I am not a vindictive man (at least not very often) but why is Phil Brown not being charged with bringing the game into disrepute?

It is one thing to rant in the heat of the moment after a game but it is quite another to go on national radio the following day and make outrageous charges about, amongst other things, Arsene Wenger never shaking his hand at any of the matches. He obviously had not realised that these non-existent handshakes had been recorded on TV and were quickly on display all across the internet. He surely can’t have forgotten; it wasn’t in the heat of the moment; and so was it a cold and calculated lie? When he was asked if anyone else had seen the spitting incident and spluttered something about are you accusing me of being a liar, the interviewer could perhaps have pointed out that she knew he was a liar, she was just trying to establish how many lies he was telling.

Now I understand that the FA have allowed Hull an extra five days to concoct their spitting story. I fear the worst. This is the same FA who fined Arsene Wenger for pushing Alan Pardew, but took no action against Pardew, who had not only encroached in the Arsenal Manager’s technical area but was dancing around him crowing about West Ham scoring - In his space and in his face! In the circumstances Arsene showed admirable restraint; there are many managers who would have punched Pardew.

The noises from the Arsenal Directors are not encouraging either. I know that Arsenal pride themselves in being of the old school and like to inhabit the moral high ground. However, it would not undermine their integrity to support their employees against such calumny.