Arsene Wenger today branded Stoke City's players cowards and reiterated his belief that teams are deliberately trying to injure his Arsenal side.

Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott joined the Gunners' lengthy absentee list after picking up injuries against the Premier League new boys on Saturday. William Gallas and Emmanuel Eboue are also missing for tomorrow night's Champions' League visit of Fenerbahce and boss Wenger suggested his side have been the target of malicious tackling designed to cause harm.

Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen had accused Arsenal of lacking a spine but Wenger hit back by insisting that his side's commitment to entertaining football is proof of their bravery in the face of provocation.

He said: "I read that my team were not brave. I can say that they are and for me you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is tackling you from behind without any intention to play the ball.

"The only intention is to hurt you and I can show you some tackles where I can prove what I say. The one who is tackling is not the brave one, for me the brave one is the player who is trying to play football.

"Of course it happened at the weekend. Do you think that Rory Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott or that Ryan Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch? All the players have been injured deliberately.

"Do you want me to tell you the players we lost here? Abou Diaby, deliberate foul from behind. Tomas Rosicky, deliberate foul. Eduardo, deliberate foul. Now we lose Walcott, deliberate foul.

"And we have lost Bacary Sagna, deliberate foul on him. There is only one intention when he was tackled and that is the ankle and you want me, on top of that, to sit here and say 'yes, sorry we are not brave'.

"We were not protected on Saturday but having said that I congratulate Stoke City.

"They had a great performance but if the result of that is that my players are cowards . . . I don't accept that.

"Let's let the referee do his job. You can question at times the decisions of the referees but we respect them here. But they have to make the decisions on the pitch and see if the intention of the player is to play the ball.

"We accept the physical side and we relish it but I personally as a manager and a coach can never accept it when somebody plays without any intention to play the ball and comes out as a brave guy."

Wenger, who was forced to apologise after making similar claims following Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor's leg-breaking tackle on Eduardo in January, suggested that Walcott and Gallas could be fit to face champions Manchester United on Saturday.

But while the Arsenal boss blamed Stoke's malicious tackling for Saturday's embarrassing reverse, left-back Gael Clichy accepted that the players themselves are not entirely blameless.

The France international admitted: "[Against Stoke] I think we lacked a bit of everything. Up front we couldn't keep the ball, in the middle of the park we didn't run enough and at the back we conceded goals again.

"So all the team was to blame again and I think we have to really work harder and to give the confidence back to the boss because every day he is giving us a lot of credit.

"I think now it is time to realise that we have got the quality but we need to work harder because football is not only about playing nice football and scoring goals."

The Gunners have fitness fears over Walcott, Sagna, Gallas and Adebayor ahead of tomorrow night's game, while Fenerbahce could be without influential playmaker Alex, who has a thigh strain.