Arsenal's Arsene Wenger: "F*** Off" Abuse Againts Refs – Who Cares?

No player should be banned for accusing referees with the F-word, Arsenal's Wenger believes. Fabregas was involved in a player vs referee clash earlier this week and Wenger has defended the Arsenal skipper.

Arsenal's English Premier League match against Everton was marked by controversy as the Gunners were 1-0 down at half time through Louis Saha's blatant offside goal. In the tunnel, Captain Cesc Fabregas reportedly accused Everton players of bribing referee Lee Mason.

David Moyes then slammed the Spaniard for having said disrespectful comments to the match official which he "would not even repeat". According to the Everton boss, Fabregas should have been flashed the red card for his attitude.

But Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger thinks that even the F-word abuse told by players against referees shouldn't be punished. As he defended the Arsenal skipper, Wenger told The Sun:

"Take the 20 captains of the Premier League and then try to convince me that not one of them says something to a referee for the whole team.

"You have people who say 'f*** off' to the referee in front of the camera and it doesn't shock anybody. It doesn't shock you.

"You now have the example of Gary Neville who has retired; fantastic player, fantastic career. You the he's never talked in the tunnel?

"You've got to be normal and to have a bit of tolerance as well with what is happening in the tunnel. I'd like the media to talk about what is really important in football.

"What is important to people is that the right decisions are made on the football pitch. One of the problems of the modern game is that the media picks out one incident of the game.

"But for me, this incident is minor and then you have to speak about this for days and days? It's something which didn't influence the result of the game [which Arsenal won 2-1 with a second half comeback].

"What influenced the result of the game was that the goal [of Everton's Louis Saha] was offside!"

With their hard-fought 2-1 victory over Everton in midweek, Arsenal managed to hold on in the race for the English Premier League title. The Gunners are still second in the standings and 5 points behind Manchester United who lead the way.

However, they could cut the gap to only 2 points for at least a few hours if they manage to defeat Newcastle United away from home this weekend. The situation will then remain like this if Manchester United suffer an upset away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in Saturday's late kick-off.