As Wenger prepared for tonight's Champions League clash in Liege he started listing the Arsenal players missing through injury.
"Adebayor," he began, before laughing at his mistake.
It is the only time the Gunners boss has found humour in anything to do with his former striker over the last few days.
The events at Eastlands are still raw.
Adebayor's stamp on Robin van Persie's head during Manchester City's 4-2 win on Saturday was an image Wenger never expected to see.
Dutch ace Van Persie was so upset he put out an official statement on the club website which called Adebayor's actions "mindless and malicious".
Wenger said: "Of course I back Van Persie. If somebody stamps on your head in that way, you wouldn't say 'Thank you very much' and turn the other cheek. Only Jesus Christ did that.
"Of course we are disappointed because when you go to the head, you are always scared for people.
"You want to be protected. I think it was a very bad challenge, surprisingly bad. I didn't expect him to do that."
Wenger believes £25million Adebayor, instead of being bitter about his Arsenal experience, should be grateful for the education he enjoyed after joining for £3m from Monaco in January 2006.
He said: "It's life, professional players move on. But you have to be objective to see who helped you and who didn't.
"If you take a distance from events you always get to the right judgment. The longer distance will make him realise Arsenal was a very positive influence in his life."
Eduardo, Arsenal's Croatian frontman, will play tonight after an independent appeal panel overturned UEFA's decision to ban him for two games for diving to win a penalty in the Euro play-off against Celtic.
Wenger said: "I thought first during the game that it was no penalty, which is what I said afterwards.
"But, having talked to him, he told me he was touched.
"We employed a forensic expert who proved he had been touched.
"They looked at the replay and proved he was touched on his ankle and like UEFA I believe what they tell me and what he tells me."
Wenger argued making capital out of a foul in the box was part of the game.
He claimed: "Did Rooney not make the most of it when he dived against us?
"Sometimes a striker makes the most of it because he wants to cheat, sometimes because he wants to protect himself and sometimes because he wants to show the referee that he has been touched.
"So you have to identify what is the right reason behind it. I believe sometimes it is a reflex. It doesn't mean the player is always cheating."
Eduardo was out for more than a year with a double fracture of a leg after a tackle by Birmingham's Martin Taylor.
And tonight he faces a man who is the scourge of Belgian football for breaking the leg of an Anderlecht player.
Axel Witsel got an 11-match ban and the Belgian FA wrote to UEFA asking them to extend it to the Champions League.
UEFA refused and Witsel has since had his sentence reduced to eight games.
Arsenal will be without injured duo Van Persie and Denilson plus Manuel Almunia, who has a chest infection. Vito Mannone deputises in goal.
ARSENAL: Mannone, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Fabregas, Diaby, Eboue, Eduardo, Bendtner.
No comments:
Post a Comment