Following Luis Suarez latest chomp I thought it was high time to create a Twunt-O-Meter. Naturally Suarez pushes the meter to the maximum, but where would Arsenal players feature for their past indiscretions?
Dennis Bergkamp - Sunday 19th January 2003
In a 3-1 win over West Ham United, Dennis Bergkamp had the ball 40 yards from goal and cutting in-field from the left, he found Lee Bowyer on his shoulder. He decked the West Ham man with his elbow before using his new-found space to curl a perfect assist onto Thierry Henry's head for Arsenal's second.Verdict: Dennis was simply avenging the McDonalds' workers who seven years earlier had been verbally abused by a chair-throwing Bowyer. So really Dennis Bergkamp's behaviour was super-heroic... think Batman but much better at football.
Martin Keown - Sunday 21st September 2003
This could be seen as the peak of bad feelings between Arsenal and Manchester United and no player was more hated by Arsenal players and fans that Ruud van Nistlerooy - quite possibly the cheatiest ballsack ever to have stained the Premier League. On this occasion, he succeeded in getting Patrick Vieira sent off with a typically nasty foul and an absurd overreaction to Vieira kicking his leg out in his direction, from metres away. He then had a last minute opportunity to win United the game from the penalty. He hit the bar, the scores finished level and Arsenal went on to finish the season unbeaten and win the league. At the final whistle, Ruud van Nistelrooy was immediately confronted by several Arsenal players. Keown jumped up next to Van Nistelrooy and brought his arms down hard on his back whilst yelling in his face like a man-possessed.Verdict: While Keown's behaviour was far from gentlemanly it was directed at Ruud van Nistlerooy and as such was commendable.
Cesc Fabregas - Sunday 24th October 2004
Arsenal's 49 game unbeaten run was ended by a van Nistlerooy penalty after a Wayne Rooney dive and one of the most shambolic refereeing performances in recent memory by Mike Riley who as well as incorrectly giving the game-deciding penalty failed to award Manchester United three blatant red cards. In the tunnel after the game, Cesc Fabregas allegedly threw some pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson.Verdict: Entirely justifiable behaviour...
Ashley Cole - January 2006
He was found guilty of making contact with league rivals Chelsea over a possible move, without informing Arsenal. He was fined £100,000 by the Premier League on 2 June 2005 for a tapping-up meeting at a hotel in January 2005. Cole, his agent Jonathan Barnett, the Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon were present at the meeting.Verdict: It's strange how a supposed childhood Arsenal fan could be so disloyal to their club but footballers nowadays, eh?
Jens Lehmann - 10th December 2006
Mad Jens and Didier Drogba both got booked and embarrassed themselves in the process with some pantomime shoving and diving.
Verdict: Ludicrous and hilarious but more than a little embarrassing.
Emmanuel Adebayor - Tuesday 22nd January 2008
Ignoring the fact that Adebayor is clearly twuntness personified, I've just picked out one example of him being a complete helmet in an Arsenal shirt... With Arsenal 4-0 down in the Carling Cup against Spurs of all teams, Adebayor was brought off the bench to partner Nicklas Bendtner (who had scored an own goal) up front. He contributed with a goal and by telling Bendtner: "I'm only on because you are so shit." He then was alleged to have headbutted his teammate although I'm not sure this was ever confirmed.Verdict: It's hard to take one Adeboyor incident in isolation because he really was a total thunderc*nt.
William Gallas - 23rd February 2008
In a truly devastating game in which Eduardo had his leg broken by Martin Taylor; Gaël Clichy conceded a wrongly awarded penalty in injury time and Gallas walked into the Birmingham half, apparently in protest. He stood there as Birmingham striker James McFadden converted the penalty. After the final whistle, Gallas sat down on the pitch as the rest of the players left the field.Verdict: His stroppy reaction was embarrassing and not at all what should be expected from the club captain. Some leniency for him though as he had seen his colleague's leg snapped in two and a crap decision cost his team two vital points.
André Santos - Saturday 3rd November 2012
After the painful departure of Arsenal's captain and star striker Robin van Persie to sworn enemies, Manchester United; Arsenal lined up against their former captain at Old Trafford. Arsenal found themselves 1-0 down at half time to a goal from their former skipper. André Santos thought half time would be a good time to publicly swap shirts with van Persie leading to outrage from Arsenal fans and a pretty poor and confused apology from the useless, chubby Brazilian.Verdict: Pretty damn twuntish. He displayed a complete lack of understanding of sporting rivalries, loyalty and competitiveness. His Arsenal career didn't recover, which is probably just as well because he wasn't very good anyway.
Nicklas Bendtner - Tuesday 11th March 2014
A rather bizarre report came out from Copenhagen last season from a Danish taxi driver:"He said that, if he was not so famous, he would have smacked me, and he called me a 'little fat pig'. I asked him to leave the car – I had to ask them three times, and said I'd have to call the police if they didn't."
"He stood at the back of the car and rubbed up against the side window after unbuttoning his pants while he whipped the cab with his belt and shouted he wanted to 'fuck me'," he added. "I've had drunks and alcoholics in my cab in Copenhagen over the last 25 years, but I've never experienced anything like this."
Verdict: Big deal; we've all been there...
