Eduardo suffers horrific broken leg
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Arsenal were held to a 2-2 draw by 10-man Birmingham City at St Andrews but the game was overshadowed by a horrific broken leg for Eduardo da Silva. The incident occurred in the third minute after a challenge from Martin Taylor, which earned the Blues defender a red card. James McFadden put the home side ahead on 28 minutes but Theo Walcott grabbed a second-half brace to put Arsenal in control with his first Premier League goals for the club. Deep into injury-time tail Gael Clichy’s challenge on Stuart Parnaby allowed McFadden to score his second and level the scores. When asked about Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo, Arsene Wenger fumed:
“I think this guy should never play football again. What’s he doing on the pitch? I’ve gone along with the idea for a long time that to stop Arsenal, you have to kick Arsenal. I knew that was coming for a long time now. The season is over for him and it’s very, very bad. More than the season is over.”
However, Wenger later retracted his post-match comments and released a statement that said:
“I feel that my comments about Martin Taylor were excessive. I said what I did in the heat of the moment. It was a highly emotional afternoon and we were all shocked by the injury.”
Manchester United cut Arsenal’s lead to three points after beating Newcastle United 1-5 at St James’ Park. Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo both scored twice while Louis Saha netted in injury-time to complete the rout. Abdoulaye Faye had netted for the home side when they were trailing by three. The Magpies have not won in 10 games, only scored three goals in five games and are just six points above the relegation zone.
Fernando Torres grabbed a hat-trick as Liverpool beat Middlesbrough 3-2 at Anfield. Jeremie Aliadiere was sent-off for Boro on 85 minutes after lightly slapping Javier Mascherano, who appeared to provoke him by raising a hand to the striker’s face.
Elsewhere, a Jermain Defoe penalty gave Portsmouth a 1-0 victory over Sunderland at Fratton Park, Paul Scharner and Antonio Valencia notched second-half goals at the JJB Stadium as Wigan Athletic beat Derby County 2-0 and Nolberto Solano scored the only goal of the game in the 87th minute as West Ham United beat Fulham at Craven Cottage. To make matters worse for the West Londoners they had Leon Andreasen sent-off after being shown a second yellow card for dissent as he argued Solano had deliberately used his arm in scoring the goal.
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Both Edinburgh clubs gained Scottish Premier League victories this afternoon as Colin Nish and Steven Fletcher helped Hibernian to a 2-0 win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Easter Road while Heart of Midlothian benefited from a Stephen Craigan own goal to beat Motherwell 0-1 at Fir Park. Dundee United and Falkirk played out a goalless draw at Tannadice.
Nathan Davies