da leao： It is not often I get riled on reading a headline in a tabloid, but one in the Daily Mail suggesting that Eduardo was just another striking flop at Arsenal who failed to live up to his reputation boiled my blood completely. Some people clearly have short memories and some seem to forget the role they have may have played in his time at the Emirates.
da apostaganha： Before I go on I must agree with the club’s decision to cash in on Eduardo given his poor form, but let’s not forget about the two contributing factors that played a massive part in his decline; the shocking injury he picked up at St Andrews and the media witch-hunt that followed the Champions League game against Celtic. Overnight he became public enemy No.1 and with it the Croatian lost any ounce of confidence he was striving to regain.
I’m not going to go into any great deal about the infamous tackle on him (we all know what happened) but at the time he was our man of the moment. Eduardo had finally found his feet in the Premier League was scoring goals for fun and we genuinely believed that we had a superstar on our hands and suddenly someone who could replace the goals we lost following Henry’s move to Barcelona. In many ways the injury cost us the title that season, but for Eduardo obviously a lot more.
Eduardo eventually did return as we know and was finding his feet once again at the start of the season when one incident at the Emirates would change everything. The furore that followed his dive against Celtic was absolutely incredible and you would have thought he had murdered someone given the total overreaction. A blatant double standard by the media (It’s considered acceptable for the likes of Rooney and Gerrard) followed and Eduardo was painted as this villain and was subsequently booed by rival fans and by England ones when Croatia visited England. Suddenly everytime he was brought down referees would turn a blind eye, coupled with a negative reaction from the crowd, you can understand Eduardo, who let’s be honest must be wary of strong physical challenges, feeling absolutely lost out on the pitch and devoid of confidence. The player has been let down badly by the officials and the media within this country and this potential superstar in the making was never given the opportunity to replicate the type of form we witnessed before the horrific injury, or get given the chance to rediscover it. There is no doubt in my mind that Eduardo could have become an Arsenal great, had it not been for these two cruel circumstances.
Written By Billy Pearson
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