Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has lashed out at the tactics employed by Stoke City during his side's 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.

Wenger saw Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor suffer injuries during the game, and now claims that they were deliberately targeted by the Stoke players.

"Do you think [Rory] Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott?" Wenger asked.

"Or that [Ryan] Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch?"

Wenger also defended his time amid claims that his players lacked the stomach for the battle against Stoke.

"I am not ready to listen to things that are untrue and make people who are cowards, for me, look brave," he said.

"I read that my team were not brave," he said.

"All I can say is they are brave and, for me, you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is tackling you from behind without any intention to play the ball.

"The only intention is to hurt you and I can show some tackles where I can prove what I say. The one who is tackling is not the brave one.
"For me the brave one is the player who is trying to play football."

Walcott and Adebayor will both miss Wednesday evening's Champions League match against Fenerbache at the Emirates Stadium with shoulder and ankle injuries respectively.

Adebayor is almost certain to miss Saturday's Premier League match against champions Manchester United, meaning Wenger may face the champions with a strike force of Niklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela.

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