Arsenal FC

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Wenger upset by Ramsey tackle

28 Feb 2010 - 11:06:39

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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger accused Stoke City's Ryan Shawcross of a "horrendous" tackle on Aaron Ramsey which left the teenager with a suspected broken leg.

Wenger was furious after his side's 3-1 victory at the Britannia Stadium after seeing the 19-year-old midfielder rushed to hospital with a serious injury.

Shawcross was sent off and left the field in tears following his 60th minute tackle, but afterwards Wenger had no sympathy for the Stoke defender.

The Gunners have now lost Ramsey, Eduardo and Abou Diaby to horror injuries during recent seasons.

"I'm not very happy with the tackle. I just want to say we know what we are expecting, a battle everywhere, but we have now lost three players - Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey today, a boy of 19 years old - on horrendous tackles," declared Wenger.

"It's always coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence when you are hit as many times as we do.

"We know what it is always to be physical against Arsenal and what questions I get in press conferences we don't fancy the physical side of it, that's what the result is."

Asked whether teams had a tendency to play overly-aggressive football against the Gunners, he replied: "I just believe in what I see and when you see a player of that quality tonight getting out and injured like he did and in the way he did, it's not acceptable.

"Nothing to do with physical - commitment is right, but that's not right, I don't accept that."

Meanwhile, angry captain Cesc Febregas believes the injury helped galvanise the north London club, who were drawing 1-1 at the time.

"We learned from when it happened to Eduardo, we lost a lead that day," he said, referring to the injury to the Croatia striker against Birmingham two years ago.

"It's very difficult to stand up but we showed character and knew if we won we still had a lot to say (in the title race)."