15: Eduardo, Arsenal, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

Social media is an ever-evolving behemoth. New platforms seem to emerge on a weekly basis and it’s no surprise that is has become such an all consuming part of most people’s lives. During the various stages of lockdown it has allowed us all to keep in touch with friends and relatives and it would be intensely hypocritical of me to start criticising its many shortcomings when I spend so much time spamming former footballers and podcasts with shameless plugs for this blog. Please accept this as a form of apology guys. On the other hand the speed of change make things like child protection and tackling online abuse a logistical nightmare. A double-edged sword if ever there was one.

The speed of change has also rendered so many platforms, and features of said platforms, obsolete. Remember Facebook groups? Of course you do. But when did you last pay any attention to one? With WhatsApp providing the perfect home for our varying levels of shit chat now they really are a bit pointless. Again this is an opportunity for me to apologise – this time to any remaining members of the Paul Jones Appreciation Society set up by Emlyn and I in our university days. Back then though such groups were probably the only online outlet for niche football discussions and the other day an incredibly obscure one came to mind: ‘It’s Not Martin Taylor’s Fault That Eduardo Has Ryvita Legs’.

To explain, three minutes into Arsenal’s clash with Birmingham City in February 2008, Croatian striker Eduardo was on the end of a tackle from City defender Taylor that left him with a broken left fibula and dislocated ankle. The slow-motion replays were so horrific that Sky Sports decided not to show them to the viewing public and the Arsenal man needed seven minutes of attention on the pitch before he was stretchered off to Selly Oak Hospital for surgery. An uncharacteristically emotional Arsene Wenger called for Taylor to be banned from football for life and, although he later retracted his comments, the injury had a profound affect on the Gunners’ season. The 2-2 draw with the Blues started a sequence of five games without a win and saw them slip from the top of the Premier League to third place effectively ending their title challenge. 

It wasn’t just Arsenal who suffered from Eduardo’s absence in 2008. Having taken Croatian citizenship in 2002 the native Brazilian had become an important part of his adopted country’s international side and scored ten goals in twelve games across their qualifying campaign for Euro 2008. This was of course the same Croatian side that had denied England their God given right to be knocked out on penalties after scraping through the group stages at the same tournament and had ensured that Steve McClaren would both lose his job and prevent any future England manager from using an umbrella in inclement weather. Perhaps Martin Taylor had been performing some sort of patriotic duty when he had lunged at Eduardo’s left leg at St Andrew’s. Despite Eduardo’s absence Croatia performed well at the tournament winning all three of the group games against hosts Austria, eventual finalists Germany and Poland before exiting in the quarter-finals after a penalty shootout defeat to Turkey. Manager Slaven Bilic dedicated Croatia’s performance to the absent forward but failed to thank the likes of Gareth Southgate and David Batty for the manner of their exit.

As for Eduardo it would be nearly a year before he took to the pitch again. Despite scoring twice against Cardiff City in the FA Cup he picked up a hamstring injury and only managed three more appearances in cup competitions in the rest of the 2008/09 campaign. He returned to Premier League action with a goal against Everton on the opening day of the following season and picked up five more across 32 appearances before moving on to Shakhtar Donetsk. He returned to the Emirates within two months of his move to Ukraine as the clubs were drawn together in the Champions League group stage and received a standing ovation when he came off the bench with his new club trailing 3-0. The Gunners’ faithful were on their feet again before the end of the match when the Croatian striker netted a consolation goal in their 5-1 defeat. He scored again when Arsenal headed to the Donbass Arena for the return fixture and, despite Shakhtar’s 2-1 victory, declined to celebrate out of respect for his former employees. After four seasons he moved to Flamengo in Brazil but returned after two seasons before departing to Atletico Paranaense in 2017. He called it a day after one last sojourn to Europe with Legia Warsaw in the 2017/18 season.

It speaks volumes of both Eduardo’s strength of character and the marvels of modern medicine that he recovered from his horrific injury and his career tally of 194 goals in 467 appearances would be impressive regardless of the challenges he had to overcome to get back on a football pitch. Whether Arsenal have ever truly recovered from that fateful day in Birmingham is debatable. The Gunners have failed to mount a serious title challenge in the last decade, the Arsene Wenger era has come to an end and even the great Gunnersaurus has ceased to prowl the Emirates turf. What the causes of this relative decline might be are not easy to define but what’s for sure is that it’s not Martin Taylor’s fault that Eduardo has Ryvita legs.