenn Whelan who, unlike most of the other players who immediately surrounded the referee, instead stopped to attend to the stricken Ramsey and then stayed by his side while the paramedics attended to him.

Whelan has never been a teammate of Ramsey's for either club or country (Whelan is an Irish international, Ramsey Welsh). It was merely the act of a decent man with presence of mind while all around him were losing their heads.

In situations like this, it is easy to blame anyone and everyone - Shawcross, Wenger, the media, the FA, global warming - for such a terrible and career-threatening injury. I find the whole thing tiresome and ultimately futile. It is much harder to give anyone due credit, particularly when that person doesn't make a big song-and-dance about it publicly. So let me do it: Glenn Whelan, thank you.