Pulis hits back in Wenger row
Tony Pulis accuses Arsene Wenger of trying to "rewrite history"
Also In The News
|
Directed by Oliver Stone, out November 7th in cinemas, starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Jam |  |
Wednesday, 05, Nov 2008 09:48
Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has criticised Arsene Wenger, claiming the Arsenal boss "tried to rewrite history" with his comments on last Saturday's Premier League match.
The Frenchman claimed yesterday that the Potters had deliberately tried to injure his players and bully them on the pitch during the Gunners' 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.
However, those comments came after Wenger had initially praised Pulis' side for their commitment and organisation, saying they "fully deserved" the win.
And Pulis has hit out at the Arsenal manager, accusing him of inconsistencies in his assessment of the match.
"In Stoke-on-Trent on Saturday evening Mr Wenger talked openly about Arsenal's encounter with Stoke, as being a "typical English encounter"," Pulis said in a lengthy statement on his club's website.
"He commended my team's organisation, my team's commitment and confessed that on the day Stoke City thoroughly deserved to win the game. Very open and very honest.
"Over the weekend Arsenal have been criticised by the media over their commitment to not only our game, but also previous games they have been involved in.
"In London, 48 hours later and 150 miles away from Stoke-on-Trent, Mr Wenger changed tact and has tried to rewrite history."
Pulis also defended the players singled out by Wenger in his press conference on Tuesday.
Rory Delap was criticised by the Gunners boss for his challenges that resulted in injuries to Theo Walcott and Bacary Sanga.
But the Stoke chief called the long-throw specialist an "honest and committed" player and said he was in no doubt that there was no intention to injure anyone in the challenges he made.
"They were free kicks, but Rory would never purposely go out to injure a fellow professional - it's just not in Rory's nature," Pulis continued.
"I and my football club have tremendous respect for Mr Wenger and Arsenal Football Club.
"But as Mr Wenger is such a learned professional, and on a great day in American electoral history, I would like to remind him of Abraham Lincoln's great quotation: 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.'"