Will Arsenal deliberately try to injure Bale....or are they above that??

[kungfugrip]

Put yourself in Arsenal's shoes. Stop Bale and you take a lot of our firepower away. Would Wenger or any of the Arsenal players be dirty enough to try to get Bale crocked for the rest of the season and race for fourth by going in hard with a few bad challenges on Sunday?

 

[g_harry]

Yes wilshere is capable of this

 

[alpha]

No side in the top five European leagues this season has averaged fewer fouls per game than Spurs (9.7) or Arsenal (9.8). We're both nice guys.

 

[Ironskullll]

They're above it. Way above it.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Arsenal haven't really got the players to do that. As much as we hate them do try and play football the right way just like ourselves.

 

[Spurs1960]

Arteta is the 10th dirtiest player in the Premier League if you look at fouls against although Wilshire is the player who will crock you.

 

[Wardy]

If they model their agression on Wengers throwing of water bottles... they can't hurt anyone

 

[gilzeantheking]

It's always a worry when a player is under such media focus that someone would want to crock him. I don't think the Goons are a particularly dirty team.

I will be more concerned in coming weeks with the likes of Skrtl, Lucas and Shawcross and Huth being our opposition.

 

[TheAmerican]

If they model their agression on Wengers throwing of water bottles... they can't hurt anyone

Dirty Bastard's gonna zip 'em!

 

[mark87]

Arsenal are above it, Wilshere however is not.

 

[YiddoBirdy]

Arteta turned into a dirty player since joining Arsenal

 

[ClintEastwould]

We're both too soft to think about injuring each other. They think their 'defensive' midfield pairing is diaby and arteta

 

[Hoddle_Ledge]

I think there a difference between Arteta dirty and Roy Keane dirty.

 

[Mr Pink]

If Charlie Adam was involved I would be worried.

 

[Ironskullll]

I don't even think that teams such as Stoke do this, but what they do do, is to put pressure on certain players; to get tight; "be competitive"; certain teams are more aggressive than others and therefore concede, quite knowingly, more fouls that others. I hate that approach but it still isn't the same as setting out to deliberately injure another player. More likely though is that some teams see it as perfectly acceptable to "take one for the team"!; if a player such as Bale is breaking out of his own half at speed the they see it as fair to foul him in order to prevent the breakaway. But that's still not the same as deliberately seeking to remove a player from the game. The closest I recall having seen to systematically and deliberately setting out to crock a player from the opposition was the approach of teams such as Liverpool back in the 70s whereby they would commit a series of quite nasty fouls against their oppositions' talismans in the first 10 minutes. In those days they knew they'd get away with it because bookings in the first 10 minutes were so rare, and they were clever in that they would share the fouls around so that no one player was committing two such fouls.

I actually think that if Arsenal were to try to adopt this sort of approach it would stand to seriously undermine the sort of approach and style they have tried to bring into the club over the last 15 years or so. Even reverting to a more Stoke-like approach would be counter-productive in that it would run counter to the instincts of too many of their squad. And they no longer have the likes of Parlour and Vierra anyway so they don't have the personnel they'd need for that anyway.

All in MHO of course!

 

[felmani26]

Arsenal won't be cynical in their approach but the likes of Wilshere will be so pumped for this game that anything could happen in the middle of the park.

This is why Holtby should start as his passion and tenacity is definitely a good requirement in games like this and I don't think the occasion will overawe him.

 

[alamo]

Any team will try and stop him by marking closely and being physical.

Any player who intentionally tries to injure him deserves every day of the ban they should get. And then some.

 

[alamo]

Oh and as much I dislike Wilshire, I don't agree that he would do such a thing.

Only person he wants to kick is VDV.

Yeah, I know, I posted it twice already but come on...... don't you just love it:



NUTS!!!!

That little shove at the end is fucking priceless.

(god i miss VDV)

 

[montylynch]

I remember in the NLD 2 years ago i think, when Wilshere had just come on, tried to get VdV booked straight off. Until Vdv told him to go do one.

Games of old would directly target a player. Vinnie Jones came out once and said that before the FA cup final they targeted McMahon as he was seen as the hard man. And he did. Sort the hardman out and the rest fall away. Have arsenal got a hard man ?? Probably JW, sort him out early doors and wind him up into doing something stupid.

Who's the ref for this game, do we know yet ?

 

[Shanks]

Yes they will try and stop him, and they will try and foul him.

Happens in every football team... put one on the best player ;-)

Come on peeps, this is basics.