We won't give Kaka special treatment, says Wenger

In the red corner, there'll be the angels who, Arsene Wenger has been keen to tell us, have become targets for the Premier League's hitmen and hatchetmen, his artists who are constantly sinned against but who naturally never sin, his wizards who will not be put off weaving their spells even after the desperate interruption of Eduardo's injury.

Scroll down for more

Kaka, don't preach: the Brazilian, holding off Palermo's Mark Bresciano, has complained about be singled out for dangerous tackles

Then, in the red-and-black corner, we have the reigning European champions, still muttering darkly about how their fulcrum Kaka is not being protected by referees while also bemoaning, astoundingly, how Italian defenders have been party to systematic team plots hatched purely to kick him out of the game.

And at the centre of all this fear and loathing stands Kaka himself, the best footballer on the planet who says that he fears for his own future, that he'll end up like poor Eduardo if something is not done to protect talent like theirs. "I am tired of being booted in Italy," as the young master lamented yesterday.

Well, tonight, he's been told he need not worry. For while some of Wenger's statistics about his men's saintliness leave a little to be desired - and Emmanuel Eboue is often prone to lunge in with challenges designed to kick hell out of his boss's arguments - we should not doubt the heart of a great coach is in the right place with his insistence: "Great players make football a bit special, they make it art. If you are there to kill them, it's not acceptable."

So Kaka, with his new-found whining and his battered knees, won't be targeted. "We will play zonal and will not mark him man-to-man. We will be faithful to what we do usually, trying to get him out of the game by cutting the connections with him," said Wenger.

It's a policy based on an absolute belief in the ability of his young, zestful side to boldly go where no English side has been before by brushing aside the disadvantage of only securing a goalless draw a fortnight ago and earning victory over the seven-time European kings in their own intimidating den.

It's Wenger effectively saying he'll see Kaka's outrageous brilliance and be prepared to raise it with the dazzle and speed of his young wizards like Fabregas, Hleb and Adebayor.

"I do not think about failure," he said, reckoning that, despite all the pitfalls recently having dotted his side's serene path, Arsenal's time to demonstrate their burgeoning greatness has arrived.

Wenger is buoyed by a first leg which he felt was completely dominated by his men and which saw Kaka's influence nullified - by fair means, not foul. Milan, even if coach Carlo Ancelotti's boast that "the Champions League is in our DNA" rings true, are right to be alarmed.

Yet not deploying a constant shadow for Kaka will carry a risk, with the Brazilian flitting behind a twin strike force likely to consist of the new, Pato, and the notsonew - but still infuriatingly menacing - Filippo Inzaghi, against an Arsenal rearguard deprived of its rock, Kolo Toure.

Scroll down for more

"What Milan do well is make you play at their pace, and when Kaka gets the ball they can have sudden acceleration which can kill you," accepted Wenger, who will remember how the young champion did just that when Manchester United came to the San Siro with a one-goal lead last season and departed quite humbled.

In the black-and-blue half of Milan, though, you will find little sympathy for Kaka's groans about his treatment from brutal defenders.

Indeed, Internazionale's coach Roberto Mancini just sniffed: "There are fouls (on strikers) and there always have been... If you don't want tackles, you should become an accountant."

Yet even if there's an understandable feeling that no club who employs Gennaro Gattuso as an enforcer can afford to become too holier than thou, it is not unreasonable in the light of the concern over the Eduardo calamity to buy into the increasing number of protests that, as PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor puts it: "Top players do deserve special protection".

It's one subject which even unites Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.

While recognising that more coaches were complaining, UEFA's spokesman William Gaillard also noted how "the number of career ending injuries has been reduced significantly" and added that no-one wanted to see sliding tackles banned so that football became like "basketball where you can't touch your opponent".

Because a precise tackle, Gaillard reckoned, was a footballing art form to be cherished every bit as much as a visionary pass or a mazy dribble.

That's what we got a fortnight ago with Milan's supreme defending nullifying Arsenal's pulsating attacks and hopefully tonight these two cultured giants will drop their Kenneth Williams 'infamy, infamy, they've all got it infamy' routine and demand instead our admiration of their sheer footballing excellence.

As for the idea of Kaka continuing this new persecuted victim role, Arsenal should be so lucky.