YOU can read the first interview with Martin Taylor here.

One thing that strikes me is that both Taylor and his defenders are employing the age old politician’s trick of pleading his innocence over something nobody has accused him of doing, while ignoring the actual issue.

Nobody ever claimed he set-out to break Eduardo’s leg. But making it a straight choice between premeditated assault and pure accident is an easy way to disguise the real issue of whether it was in fact a studs-up, shin high, get in among ‘em tackle that always ran the risk of doing damage.

Update: I’ve crossed out the above because in the print version of the Independent there is a separate part to the interview where he specifically denies being physical with an opponent and “showing he is there”.

Fair enough. All I’ll say is that I hope the foreigner who puts Wayne Rooney out of the 2010 World Cup is treated with equal sympathy.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the last I intend to say on the issue.

It’s time now to look forward to Villa. But first, a couple of questions:

1) Why was last Saturday so traumatic?

I’d argue partly Eduardo and partly the sense that championship winning sides don’t give away injury time penalties. They score them. That, perhaps more than the two lost points, was perhaps what really threw us.

The thing we have to realise is that the other thing championship winning sides are very good at is bouncing back when things do go wrong.

2) What was Gallas up to?

Myles Palmer summed it up neatly: “If you were emotional, watching that penalty incident, think how emotional William Gallas was.
Gallas is quirky, one-off personality, but he’s been a good captain for Arsenal so far. His competitive concentration has been one of the keys to their Premier League success all season.

“So he freaked out. Or, as we say in polite sporting parlance, he over-reacted. Captains should not do what Gallas did, of course. You don’t walk down the other end of the field while a penalty is being taken.”

And that is the point. It was one very dramatic, very public, very Gallic failing. But it was one failing.

I’m not saying you have to like Gallas (and I sense a fair bit of Fleet Street does not) and we know he can sulk, strop and stage a sit down with the best of them.

But judge him on the season thus far rather than a moment of emotional madness. Judge him on the five minutes of instructions before every game that hold his team-mates in his thrall. Judge him by the defensive focus. Judge him by the breakthrough goal against Wigan, the Chelsea winner and that equaliser against United.

Judge him by the straight out, no caveats, apology he issued in the programme post United. Judge him for always applauding the fans.

And remember: Gallas has won this title twice before. And remember, Chelsea fans cited him as the most important player in their Championship winning sides.

Perhaps the pundits will be proved right. Maybe we have had our day and Gallas’ tantrum was indeed our Keegan moment.

But whatever you do, don’t give up on the team.

I don’t normally go in for tub thumping calls for atmosphere and support, but to anyone who like me is lucky enough to be going to go the game tomorrow, the Online Gooner is completely correct when it says this truly is the time to get behind the side.

Don’t worry about United. They will win at Fulham. Worry about Arsenal. Get behind the team and even if things do go tits-up on Saturday, it’s not over.

One of my very earliest football memories was hearing we had lost 2-1 at home to Derby with three games to go in 1988-89. It wasn’t over then and it wasn’t even over when McMahon got the word from the Kop.

So what I’m trying to say very clumsily is that even if Birmingham is proved to be more than a one-off, stick behind the team because for their Herculean efforts this season, they deserve our support.

I’ve got a fair bit more to say but not really the time to say it. And anyway, I’d only be repeating what I say on this morning’s Arsecast, so head over there for more thoughts.

BY now you have probably read about Jeremie Aliadiere getting an extra one game ban for frivolously appealing his weekend finger flick sending-off. Words fail me.

But there is a very simple way to clear up all the current absurdity:

Referees should continue to give out yellow and red cards as they see fit. But the only purpose of the cards should be to send a player from the field or warn him he risks being sent from the field. They should not infer any kind of ban.

Then, after the game, the referee should sit through a video of the game and decide which incidents, if any, merit disciplinary sanction. And rather than the current situation where the only choice is one between a three game ban or nothing, sanctions ranging from disciplinary points through to well beyond three games could be handed out.

So, Aliadiere could get either a few disciplinary points or at most a one game ban. And so too would the equally guilty Mascherano. That Gallas kick at Old Trafford last week (which was not, as many would have you believe, anything approaching GBH), would merit either one or two games out.

And just to show this is not a party political point, Michael Ball would miss 30 games for this:

In the currently utterly warped system, he missed just three.

And depending on what universe you reside in, Martin Taylor could receive anything from nothing to eight games.

Crucially, referees would be able to punish incidents they missed altogether, INCLUDING DIVING.

The proposal is easy to implement, would not slow the game down at all and should clean it up a fair bit.

So don’t expect to see it any time soon.

WELCOME confirmation that we have not all totally lost the plot: James Lawton in today’s Independent.

THE Rooney test goes like this:

Had the game been the World Cup quarter-final, had Eduardo been Rooney and had Taylor been an unknown playing for any other country, would there be a single ounce of sympathy for the defender?

