Kiev "tried to destroy" Walcott, fumes Wenger

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger has accused referee Luis Medina Cantalejo of turning a blind eye as Dynamo Kiev attempted to do a hatchet job on Theo Walcott during the Gunners' 1-1 Champions League draw in Ukraine.

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Walcott (l) is marked man following his hat-trick for England against Croatia.
Wenger believes that Kiev captain Andriy Nesmachniy "tried to destroy" his 19-year-old forward, who scored a hat-trick for England last week, and added that the left-back could have been shown the red card on a number of occasions.

The Arsenal manager said: ''The referee should have sent off the left-back three times at least during the game because he destroyed Walcott.''

But Walcott had the last laugh when he provided the cross from which William Gallas equalised Ismaël Bangoura's opener, after he had scored from the penalty spot.

Despite leaving Kiev with a draw Wenger was also unhappy at the time-keeping of the Spanish referee and his decision to award a spot kick for a foul by full-back Bacary Sagna.

Wenger said: "I wanted to understand how we had only three minutes of injury time, and then only played one minute."

"Every referee looks to have a different computer to calculate the in time and still I do not know and really understand how it works.

"It looks like it is through the inspiration of the referee and he could not explain it. He just said it was enough."

"When we got to 1-1, there was no game any more.

"We were on top, they looked very tired, but the game was finished because of the interruptions for injuries and stoppages.

"You could feel the game was there for the taking, but we had no more opportunity to play."

The Gunners boss added: "The penalty was harsh. Sagna is convinced he [Vukojevic] pulled him with his two hands on his shirt and then went down."

he amused me here. wenger beautiful team of pritty kids gets shoved off the ball like any other lads V dads match and he's moaning about it?!

like championsleague referee's arent alreadi harsh enough-we really dont need them to clamp down anymore on tackles.

shut up wingin n sign a Gatusso or a Heinze n see how long u carry on complaining about strong challenges

did anyone catch the davies booking against arsenal at the weekend? were he 'injured' Gael clichy? big Kev got booked for showing commitment and getting the ball. yet coz the softass of a left back hobbled off crying and wenger stood 3 yards away flapping his arms in typical french style-he got booked.

i think arsenal and wenger need to man-up or come christmas time they will fall off the pace at the temperatures drop and the harsh weather begins to affect the beautiful game.

by the way-love arsenal-big fan. but sometimes they just funny-like ferguson, but thts another point for another day lol

I was watching walcott against porto this morning and have to agree with recent talk about him needing to muscle up a bit and improve his final ball. His crossing was p*ss poor at times and he just doesnt seem to be as switched on as the other arsenal players.
IF he can muscle up a bit and use his pace and then some strength to get in behind players i think he really could be brilliant for England and Arsenal. Anyway i hope arsenal give him a full season on the pitch to improve - i think he can be something special with time.

I agree he has alot of talent lets hope he can forfill his potential