Arsene Wenger is not a happy bunny. Upon hearing the news about UEFA’s decision to charge Eduardo for diving in the recent Champions League qualifier victory over Celtic, the Arsenal boss said that it was a ‘complete disgrace and unacceptable’.

To be honest, you can’t blame Wenger for having these views. It’s not as if Eduardo is the first player to make more out of a challenge than he should have done is it? Imagine how many times Cristiano Ronaldo should have been charged if this was the norm!

Continuing to speak about his disapproval with the decision, Wenger said that this has ‘singled out a player to be a cheat’, something which is ‘not acceptable’. He went on to say that it is the first time in football where the judgment of the referee has been deemed as accepted by the football bodies.

This is very true. When do you ever hear of this? When has a player ever been charged for diving? The official line is that Eduardo has been punished for ‘going down with intent’, but how can this be proved?

Fair enough, it probably wasn’t a penalty, but can it be proved that Eduardo dived with the intention of cheating? There have been far more blatant dives in football over the last few years, so why has this one been singled out? It makes no sense to me and seems a very strange decision.

One of Wenger’s final points (he talked about it for a while!) was that the case has been ‘ruled emotionally’ by the Scottish FA and the Scottish people who work for UEFA. Overall, the Frenchman is bewildered by the fact that ‘the existing rules of football have been changed for just one case’.

The next development in this story is that Eduardo could be banned for two European games when the disciplinary body meets next week. This means that there is every chance he could miss the games against Standard Liege and Olympiacos.

Does he deserve this though? What are your thoughts?

As always, let me know.

Gut feelings are very common in football. You just get a feeling about something and proceed to tell everyone you know about it. I had such an experience this morning. I have an increasingly positive mindset ahead of the game at Old Trafford this Saturday.

In fact, I am confident that Arsenal can go to Manchester United and pick up three points. If you are going to push me for a prediction, I’d say 2-1 to the Gunners. Like I said, this is mainly based on a gut feeling, but there are plenty of reasons to suggest that Arsenal can emerge victorious.

For starters, confidence is very high. In my opinion, this Arsenal team doesn’t fear anybody at the moment. These are two key mentalities to have when you travel to Old Trafford and Arsene Wenger knows it. He says that the game this weekend is the first ‘big test’ of the campaign and that his team will be ready.

The Arsenal boss says that the team is improving their play all the time. Even since the end of last season, Wenger believes that the ‘speed’ of the team’s play has increased, something they can put on display at Old Trafford this weekend.

In other words, Manchester United – who have arguably lost their wow factor in the summer – might not know what has hit them.  They have every reason to be wary of the young Gunners and I’m not convinced Wenger’s men should be so of Alex Ferguson’s team.

The most important factor ahead of the game, according to Wenger, is that the team ‘recover physically’ because Manchester United will be fresh after not playing in midweek. This shouldn’t be a problem though. The team is young – the average age against Celtic was 23 – and they won’t know what tiredness is.

Arsenal will be up for the fight and determined to show the rest of the Premier League teams that they mean business this season. An early season game against Manchester United is a chance to set a marker down
for the remainder of the campaign and I’m absolutely convinced that three points can be achieved.

I want your thoughts on this though. Can Arsenal win at Old Trafford this weekend or am I being stupidly positive?