Arsenal ready to face hardman Axel Witsel

Standard Liege hardman Axel Witsel will face Arsenal tonight - even though he is serving a monster ban for inflicting a sickening Eduardo style injury.

Belgian midfielder Witsel caused national outrage after his horror tackle on Anderlecht’s Marcin Wasilewski which left the Polish player with a double fracture similar to Eduardo’s injury.

The Belgian FA imposed an 11-game ban for the awful tackle that has attracted massive hits on YouTube and they also wrote to UEFA asking them to extend the suspension to the Champions League.

But Standard Liege had the ban reduced to eight games on appeal and UEFA insisted they could not include European games.

Standard’s sponsors, mobile phone company Base, even intervened to put pressure on the club to stop Witsel from playing in Europe which has caused a huge row.

But Liege coach Lafzlo Bolomi has defiantly stood by Witsel and insists he will definitely play against Arsenal tonight.

Bolomi said: “The rules are the rules and it’s a common thing in football that a player who is suspended in a domestic league can play in Europe. There’s nothing new about that.

“Why should Standard Liege make an exception for Witsel?“

Bolomi is a close friend of Gunners boss Arsene Wenger and the Standard boss was even treated to a tour of Arsenal’s training facilities two years ago.

Wenger claimed it was wrong that players like Birmingham’s Martin Taylor - who made the challenge on Eduardo - and Witsel got short bans while the injured parties were out for long periods.

Wenger said: “I’m aware of it (Witsel), I haven’t seen it. To get the right level of punishment is very difficult.

“We have seen that with Eduardo’s case, he was injured for 18 months, don’t forget Taylor got three games, so there is always cases in football where you have to accept to find the right level.

“I think we progress slowly but comparing different punishments is difficult.”