THE ever-questionable morality of professional football was again brought under the spotlight when Patrick Vieira shaped to head-butt Heidar Helguson and was then all but excused by his manager, Arsene Wenger.

Vieira has been in serious trouble before and can be said to have a track record for such incidents. Wenger has a similar record for not seeing them.

'If there was no head-butt, as it is claimed, why did the referee decide to caution Vieira?' said Taylor, who believed that if the incident happened in a street with the police observing, Vieira would have to accompany the officer to the station.

Taylor went on to say that all managers defend their players, but he had been accused of being too honest for his own good.

'Heidar Helguson does not fall down,' he said. 'If someone comes at you and makes a move with his head, do you stand your ground and wait for your nose to be spread across your face or do you go backwards as a normal reaction? He got out of the way of an intended headbutt.'

On Sunday, one national journalist seemed to set great store by the fact Helguson offered to shake Vieira's hand at the end of the match, which is nothing unusual, as indeed we witnessed when Mark Hughes, having lashed out at Darren Ward at Everton, congratulated the young defender at the end.

'Heidar went to look how Seaman was when there was no foul. This boy plays all-out and sometimes he can be a little bit late. But at the end of the day, he will go to the player. Heidar will not fall down on a pretence that he has been hit in the face,' said Taylor.

'If I felt he had and not been touched at all, I would take action myself. Vieira went and made a head movement. People will ask, did he catch him or not? What has he got to do, smash his nose across his face? Is that the evidence we need before we decide if it is a headbutt or not?

'If you head-butt someone and miss, you are okay are you? There is no place on a football pitch for a head-butt, whether you catch the player or not.

'They say the intent has been taken out but I don't know what he was trying to do with that movement of the head, other than trying to break his nose.'

TAYLOR talked about the difference between intent and honest failure.

'We have found the Premiership too hot to handle on occasions. The result has been that some of the tackles are a little bit late but they are not with that intent. Sometimes you get a lack of appreciation of that from certain referees.

'Some top-class professionals' tackles are late, and they have no excuse because they know the pace of the Premiership. Page has to be cautioned for the tackle on Vieira, but it was just a little late and he did not mean it.

'I think you will find that with a lot of the newly-promoted clubs. Then again, you need to stay in the Premiership in order for the Premiership referees to get to know you and who you are. You just get that little feeling it is us and them.'

Taylor felt the situation for the referee, with the Vieira situation and the first-minute penalty claim was 'a matter of having the bottle to make the big decisions'.

Said Taylor: 'All five cautions are for unsporting behaviour which is a cop out. Were those fouls just the same as attempting to head-butt someone? I don't like to see players sent off but there is no place in the game for what Vieira attempted.

'Page's challenge is late. I can understand Wenger being upset by that, but that is not justification. We have a very intelligent manager who has a reputation for never losing control and he is determined to keep that control,' said Taylor.

Apart from Vieira's earlier foul on Palmer being of worthy red-card consideration, the fact is that when falling to the ground after the heading duel with Helguson, the video shows the Arsenal man kicking at Helguson's legs, which caused the Icelander to turn round.

While Vieira was fortunate not to have at least a yellow card against his name from the Palmer incident, deliberately kicking a player's legs is worthy of a yellow card in itself. Attempting to head-butt is a red, so all in all, Vieira was a lucky man, Wenger does not have a jambe to stand on, and the FA, in keeping with the tradition set by a man many Easters ago, opted to wash their hands.