Wenger had already expressed anger at the challenge by Blues midfielder Craig Gardner on Gunners skipper Cesc Fabregas, which left the Spain midfielder with a knee injury. And he uttered a four-letter-word response when asked whether there had been more than one bad tackle during the 1-1 draw. Wenger said: "How is Fabregas? I don't know. We will have to assess him tomorrow. But it was a bad tackle, one more. "He got tackled at the knee, kicked just under the knee. We tried to take him off but he said he was all right. "Am I suggesting there were a lot of bad tackles? Leave me alone with that, for f***'s sake. "You are always looking for controversy, you do not need me to tell you what happened on the pitch. I can give you my opinion about our game but you always create this controversy." As regards whether Fabregas will be fit for the midweek Champions League game with Barcelona, Wenger said: " I don't know. We have to assess him tomorrow." Wenger also felt that Phillips' equaliser, which cancelled out a goal from substitute Samir Nasri , was offside. But he admitted his team had enough opportunities to have wrapped up the three points. He said: "It is disappointing and a big blow to our title hopes because, in our position, we had to win all our games. "The pitch was difficult to play on but in the second half we were on top but then got caught at the end. "Their goal was offside but in football you are never finished when two teams fight to the end and we had enough chances to have scored a second goal." Birmingham manager Alex McLeish insisted Wenger was wrong to believe there was a vendetta against Arsenal. He said: "The tackle by Craig on Fabregas was robust. I know what Arsene was getting at because if you follow through, even if you have got the ball, then at that speed you can hurt a player. "But there were similar tackles by the Arsenal players and you have got to take it on the chin. "I certainly don't think there is a big vendetta against Arsenal and people are not saying 'let's make bad tackles on them"'. McLeish felt City deserved a draw and praised Phillips after he had scored the 250th goal of his career. He said: "I think we deserved it. It was a kick in the guts when they went ahead with 10 minutes to go. "But again we showed that never-say-die attitude and Kevin came up trumps again. "We have been giving him a cameo role this season and it was the sort of goal he has been getting all his career and he is a great credit to his profession."
