Birmingham 2-2 Arsenal

By: Dan | February 23rd, 2008

What a terrible, terrible game. After only three minutes, Eduardo had his leg broken by a horror tackle by Birmingham’s Martin Taylor. The injury was sickening, and made worse by the look of Fabregas as he yelled for help. I still can’t quite get over it honestly, and neither could the rest of the team. Eduardo is out at least for the rest of the season and Euro 08, where he was set to shine for Croatia.

Eduardo took eight minutes to be removed from the field, and needed oxygen before going to the hospital. The fact that SkySports didn’t show the replay because the injury was so traumatic almost made it worse, at least until I saw later pictures. Truly awful. Broken legs are terrible and he apparently tore muscle as well, along with dislocating his ankle.

Get better soon Eduardo.

Wenger was justifiably upset about the challenge:

“The tackle was horrendous and this guy [Martin Taylor] should never play football again. It goes with the idea that to stop Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal and that kind of thing was waiting to happen. Many people have got away with too many bad tackles. We’ve escaped a few times but it’s just not acceptable. If that is football it’s better to stop it. The worst thing you hear after is that ‘he’s not the kind of guy who usually does that’, but you need to only kill one person one time - it’s enough.”

Strong words, but Eduardo might never play for Arsenal again, because of one idiotic tackle.

“It was a massive shock for the team. They’ve seen what kind of state he was in. He’s a fantastic guy and to see him in such pain and the shape of his leg was very difficult for the players. We hope he comes back quickly but the minimum is his season is over and we are scared that it is much longer.”

Birmingham’s manager Alex McLeish said that the injury wasn’t malicious, but anytime a player goes in as wildly as Martin Taylor did, the possibility of an injury like this is huge. It hardly seems fair that Taylor gets a three match ban for an injury that will keep Eduardo out for months, if not a year.

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Not surprisingly, the team was affected. The team was in shock, and even after McFadden’s goal (which Almunia should have saved), the players were just waiting for the break at halftime. Walcott scored two lovely goals, but the specter of Eduardo’s injury made it hard to appreciate his first Premier League goals. (The second goal was sensational honestly, and gives enormous hope for the future. It was Henry-esque.)

Then, with a minute left, Clichy conceded a penalty and we dropped two points. The penalty was suspect, but even so, Clichy made a terrible mistake. This is the second time he has been directly responsible for a goal due to overconfident play. Hopefully he can return to his usual professional self.

The game was painful, and Gallas’ reaction reflected that. Sitting alone in the field crying for two minutes is childish and not the example the team needs.

All in all, a pretty terrible day. Get better Eduardo.

Oh, the match recap:

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