I would urge anyone who has not seen M. Wenger's masterful 14 minute pre match press conference on Arsenal TV to do so as a matter of urgency. In it, he proceeds to shred the football authorities for their ill-considered action against Eduardo; the media for their inconsistency in focusing on this event and not other similar ones; and the Scottish FA and their representatives in UEFA for their disproportionate influence within this formerly august but now rather sordid talking shop.

Wenger makes his points with such acuity and delivers them in a tone at once bristling with righteous indignation and yet in a controlled, rational way. At one point Wenger asks how the rules have been changed for this one case, where previously we have been told that a referee’s word is final if he has made a judgment during the game. He goes on to take this to its logical conclusion by introducing the reductio ad absurdum that, from now on, Arsenal will be bringing complaints to UEFA at every possible opportunity. The point being that if Arsenal does it, so will everyone else.

He then turns on the media and tells them that they have a responsibility here too. How come Eduardo is singled out and not any of those brave yeoman who have worn the Three Lions and, ahem, perhaps sometimes tripped as a result of the ineluctable force of gravity alone? Cue the sound of anxious shuffling in seats and no doubt more than a little hand-wringing and eye-contact avoidance with him from the guilty scribblers, rather in the manner of a group of 11 year olds who have been caught smoking behind the bike sheds. “And it is I who am one–eyed, is it?” is the inference he invites all and sundry to draw. Needless to say, tumbleweed rolls past at this point as the gathered great and the good, or rather average and the less so, of the media sit in admonished silence awaiting the ground opening up before them.

The man has surely now given us our cue. It’s about time we started backing the man, the team and the club with a bit more guts. Let’s start getting behind or team at home. Away from home, and no doubt today will be a prime example, our most loyal supporters never go missing and always back the team from the terraces. At home sometimes it’s all a little bit like a night at the opera with too many coming to watch rather than be part of the experience.

Secondly, let’s understand just how powerful a collective voice we have and stop being quite so supine in our attitude towards the establishment and media imbalance towards us. When we see read and hear patent nonsense or just honest to goodness entrenched partiality from the likes of the Platini and Blatter or the impotent governing bodies which report to them rather than the football public; the Hansens and the Lawrensons; Hairy Handed Monkey Boy Keys and the Redknapps (both of them); as well as the usual poorly written and argued trash from the newspapers, we can act. Write and mail to editors to let them know. It is no longer acceptable to apply rules unilaterally and without prejudiuce nor to report accordingly. M. Wenger has had enough. So have I. How about you?