I have to reply to Rob Hughes' moralistic article condemning our Fab. Hughes wrote:

...Repka was seen on local television on the eve of the match, apparently saying the way to unsettle Arsenal, to destroy the fluency of its play, was to kick them.

…after just two minutes, Repka set the example, running his studs down the Achilles' heel of Robin van Persie. … no card was issued

...After 17 minutes, Sparta's Marek Kulic jumped with both feet at the ankle of Bacary Sagna. That was, if ever we saw one, a red card offense: The referee gave a yellow

End of Hughes’ description of the lovely Czech side. So when he wrote,"“Sport and innocence were the losers,” of course he was commenting on the thugs, wasn't he? No, it was Fab's one challenge.

I have been watching football – Arsenal - for 73 years. I have seen more hard men than Rob has had glasses of champagne, starting in the 30’s with the bristle-bearded Wilf Copping. God help an opponent who fouled an Arsenal player – and he set about Italy once when the England team was nearly all Arsenal and being roughed up.

I was there to see the red-headed Forbes, all Scot and grit, do his first tackle on their most feared player – Liddell - in an Arsenal v Liverpool Cup Final. Liddell wasn’t seen again. I saw Arsenal hunted down by Hunter in the Leeds Cup Final. (Don’t mention Sniffer Clarke). And more.

But I have never witnessed such an obvious and malevolent-looking thug of a player than Repka. From his scowling face, his tattoos, his ugly mouthing and pointing - but above all the tackles from the first moment, clearly demonstrating that he was going to kick out. Forget about the ball. If anybody had gone off with broken bones, the way Repka and his incited mates tackled, is there any watcher who would have been surprised?

And the referee’s protection? Negligible at best, an incitement to serious damage at worst.

Fabregas did a high tackle on him. Aimed at the knee, Rob? It caught his knee. But aimed? Fab said: “Maybe I was a bit late”. Exactly.

And for that Rob Hughes, Professor, writes “Sport and innocence were the losers.” What a ludicrously over-the-top holier-than-thou judgment. For one high tackle? No Rob. If it was, then innocence has been lost by nearly every team Arsenal played against away last season, without adequate refereeing protection. It was lost by Sky and other commentators who could never start a game without a grinning, “We all know Arsenal don’t like it up ‘em!” Remember what happened to the Sunderland player who broke Diaby’s ankle - going in with two feet in a high jump - putting him out for months (an assault that could easily have cost his career)? Nothing.

Who knows? Maybe Fab – and not forgetting the rest of a new battling Arsenal team, who still play lovely football - has saved a few Arsenal foot-bones and ankles from the sort of treatment opponents have long believed, with some reason, they can get away with against them.