It seems that although Villa Secretary Steve Stride has dismissed Petit's claims of "racist" taunts, two members of Villa's management team will be prepared to speak on his behalf.

First team coach Steve Harrison and goalkeeping coach Paul Barron are said to be willing to give evidence on Manu's behalf.

Also in Petit's favour is the fact that several Villa fans were ejected from the ground for abuse directed at the player when he was substituted. This rather undermines Stride's claim that all that happened was "light-hearted goading".

There is, of course, plenty of precedent for this kind of provocation being taken into account. Earlier this season David Beckham was let off after giving Leeds fans 2 fingers at Old Trafford. Graeme Le Saux wasn't even charged after being caught on camera giving Arsenal fans the finger at Stamford Bridge. If Manu doesn't receive similar leniency, he will no doubt claim that it's because he's French and those 2 are English. But there's another key difference. Manu plays for Arsenal.

While accepting that it is possible for abuse from the crowd to go too far, I have to say that I am broadly in agreement with Kate Battersby on the question of whether or not "French this and that" constitutes racism.

It's a simple fact that the 'adjective noun' form of abuse is the standard. You don't just call someone a 'b**tard', you call them a 'baldy b**tard', a 'cheeky b**tard', a 'f**king b**tard' and so on. It scans better.

If Petit was more on the tubby side he'd be called a 'fat b**tard' (cf Gazza) but he's not. And because Manu goes on about the negative aspects of England, it's his nationality that springs to mind when people mouth off at him.

I'm not condoning the abuse that he received on Sunday. It sounds like some Villa fans did cross the line, singing "stand up if you hate the French" is deplorable for starters, and we can only hope that the individuals who were kick out will be dealt with appropriately and their actions taken into account if Petit is punished. But to try to engender outrage of the type that 'black b**tard' would, surely only serves to undermine Petit's case. They weren't that far over the line.

I wonder if Manu has talked to Patrick about this. It's hard to believe that Vieira would consider 'French b**tard' to be equivalent in offensiveness to 'black b**tard'.

On the other hand, anything that gets people talking about racism in football has to be a good thing. There's still plenty for the Kick it Out campaign to do. Speaking of which, their spokesman Piara Powar has said that the French do seem to be getting more abuse at football grounds than other Europeans, and that it's no surpise that it's Villa fans that are involved this time, since they came to the campaign's attention over the recent Di Canio incident. He said "Villa are one of the few clubs that refuse to do any long-term anti-racist work despite requests from us."

Perhaps Villa realise that their image could do with some improvement in this regard, and that's why they're backing away from the inital "brush under carpet" stance.