Let’s face it even Arsene Wenger struggled to back his man over the rather obvious attempt by Croatian International Eduardo to win a penalty. The Gunners boss said of the incident

“He went down, for what reason I do not know. Having seen it again on television, it doesn’t look a penalty.”
The Gunners boss added: “I believe really that it was not a penalty”

So let’s take a look at the penalty claim itself.

Now I have no axe to grind with Arsenal, they are certainly not the worst team in the world when it comes to cheating the ref, but even their fans must be able to see that the nippy striker fell to the floor for the specific purpose of winning his side a penalty, and he was not in any way touched by incensed Celtic keeper Artur Boruc. So what now? I have for a long time been hoping that more retroactive punishments would be handed out for just such occasions. From where the referee was standing he had no choice but to give a penalty because it looked like there was contact, so the actions of the striker persuaded the official to give a penalty, shouldn’t that be punishable?

Something needs to be done to snuff out the irritation that is rife due to the actions of all to many culprits across just about every professional football club. Whether thats in the form of a ban after the fact is debatable, maybe its a fine, or a post match caution that is added to the players card count, possibly ending in a suspension.

Surely even Arsenal fans want to see this kind of conning weeded out of the game.

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