I’ll be the first to admit that the whole Eduardo incident have left us feeling persecuted, Wenger standing in amongst the baying mob with arms outstretched symbolised how we felt/feeling. It’s now time to get over it, time to let it go and move on

Eduardo did the crime now must pay the price.

Punishment does fit the crime

So UEFA in their eminent enlightenment has slapped Eduardo with a 2 match ban, we knew it was going to happen, Arsenal is going to appeal and we know what the outcome is going to be.

There is the argument that the punishment is disparate when Eboue got just a yellow card for the same offence, well that’s not entirely true. If the referee had deemed Eduardo to dive at the time then Eduardo would have gotten a yellow and crucially he would not have gotten the penalty and the ensuing goal.

Why Arsenal, Why Eduardo Why Now?

This is the real problem we have, I’m sure if it was Ronaldo instead of Eduardo, or Barca instead of Arsenal, most of us would side with UEFA. We are just unhappy that we got caught up in a sudden show of morality from UEFA, but that’s life.

Every season we have the authorities showing that they are out to make a change, stamp out cheating, respecting referees, whatever. Players get caught up in the crackdown and by the 2nd month into the season it’s back to status quo.

We would all be happier if we knew that retrospective bans are going to continue and the serial divers will get caught, but we know it isn’t going to happen and that’s what irritates us.

20th Sept 2007 when Lithuania midfielder Saulius Mikoliunas was banned by UEFA for the same offence it was hailed as a landmark, well that was 2 years ago. This is just a show of force by UEFA, they would like us to believe that it’s taking a stand against cheating, if this is so then I’m fine with it, we’re pissed because we know that it will be another 2 years before another player gets banned. Even worse we know it won’t be Eboue, Drogba or Ronaldo those that go down nearly every game.

Whether it’s a Platini trying to get one over Wenger, or the SFA trying to get one over England — incidentally the only times that article 10 has been invoked has been when Scotland is involved— there’s not much we can do about it.

The 2 games Eduardo is going to miss will be Standard Liege and Olympiakos, 2 games which we should win with or without Eduardo, the whole episode has overshadowed the good start we’ve had to the season. Let’s not make it overshadow the rest of the season.