It’s been a week since their meeting, but the decision to award Chelsea star Eden Hazard a penalty still irks Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. The two London sides and bitter rivals battled to an extremely exciting 2-2 draw last Wednesday, with Hazard scoring off a penalty kick conversion.
The Belgian was awarded the penalty after a challenge from the Gunners’ Hector Bellerin, but Wenger thought then, and he still believes now that Hazard should have been booked for diving. Chelsea manager Antonio Conte called the 67-year-old Gunners boss an “old coach” with a habit of questioning referees.
Wenger has been extremely critical of the officials lately, to the point that he even earned himself a three match ban for verbally abusing referee Mike Dean. Wenger responded to Conte by saying that he doesn’t blame Eden Hazard for the situation, and he finds the Blues forward to be very professional.
However, it was a back-handed compliment, as the Frenchman said Hazard was very professional in the way he completely flopped, or you could say cheated.
“Am I an old coach?” Wenger asked rhetorically as he began his response.
“Yes. (Antonio Conte) is not a young coach as well, he’s an old coach as well. Is it my way to question Hazard? No, I didn’t blame Hazard. I’m Arsenal, Conte is Chelsea. You are objective. So you look at the pictures, and you see how Hazard goes down.”
“And you see how quickly he takes the penalty when he gets a penalty. If he was so injured, why did he take the penalty?”
“He made more of it, which is professional, basically, and shouts.”
“And I can understand. I do not blame Hazard, I can understand Hazard. He acted in a very professional way, basically, to get the penalty for his team. He did it well.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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