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Uefa holds firm over Van Persie red card

Glenn Moore
Friday 16 September 2005 00:00 BST
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Uefa confirmed the only ground for appeal was on the basis of mistaken identity and there was no doubt that it was Van Persie whose boot inflicted facial cuts requiring seven stitches in the Thun defender Alen Orman. More positively Van Persie may be suspended for only two matches, rather than three as would be the case in the Premiership. A two-match ban is Uefa's standard punishment for a sending-off. While there is scope to increase the ban once the disciplinary committee receives the report of the Polish referee Grzegorz Gilewski, that is considered unlikely.

Even so, Van Persie will still miss away matches against Ajax, on 27 September, and Sparta Prague, on 18 October. With Thierry Henry ruled out of at least the first tie with his groin injury, and possibly the second, Van Persie's absence is a severe blow for an Arsenal side which is short of strikers. As a result Bergkamp is likely to be driven to Amsterdam in a fortnight. Prague is beyond his reach but, enticingly, Paris, where this year's final will be played, is not.

After scoring his first goal in the Champions' League since beating his current team-mate Jens Lehmann, then playing for Borussia Dortmund, three years ago Bergkamp was ready to help. "I will have to ask the boss but it is not too far," Bergkamp said. "I am willing but it depends if it is necessary. Last night was a home game and I was on the bench.

"I am up for it. I love playing in the Champions' League, especially if it means coming back to Amsterdam - even though I said goodbye to everyone in the Amsterdam tournament pre-season."

In Henry's absence Arsenal have no obvious leader of the line, even Van Persie prefers to drop off, as do Bergkamp and Jose Antonio Reyes, who also plays wide. Bergkamp did play centre-forward in the FA Cup final but it was not a success, his lack of pace meaning that Arsenal were unable to play their usual game.

"I have played as the main striker before so it's not a problem but it's up to the boss," Bergkamp said. "The boss is known for creating a system out of the players available which makes the players better. If we don't have an out-and-out striker he will find something else which works. We have to get something out of the next two away games, then we should be in a good position."

For all his praise of Wenger, Bergkamp did, however, admit: "We have had four or five strikers [in the past] but we seem to have lost a few over the years. It is very strange to only have one striker. But he had confidence that Thierry would give him 50-60 games a year, which has been the case before."

Arsenal got away with it on Wednesday and, with Ajax being held to a draw in Prague, top the group. "It was difficult with 10 men," Bergkamp said.

"You start thinking maybe a draw is not a bad result, but you know you have to win your home games in this competition." Van Persie's dismissal, his third for Arsenal in just over a season at the club, follows a difficult summer during which he has been held in jail in the Netherlands accused of rape.

"A lot of things have happened to him already in his young football career but I think he has the character to handle it," Bergkamp said of his compatriot. "If everything goes smooth as a young player you don't learn."

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