ANDY GRAY'S VERDICT ON ARSENAL 'CONSPIRACY'

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

GRAY: Betfair's top tipster

ANDY GRAY gives the News of the World his opinion on Ryan Shawcross' tackle on Aaron Ramsey and Arsene Wenger's reaction to his latest injury blow.

The Sky Sports pundit believes it is sheer bad luck that the Arsenal midfielder broke his leg in two places and feels any talk of a conspiracy against the Gunners is misplaced.

Gray, speaking courtesy of betfairfootball.com, feels people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones when it comes to teams making bad tackles.

We often talk about luck in football. The penalty that wasn't given, the goal that was ruled offside, the ball that hit the post but didn't go in. But then there are other kinds of good and bad luck that people don't often talk about in those terms and one such case was Aaron Ramsey's injury.

We all watch the Premier League week in, week out and we all know it's a physical league and not one for the faint-hearted. That's why some really skilful players, who have shone elsewhere, just can't settle over here and replicate the performances they've managed in other countries. But being a physical league where good tackles are appreciated as much as good saves and good goals is a far cry from being one where players deliberately go out to injure others.

And that's where luck comes into play. It wasn't so much the nature of Ryan Shawcross' tackle that was the problem but rather the position that Ramsey's leg was in. It was just very unfortunate on the young Welshman, Arsenal and indeed Shawcross himself.

In different circumstances he would have just caught him and been booked for a slightly reckless tackle rather than being shown red and now sitting out three big games. That said, our thoughts are with Ramsey right now rather than Shawcross in what must be a really distressing time for him and we all wish the Welshman a speedy recovery.

Arsene Wenger seems to think there's some sort of conspiracy against him and his team after watching two of his players suffer broken legs over the course of the last year.

He's wrong.

Do teams adopt a slightly more aggressive approach to their game when facing Arsenal because they think they can get under their skin? Yes.

Do teams commit the odd deliberate foul to break up the flow of the game? Yes.

Well, so what? Does Wenger expect teams to lay down and die and just allow them to run rings around them without putting up any sort of resistance? That's not going to happen. Not in this league. But like I say, those approaches are totally different to suggesting teams have a gameplan that involves injuring Arsenal players.

John Terry spoke this week of people who live in glasshouses not throwing stones (as regards Craig Bellamy's comments) and Arsene Wenger should consider that little saying.

Over the last couple of seasons, both Abou Diaby and William Gallas were guilty of challenges on Bolton players that could have done just as much damage as those that left Eduardo and Ramsey crocked. Luck dictated they escaped with a sore leg and a bruise and as is so often the case in football, these things eventually even themselves out.

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