Birmingham 2 Arsenal 2

LET’S look at the facts:

1) Eduardo is out for a very long time.
2) The pictures to the right.
3) Taylor’s own manager admits it was a sending-off.

Can we now have an immediate end to the absurd suggestion that this was some kind of terrible accident?

It was the product of it’s era. An era that has completely overindulged David as he sets about Goliath.

It is an era that failed to heed it’s warning 18 months ago when Stephen Hunt flew in on Petr Cech.

It is an era that tutted, furrowed it’s brow and poured scorn on the Frenchman as he bemoaned the attack dog Lancastrians.

It is an era that went apoplectic when Arjen Robben fell over too easily but all but ignored Michael Ball jumping on Cristiano Ronaldo’s chest.

But most of all it is an era that hides itself behind the crude and utterly irrelevant “that sort of player” judgment. It is a cloak, a shroud, a distraction from the real underlying issue.

Forget Martin Taylor. He probably isn’t that “sort of player”. I don’t doubt he’s a decent fella who is probably genuinely gob-smacked by the damage he has done. The era allowed that kind of tackle. Taylor is it’s fall guy.

But not only is this an era that in the first place created fertile ground for an incident like yesterday’s, it is an era that has done nothing to introduce a worthwhile deterrent.

How often is a player banned for more than three games? What on earth is going on when an atrocious tackle elicits the same punishment as Jeremie Aliadiere’s retaliatory flick of the fingers yesterday?

And how did the aforementioned Ball escape not only with that universal three game ban but with acceptance that some kind of justice had been done?

So in among this lunacy, forgive us fans if we emulate our manager and speak in haste or in exaggerated tones, because hell, there is sod all danger of anyone else doing it.

I’m not going to stand here and say our players are saints. They are not. But just as I’m not going for the jugular with Taylor, this is far more about the climate that has been allowed to develop than any individuals. On which note, before anyone harks on about all our red cards, ask yourself on how many the realistic prospect of injury existed.

But back to the original point and just as the arsonist who kills is punished more harshly than the one who merely burns down a building, Taylor simply must get an increased ban.

Arsene’s lifetime ban call has sadly allowed people to ignore some other very valid points he made:

“It goes with the idea that to stop Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal and that kind of thing was waiting to happen.

“The worst thing you hear after is that ‘he’s not the kind of guy who usually does that’, but you need to only kill one person one time - it’s enough.”

The comments shot towards the Match of the Day studio like a cruise missile. Their silence was deafening.

At least the BBC replayed the incident. SKY refusing to was frankly absurd, even if it’s not all part of an anti-Arsenal conspiracy.

Yes, it was horrible to look at. But in another sense fairly essential viewing too.

A few words on Eduardo, the real victim of this.

Nice player. A scavenger who gave it his all and had enjoyed a very promising first season. A fair few goals - even if they did come in patches - and recently looking far more attuned to the Premiership.

These injuries can, of course, end careers. But even if you do recover, there can be another cruel trick in the tail.

I enjoy laughing at Newcastle’s Alan Smith as much as the next man. And I’ll admit that watching him labour against us last month was fairly funny.

I’d forgotten, though, about his injury and it seems true - he has come back, can still play in the Premiership and yet at just 27, his best days already look behind him.

Let us hope Eduardo gets better luck.

I’m not going to analyse the minutiae of the performances because, frankly, the players can be excused an off day after the shocking early events.

Yes, they are paid enough that we expect them to be made of stern stuff. But I think Cesc can be forgiven if he saw that injury and then saw his entire football life flash before him.

All that money must suddenly seem a little irrelevant.

So yes, Almunia was slow for the free-kick. Yes, our finishing was wayward. Yes, Hleb refused to shoot. And yes, Clichy had a shocker at the end. But on reflection, all of that can be forgiven.

It didn’t help that we were on the end of some pretty shocking decisions. To be honest, the free-kick for the opener could have gone either way.

But late on, Adebayor was blocked for what should have been a penalty, before the guy blatantly pulled his shirt. Two fouls, no penalty.

Then a minute later, Clichy makes a bad mistake and won the ball. Penalty.

A word on Gallas before we finish. His reaction to the penalty was certainly unconventional. And really, he should have stayed up our end.

But it can be summed up in one word: Gallic. These guys do things like kicking fans and passing penalties to each other and such like that we English don’t understand. It’s probably what makes them what they are.

And I imagine it works both ways.

We shudder occasionally at their behaviour and they probably fail to understand how we pick our national team captains from the ranks of jailed drink drivers and those who urinate on bar floors.

But the point is this: Gallas has been superb for us this season. He, quite clearly, takes no shit from his players and we are evidently the better for it. He has led the team and in their captain, the players have a role model who may be mad, but clearly gives a f**k.

Maybe the sight of Gallas crestfallen at the end will inspire United. Fine. But you can be sure that come Saturday and Villa at home, Gallas will be back and the team will be united in their determination to do well.

And in these moments of darkness, it’s a point worth remembering: we’ve had an unbelivable season and if we were to win the title, it would be a minor miracle.