Wenger: Savage should have gone
Arsene Wenger hailed 10-man Arsenal's 2-0 victory at Blackburn - but claimed Robbie Savage should have been sent off as well as Gilberto Silva.
The Brazilian midfielder will miss Arsenal's next three matches - including next weekend's showdown with Manchester United - after aiming a kick at Savage. Wenger believes referee's Rob Style's decision was harsh and said if Gilberto's punishment was warranted then Savage deserved to get his marching orders as well.
Wenger said: "To me it looked harsh because the first foul was made by Savage, Gilberto reacted a bit - and he was kicked after the referee had whistled - and though he should not ideally have reacted at all, he said he did not touch him."
He added: "There's not a lot we can do about it now, we have to accept it, but we gave the right response as we were with 10 men for 80 minutes and still kept going forward and won the game.
"I felt Savage went in a very aggressive way into Gilberto - who has said he over-reacted but I feel if he sends Gilberto off he should have sent Savage off as well.
"The referee was very close to the action and applied the law to the letter - that means retaliation: red card, bad foul: yellow card, and he can defend his case."
Wenger's decision to maintain an attacking formation with a three-man midfield despite going down to 10 men paid off as goals from Kolo Toure and Thierry Henry - a breathtaking one to match his finest - won the game for the visitors.
"I wanted to see how we coped with the situation, if we could keep attacking with a 4-3-2. I kept going as I wanted to win the game," said Wenger. "The team is going from game to game, slowly becoming real lions.
"I feel for a while we've gained in maturity at the back. We didn't have a panic and won challenges.
"We are very young team at the back and we didn't concede today. It was a superb victory under very difficult circumstances, a good mixture between quality, spirit and solidarity and it was great to see commitment mixed with class and technique."
