No-one can deny that Arsenal’s defeat at home to Man United yesterday was a massive disappointment, but it could surely have been a whole lot worse if Jack Wilshere had been sent off after just half an hour of the game. The England midfielder looked like a very angry banshee as he aggressively approached the referee after obviously fouling Marouane Fellaini.
When the United midfielder attempted to protest about Wilshere, the little Terrier jumped into the Belgian’s face, head-butting him like a goat on heat. Was it lucky that Fellaini didn’t just drop like he had been shot – as many Premiership players have been known to do in the past, and was Wilshere even luckier that referee Mike Dean didn’t just give him a straight red card there and then.
I love Arsenal but what message does this send to young football fans that an act of blatant agression like that doesn’t get punished, not even a caution, at the highest level?
Obviously Arsene Wenger said that he didn’t see the incident, “I haven’t seen it because it was on the other side and I haven’t seen what happened there well enough. Overall it was a fair game, physically committed but I didn’t see any bad things on the pitch.” If YOU didn’t see it you can watch it here and make your own mind up….
I guess you could say that Jack got his just desserts when he was hacked down by United defender Paddy McNair (also unpunished) in the second half, and may have sustained yet another longterm ankle injury. So maybe it would have better for Arsenal in the long run if Wilshere HAD been sent off, and therefore not on the field to get injured!
It is very hard to criticize our own players, but I personally was outraged by his behaviour and think that he needs to curb that angry streak or he is just going to cost Arsenal valuable points in the future, and hardly be a good role-model to young up-and-coming footballers.
Who agrees that he should have been sent off?