There is an unwritten football law that says you stop playing when a player(s) is down on the field due to some injury. Carrick saw what happened...paused and decided to continue play. Davids continued on knowing full well that 2 Arsenal players were down. Actually...everybody paused when the incident occurred.
It is the ACCEPTED and SPORTING way to stop play when that happens...regardless of whether it is 2 players from the same team or not.
Lest people forget....Several years ago...Kanu playing for Arsenal scored a goal in similar fashion i.e. he kept on playing while everyone else stopped. Going strictly by the letter of the law...the goal was legal and the referee pointed to the spot. Wenger promptly apologised after the game and insisted to the English FA that the game be replayed as Kanu claimed he wasn't aware that he should stop. The game was replayed and Arsenal went on to win anyway....but the point is that Wenger strongly believed back then and obviously to this day in fair play.
Palos
This is the first time I can't agree with you. Yes there is an unwritten law to stop play when a man is down, but only for a serious injury or a knock to the head.
This was an ordinary collision between two team mates with no obvious sign of a bad injury, in fact one of the players got to his feet only to go back down to ground in the hope of getting the play stopped. Arsenal themselves refused to stop play last week when Villareal players were prostrate on the ground, the claim being that the Villareal players were feigning injury.
Football is a man's game but you see too many professionals falling to the ground and rolling around as though they had been shot when a minimal amount of contact has been made. If a game was stopped every time a player went to ground it would not be worth watching as any attacking moves would be halted by a wave of players falling to the ground.
Games should only be stopped if there is a serious injury to a player and the referee is in the perfect position to tell if this is the case. In my experience, when it comes to an obviously serious injury, team rivalry is forgotten and players will always stop the game to allow for quick treatment to a fellow professional.
Saturday's draw has probably killed of Arsenal's hopes qualifying for the Champions League through their league position and Wenger knew that. An Arsene (I did not happen to see that) Wenger under pressure gets rattled easily and for years Alex Ferguson, and more recently Jose Mourinho, have been able to exploit that fact. He gambled with his team selection and didn't get the win. No complaints and concentrate on reaching the CL final.
