William Gallas has escaped retrospective punishment by the FA despite being accused of an “assault” on Mark Davies, the Bolton Wanderers midfielder, last night.
Arsenal went top of the Barclays Premier League for the first time since August last night, however their 3-2 victory was overshadowed by Gallas’s foul on Davies, which left Owen Coyle, the Bolton manager, fuming.
Gallas was fortunate not to be sent off for the challenge, which led to Davies being taken off on a stretcher. The incident was missed by Alan Wiley, the referee, and as Davies lay on the turf, Arsenal played on to allow Fàbregas to score his fourteenth goal of the season.
Scans today have revealed Davies has not sustained any long-term damage as a result of the tackle, allaying fears he may have suffered ligament damage or even a fracture.
The news that Gallas will not face retrospective disciplinary action may anger Coyle, who was insistent that the defender should be punished.
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“It was akin to assault and it changed the game,” Coyle said. “It’s clearly a foul and closer to a red card than anything else. I don’t want to sit here and make excuses, but I’ve seen red cards for less. He’s gone for an X-ray, but it looks like severe ligament damage. Hopefully it’s not broken.
“It was a bad tackle, there’s no getting away from it. I could accept it if Gallas had got a bit of the ball, but he’s touched absolutely none of it. Davies played the ball forward and he’s caught him late. That’s rubbed salt into the wounds.”
Coyle was particularly annoyed that Arsenal played on and questioned their sense of fair play. “The lad is prostrate on the ground and Arsenal being full of fair play, as we keep hearing, carried on playing to score on the break,” Coyle said.
“It’s a grey area, but Mark was clearly in agony. Maybe, with the atmosphere, people didn’t know, but the ball was moving about a bit before they scored. Gallas knows he’s caught him. You know when you’ve caught somebody, but the only person you can ask is Gallas.”
Wenger admitted that Gallas had committed a foul and went so far as to apologise for the challenge, but defended his players’ right to play on. The Arsenal manager said: “There are two things I’ve heard just now — one, that he [Coyle] was not happy with the tackle. I’m sorry the tackle was not a good one, and I apologise. And the second thing, that we went on to play, and I think that’s unfair.
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“The players went on because they didn’t even know what was happening behind. You don’t know what’s happening behind you. I don’t believe you can kick the ball out every time a player is down when you win the ball. That means, if you’re 2-1 down, you have to kick the ball out every time a player goes down.
“The referee was in a strong position. That’s why they changed the rules. Remember Everton [when David Moyes’s side played on 12 days ago after Denilson had collapsed in the centre circle] — I didn’t think they should have kicked the ball out, and it was a much more obvious situation.”