EPL Horrorshow - Guilty or not?
English Premier League leaders Arsenal’s intriging 2-2 draw at the St Andrews with relegation strugglers Birmingham City took the headlines of sporting papers all over the world, not for the fact that the leaders dropped points despite playing with a man advantage practically the whole match. The incident of the match was the horrific injury that Arsenal striker Eduardo suffered, which saw the Croatian broke his left leg. Many outraged fans have called for lifetime ban from soccer for Martin Taylor, the man responsible for putting in the reckless challenge. The injury was bad, that goes without saying. However, is Taylor really to be blamed for it? Was it an intentional challenge? To be honest, only Martin himself will know the intent of that challenge, despite the fact that it seem to many that it’s a malicious tackle, it could be otherwise.
Let’s just take a look at some photos captured by the sideline cameras. In one of the photo Taylor was seen smiling, that’s seconds after making the tackle. Seems like he is smiling indeed, although the poor quality of the photo leaves much to be desired, and it could be a little distorted for all we know. In a sense, miscommunication arised because fans and media alike are quick to jump to conclusion based on that particular photo. Adding to that, the graphic nature of Eduardo’s injury meant that photos published are minimum. It would help if that particular shot can be seen from other angles. The media hasn’t help much in calming outraged fans baying for Taylor’s blood, the defender was correctly sent off for his tackle. It is normal to judge that Taylor is at fault for inflicting such a horrific injury, afterall it was his tackle that result in Eduardo breaking his leg. However, the manner in which the media and sporting papers covered this incident was quite negative. Thus, it resulted in most of the readers crying for severe foul play, they were misled by the media. Well, punishment has been dished out, the Football Association probably will be looking into replays to see if any further action need to be taken. Intentional or not, it will be reviewed by a panel of judges before any additional punishments will be given. It may not be an accurate judgement eventually, but if justice has to be done(through punishments), I am sure it will be done.
To be frank, it doesn’t seem likely that Taylor had made that tackle with ill intent. It’s a bad tackle, but unlikely to be bad intentions. It looks more like a routine tackle, unfortunately it went totally wrong. There isn’t any form of bad blood known between the two players involved, and the fact that it is only 2mins into the match, surely it must have been the first contact between the both in this match. So the possibility of Taylor aiming to hurt Eduardo does seem very remote. Not forgetting that this is not a highly-charged derby match between two cross town rivals, or a crucial 6-pointer match where players will throw in everything they have. TV replays show a distraught Taylor holding his head in disbelief, the concern was genuine to say the least. Just like all the other players from both teams who were shaking their heads and showed a grim face, Taylor was worried about the condition of Eduardo’s injury. Taylor didn’t argue regarding the referee’s decision to send him off, he knows that going by the rules it’s a straight ejection. Probably he was more concerned about Eduardo than his participation in the match? It was revealed by people who had know him for quite a period of time that Taylor despite his massive frame, is by no means a person who goes onto the field to hurt others. Dubbed the “gentle giant”, many even expressed their surprise to know that Taylor’s appearance is a far cry from his personality. Judging by his reactions, it will be fair to say that Taylor wouldn’t have made that tackle if he knows that Eduardo will be injured, but it happened and well we can only wish that Eduardo recover fast…
