‘Arsenal would have won title if not for my injury’ – Eduardo opens up on horror leg break and not forgiving Taylor

FORMER Arsenal ace Eduardo insists the Gunners would have won the title in 2008 if it wasn’t for his horror injury.

The North Londoners took on Birmingham in the Premier League at St Andrew’s and Martin Taylor broke the striker’s leg with a horrible tackle after just three minutes.

The ex-Croatia international suffered such a stomach-churning injury that his ankle was dislocated and the bone was sticking out his sock.

The 39-year-old was sidelined for almost a year and Arsenal’s form dipped, which allowed Manchester United to beat them to the title.

But the Brazilian-born hero is certain that his team would have been the ones standing tall four years after the Invincibles season.

Eduardo told Ladbrokes at their launch of the 5-A-Side bet on Crystal Palace v Arsenal: “I am sure that Arsenal would have won the league in 2008 if it hadn’t have been for my injury.

“I’m confident of it, because we were playing some of the best football in the world at the time. We were in such a strong position, we were about to knock the reigning Champions League winners, AC Milan out of the tournament… that was an unbelievable team.

“Everything was going very well for us, so why wouldn’t we have won the league? I know you can never really know with these kind of things, but that season in particular, with the form we were in, and the players we had – I’m confident we’d have won the title.

“When I broke into the team, it was at a time we were really building momentum. People were talking about Barcelona and Arsenal, we were the two best teams to watch at the time. Even as a player, being in that team, I had to take a step back because sometimes I just couldn’t believe how we played.

“We were in such a good position, but after that game where I picked up my injury and we drew, we went on to draw another three games in a row and lose against Chelsea.

“All of a sudden, that position we were in at the top of the table had been taken over by Manchester United. As soon as they caught us, they flew away; they were top in the middle of March, and then they stayed in that position until the end of the season.”

Eduardo hasn’t watched that horror tackle back and still tries to forget about it.

The former Shakhtar Donetsk star, therefore, finds it difficult to forgive Taylor after the incident.

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Eduardo added: “I try my best to forget about what happened to me against Birmingham. I’ll always talk about it if asked, but when I’m in my own space, and in my own head, I’ve tried to forget it.

“But you can’t help people stopping you and asking you about it. Once you’re recognised as Eduardo, it’s always, ‘How are you? How is your leg?’.

“If it was up to me I wouldn’t ever talk about it again, but I understand people will always want to hear the story. I’ve never watched the tackle back. I never will.

“It’s difficult to talk about forgiveness. What’s happened is in the past; we can’t go back and change it.

“I never think about Martin. I never think about the incident, but because of the nature of it, and the pictures and everything that followed, it’s difficult to forget it completely.”