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Oh the irony... he accuses Martin Jol and the Spurs players of lying for not seeing 2 Arsenal players down injured in the build up to a Spurs goal... The same Wenger who routinely claims not to see incidents on the pitch when queried after the game...

What I want to know is where does it state in the rules that you have to put the ball out? Especially as one Arse player took out another. Another example of how soft footy is these days

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Too right. There's already the suspicion that the more cynical teams/players are using this sort of thing to their advantage. Christ if Bert Trautman can play on with his head under his armpit... Anyway, surely it's the referee's call - if he thinks there's a definite need for immediate medical assistance he'll blow the whistle and there'll be a drop ball.

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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I couldn't see Liverpool beat AC Milan. I thought AC Milan had the better of Barca until they scored when they just deflated. Some better finishing by their reserve striker should have seen them 2-0 up.

And talking about Liverpool how is Jose?

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If Ian Curtis had lived, and enjoyed the ale…

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Ha ha, he's a saucy sod...

Quote... Mourinho added somewhat mischievously: "I wish them luck for their qualification match in the Champions League."

His first half tactics yesterday were inept in my opinion. 11 quality balanced Chelsea players should beat 11 Liverpool ones. He just played with too many defenders and a poor 2nd striker (Crespo) in a formation they don't usually play.

Amusing piece in the Guardian yesterday about Cisse and how you can't avoid him off the pitch and yet how utterly invisible he is on it - though the Beeb's commentator and Lawrenson were laying into him non-stop last night.

There is, of course, no rule that says you have to put the ball out when a player is injured, though for safety's sake the ref will stop the game if it's a head injury (which wasn't the case on Saturday). But there's long been an unofficial pact between players that they'll kick the ball out if a player is badly hurt.

In Arsenal's/Arsene's defence:

1) they've long been one of the most consistent observers of this pact, even when the opposition is abusing it (eg, Villareal on Tuesday - and remember the cup tie replay against Sheff Utd?).

2) Jol claimed he saw nothing, but there's clear footage of him standing right by the injured Arsenal players screaming "play play play!" at Carrick, who's paused to see if he should kick the ball out. This is a bit different from Wenger's usual tactic of saying he saw nothing to avoid being drawn into a slanging match - Jol's own actions were part of the controversy.

Still, it's a very grey area: you don't kick the ball out every time a player gets a slight niggle and it was hard to say how badly hurt the Arsenal players were (not very, as it turned out). Also, the injuries were caused by two Arsenal players running into each other; it's a bit tough to suggest Spurs should've given up a promising position because Arsenal were defending like the Keystone Cops.