We can’t get away from the Thierry Henry Handball, so I’m going to make a couple of quick points on the handball. First of all yes it was a handball and Thierry himself admits that although he added the caveat that it was accidental we all know it wasn’t.

Eduardo da Silva signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal

Cheating happens all the time in the game everyone claims not to condone it, but ultimately we do. Whether it’s claiming a throw-in when you know it’s off your body, or having a tug at the opponents on the ref’s blind side, or leaving your foot in for a split second longer, it’s all cheating and I doubt anyone can say they’ve never done it in any level of the game. It’s not right but it happens.

When you’re caught cheating you accept the punishment knowing that there are times that you have gotten away with it, I cannot understand the idea that some people claim that Henry should tell the referee that it was a handball. This is absurd, no one in their right mind would do such a thing especially with the stakes so high. In fact while feeling hard done by Thierry the Irish players admitted they would probably have done the same. A distraught Sean St Ledger said:

“We feel cheated. It’s cost a lot of us our dreams – as a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I’m not.

“I’m not sure Henry’s reputation has been tarnished. It doesn’t look great but he’s got his team to the World Cup finals. If it had been one of our team, we’d have probably done the same.”

The striker Kevin Doyle added:

“I don’t know about the ref not seeing it but the linesman had as good a view as anyone and him not seeing it is embarrassing. It’s instinctive and, if you can get away with it … I’m sure he was expecting the free-kick to be given and I can’t believe it’s not been caught.”

Anyone who claims they’ve never cheated in football is a liar, anyone who says that the would tell the referee is a liar, and everyone who takes this for more than an unfortunate incident is a hypocrite. If it was an Irish play who did this I doubt there would be much if any recrimination heading his way.

My biggest problem with all this is that somehow, Arsenal is to blame for all this. Henry is a Barcelona employee, what the hell does that have to do with Arsenal? Comments like “His status as Arsenal legend has gone” and “Next time Arsenal are cheated, no one can complain.” and worst of all from Pyles “Thierry Henry, you are the scum of Paris, the scum of world sport, the scum of the earth.” is so over the top it’s crazy. Although in the end Pyles asks “Is Thierry Henry any more immoral than 10,000 other footballers?

So on to real Arsenal matters Eduardo has sign a new long-term contract which can only be a good thing. In a subsequent interview, Eduardo said:

I’m very happy and I hope to stay at Arsenal for as long as I can. This period is good for me now. I feel strong in my body and I feel ready to play 90 minutes every three days if it’s needed.

What pleases me more is that the player seems totally over his injury and feels ready to put that to the test. He also said that he is ready in both his mind and body to put in winning performances for the rest of the season.

On the injury front the team medical staff has concluded that Gibbs injury is not as bad as first feared and he will time out of the game will be “short-term”.

I really didn’t want last night’s game to go into extra-time as it meant Gallas and Sagna played 120 minutes for their team. It means that Wenger has to know decide whether or not to rest the French duo. We could see a back four of Eboue, Vermaelen, Silvestre and Traore or even Eboue, Vermaelen, Senderos and Silvestre — oh joy.

That all for today folks, thanks for dropping by and don’t forget to leave a comment.