Today's papers are full of Le Boss's comments made at yesterday's opening of the new training ground. He's trying to take some of the heat off of Vieira and direct it at Neil Ruddock.

Wenger pointed out that players often get away with much worse than what Paddy did, and that he's shocked both by Ruddock's claims that he was "playing the nice guy" and trying to calm things down. Ruddock should be punished for his role in the incident too, says Wenger.

One can understand Wenger's anger, particularly given Ruddock's tasteless Francophobic remarks about Vieira's spit "smelling of garlic".

But sadly, while as Arsenal fans we can only admire Wenger's loyalty to his troops, he is to a certain extent sacrificing himself, as all this will probably only serve to draw some of the flak away from Vieira and onto Wenger. The media have never been slow to accuse him of trying to defend the indefensible, and his latest comments are bound to attract that kind of coverage, even though he's been careful to make it clear that what Vieira did was wrong and should be punished.

See also Soccernet for more Wenger quotes and our match reports page for the West Ham game.