A rather good guest blog for you this morning.
An eyewitness account of proceedings at The Emptycrates.
Enjoy.
There is a scene in Tom Stoppard’s play Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in which a coin repeatedly comes up heads, no matter how many times it’s tossed. A number of coins were tossed at the Emirates on Saturday, not all by Tottenham Hotspur supporters, but it seems the media are only interested in telling one side of the story.
A lot has been written about Spurs fans and Theo Walcott in the aftermath of Saturday’s North London Derby. Most of what is being perpetuated in the media doesn’t sit with what I saw from my excellent position by the corner flag at the Emirates, so I thought I’d add my voice to counterbalance what is out there.
Firstly, I should say that Arsenal displayed technical superiority during the match and deserved to win. We were in the game until Danny Roses’ error, then we weren’t. Congratulations to them on the win. We move on.
That Walcott is seriously injured and out for six months is undoubtedly tragic for the lad, and not something that I will be making light of.
In my opinion the FA have been too lenient in dealing with this case. Walcott deserves punishment for making a clearly inflammatory gesture towards opposition fans. Tottenham Hotspur football club deserves to be punished for the minority of fans who mindlessly threw coins at Walcott on the pitch. But, from what I saw, Arsenal need to be punished, too. Let me explain why.
From my vantage point I saw Walcott pull up and collapse on the ground as he approached Danny Rose. Danny did not touch Walcott. We now know that Walcott was seriously injured, but we Spurs fans felt this was a plot to waste time. We see a lot of this at the Lane so it was not an unreasonable reaction.
Displeasure at this apparent time-wasting was shown through booing and singing. I did not see a single coin being thrown on to the pitch by Spurs fans at this time and I had a great view of the situation. If there is video evidence to the contrary,
I am happy to stand corrected, but to my knowledge, we just have Wenger’s convenient assertion that Theo made the 2-0 gesture in response to coin-throwing which had started from when he was injured. This statement has been repeated in the media, without, to my knowledge a shred of evidence.
However, I saw evidence with my own eyes that Arsenal fans, seated above Spurs fans, were during this period throwing coins at Christian Eriksen, who was waiting to take a corner kick. Eriksen called Mark Clattenburg over and pointed out two coins to him.
Clattenburg didn’t take much notice of it. Surely he should have at least made a note of it, and reassured Eriksen that it would be dealt with?
The fact this hasn’t been mentioned once in the media is very unfair. It should be in the referee’s report and if it is then Arsenal should be punished for coin throwing; if it isn’t, we need to raise questions about Mark Clattenburg, who seems to keep having lots of questions asked about him lately.
The fact there were Arsenal fans above us is unfair in itself- there should have been Spurs fans in those seats. Away teams are entitled to 15% of capacity at FA Cup games but Arsenal refused to sell this allocation to Spurs fans on the grounds of health and safety.
The FA allowed them to get away with this. Arsenal have a new, purpose-built stadium. If they can’t guarantee the health and safety of the requisite number of fans, the stadium shouldn’t be open.
They should be penalised and less home fans should be allowed in. It was unfair and again was barely mentioned in the media, but clearly gave the home side an additional advantage.
After 2-3 minutes, Walcott was stretchered off the pitch. The medics’ decision to take him past the Spurs fans was questionable. Although it was a slightly shorter route to the changing rooms, he was obviously likely to be barracked verbally if they went that way.
This was when Walcott made the 2-0 gesture. He was directly opposite me and directed it very much in the direction where I was standing, and it was unpleasant, unsportsmanlike mocking. I booed him vehemently, but was disappointed to see fans begin throwing coins etc after his incitement.
I feel the club have got off very lightly and condemn the actions of fans of both clubs who threw coins, endangering not only the players but the medics carrying Walcott, the officials and other fans.
Finally, as Walcott was carried past the Arsenal fans they threw scarves etc at him, one of which he wore. The FA has shown that the law is an ass by taking no action against Walcott or Spurs.
But by taking no action against the Arsenal fans throwing coins prior to the Spurs coin-throwing incident, and by the media making no mention of it, we have a dragging through the mud of Spurs’ name which is inconsistent with the treatment of Arsenal.
I have no complaints about the result of the match over 90 minutes. I do, however, have complaints about the uneven handling of the Walcott incident by the FA and the media.
Like a coin that always comes up heads, it seems that when it comes to Spurs and Arsenal, the media only want to tell one side of the story.
The piece is by @ChrisLancaster3 author of AnotherWiseSpursBlog, a blog I recommend you bookmark.
