Murphy's law

Credit to Fulham captain Danny Murphy, who's seen both Bobby Zamora and Moussa Dembele savagely poleaxed already this season, for making the crucial point about the recent spate of excessively aggressive tackles:

"The pace in which some players go into tackles now is ridiculous. There's no brains involved in the players who are doing that. I don't believe players are going out to break another player's leg but there has to be some logic and intelligence involved. If you are going at someone at a certain pace and you don't get it right you are going to hurt them. Players should be culpable for that, in terms of punishment I don't know what - but they need to show a little bit more intelligence, especially the ones who are doing it repeatedly."

That applies as much to Nigel de Jong as it does to Murphy's opposite number at Wolves Karl Henry, Zamora's assailant as well as the perpetrator of ridiculous challenges on Wigan's Jordi Gomez and our very own ASBO. Murphy's argument is valid - players may genuinely argue that they haven't set out to injure others, but if they commit challenges that can and do result in serious injury then they should expect to be held culpable and censured accordingly.

Meanwhile, the Daily Heil have reported that Ben Arfa has refused de Jong's request to visit him in hospital. Instead, he's sent a present. A copy of War And Peace, perhaps? He'll have plenty of spare time to read it.