Arsene Wenger has defended Emmanuel Frimpong over comments he made towards a Tottenham Hotspur fan on social networking site Twitter.
The 20-year-old was charged by the FA for the comments, as well as receiving a fine from Arsenal.
Wenger believes that Frimpong's reaction was an emotional one that was made in the heat of the moment rather than being deliberately offensive.
"When he apologised we dealt with it internally and fined him," said Wenger. "We did what we had to do. You cannot forbid [tweeting] because that is a restriction of freedom of speech.
"The problem is when people tweet straight away and it is a little bit of an emotional reaction.
"You still have to master your response and try to be correct. We have to accept what will happen."
Frimpong has until 4pm on Friday to respond to the FA's charge.