ARSENE WENGER says 20 players could have been sent off in the snarling Carling Cup final. The Arsenal manager is still seething six days after the Millennium Stadium showpiece was tarnished when referee Howard Webb red-carded three players following a mass brawl.Wenger believes his club has been treated harshly by the game’s rulers, insisting they show no consistency in their punishment. The Frenchman claimed: “If you want to take the rules to the letter of the law, the referee could have sent 20 off. Because nobody should ever react and yet all the players reacted.”
Some critics believe Wenger has tried to deflect attention away from ArsenalÂ’s crumbling season by lashing out at the FA. But he furiously denied attempting to put up a smokescreen. Within the space of four days, the Gunners lost 2-1 to Chelsea in Cardiff and then crashed out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 defeat in a fifth-round replay at Blackburn. Following their 1-0 reverse in the Champions League clash at PSV Eindhoven, that made it three demoralising defeats on the spin for the first time since 2002. And with the Premiership title out of reach, ArsenalÂ’s search for honours this season hinges on a tough last-16 return leg against the Dutch side on Wednesday night.
Wenger rapped: “It is not a smokescreen because we do not deny we are out of the FA Cup. “We had a reasonable run in the Carling Cup and reasonable games, even in the final. “You cannot say we’ve been advantaged by the referees in the decisions. “The same linesman who said Adebayor tried to punch Lampard didn’t see Drogba offside. But he did give Adebayor offside in the same game, so you cannot say there has been a big advantage for us in this Carling Cup final.”
ArsenalÂ’s backroom staff have gone through footage of the fracas with Chelsea frame by frame. And Wenger insists he can prove the FA were wrong to ban Adebayor for three games after he allegedly aimed a punch at Frank Lampard. The player also faces another charge of not leaving the field of play.
And Wenger has been asked to explain himself by the FA after saying linesman Darren Cann lied in his report about Adebayor’s actions. But the Emirates chief declared: “With professional editors we can show that Adebayor never intended to throw any punch.
“Not only did he not intend to throw any punch, he tried to separate people who were around Lampard. Image by image we can prove he did not intend or aim to punch Lampard. “It is as simple as that and it is obvious. “I am capable of proving it in front of the whole Press and the FA. If they like it or not, it is exactly the same.”
Wenger will not back down in his crusade to get Arsenal what he feels is a fairer deal from officials. And he has painstakingly gone through the match statistics of every other Premiership club. He said: “The numbers are there. We are the team which commits less fouls against our opponents and we are the team that gets punished more. “For every five fouls we get a yellow card. There are some teams who only get a yellow card every 12 fouls, so Arsenal must be very clumsy.”
Wenger also maintains his side’s free-flowing style makes them the standard-bearers for Premiership football — and that some other clubs, who have been boosted financially by the latest £600million TV deal, earn money off Arsenal’s back. He explained: “If England sells football at a heavy, heavy price abroad and that money is shared with everybody, it’s not because of the teams who kick — it’s because of the teams who play football.
“And I think that deserves some respect as well. “This money goes to all the clubs, even if they get praise when they kick us off the park.
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