Arsenal v Celtic, UEFA Champions Lg., 26th Aug - 19:45 (ITV)

[Kain]

Cruisio:

So it's OK because the decision went our way? Do you have a moral conscience?

We were nothing special before that dive and the penalty changed the shape of the game for good. Once we scored our first goal, Celtic knew the tie was effectively over and it showed in their commitment towards the rest of the game, making it a lot easier for us.

Until Eduardo dived, Celtic still had a chance. Once he scored that illegitimate penalty, it was game over.

I dont agree with that, we already had the best chance just minuets before the penalty in which Eduardo just could not control and it went wide, we've rarely looked more in control of a two leg tie than what we showed against Celtic I'm not simply bigging us up it also shows just how poor Celtic were overall, dont buy into that ITV bollocks.

We dominated the midfield they rarely even got into our half and even when they did they could not string 3 passes together, this was a team that was supposed to come to the Emirates and score two goals without conceeding to an inform Arsenal team, they did not stand a chance.

The whole overblown Penalty incident is almost a stroke of luck for Mowbray instead their fanbase can wallow on it whislt the poor performances over the 180 minuets gets overlooked.

#edit# I also might add that had Celtic not done so many fouls on Cesc and the team in their Home leg the referee might of been more lenient, who knows?

 

[bigtimetopbanana]

Very sad about Eddy's dive, and equally about a cheap Sagna dive to win a free kick out on the wing. I was really hoping that Eddy would roll the penalty back to Boruc. I think he would have gotten huge plaudits for that. The fact that he celebrated the goal the way he did was pretty poor sportsmanship.

I wonder if fans getting onto Eboue actually made a difference in the amount of diving he did.... because he is nothing like as bad as he used to be.

I think the only way diving can be driven out is if the media call them out on it, much like The Mirror did today. Perhaps a 'cheat of the month' award?

I think Gilbert O'Silva's dive for Panathinaikos would still win 'cheat of the year' award though!!!!
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1983536/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1983536/</a>

 

[Kenyonhater]

The media will have a field day with this and their anti-Arsenal bias will show again. Not just the written press either but radio and TV as well. They did it with Pires. One dive (I can't remember him doing it another time) and most non-Arsenal fans label him a diver to this day. A plastic Manc said it to me when Pires was mentioned last week. ONE f**king dive and that's what everyone calls him and now it'll be the same with Eduardo. All the sympathy over the injury will go out of the window.

I don't condone any of our players diving but what really pisses me off is that serial offenders like van Nistelrooy, Rooney, Owen, Gerrard, Drogba, Robbie Keane and going back Shearer, Ginola and Klinsmann get away without the constant slur and permanent reputation because of the bias of the media toward the clubs and/or country they play for.

Just as if, say, Rooney or Gerrard had suffered Eduardo's injury there would have been much, much greater furore around the incident (especially if it had been committed by a foreign player) so if Rooney or Gerrard had dived tonight it would have been brushed under the carpet, barely commented upon or even slightly praised in a "cheeky, crafty lad " sort of way. The hypocrisy is sickening.

Babel dived in the CL QF '08, costing us a Semi-Final place but is he known as a diver?

I do think there was some contact but Eduardo made the most of it like hundreds have before him. I'd prefer it if he hadn't but the over-reaction of the media and therefore opposing fans just make me think "f**k you all". We've had more than our fair share of dodgy decisions go against us. Eduardo is a strong character and a great human being. Everyone can hate us, I don't care. We always do better when we're unpopular. Bring it on!

 

[McIntyre]

nice little piece on the mirror:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Arsenal-3-Celtic-1-Wenger-s-boys-cruise-into-Champions-League-group-stage-article133623.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Ar ... 33623.html</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

eduardo disgraced himself and the team diving for the penno (a la pires during the unbeaten run against pompey). however, i agree with everyone who says garrard, rooney, etc. would have gotten far, far more kid glove treatment about it. the article above is full of a vitriol i've rarely seen in the media. clearly martin lipton has it against eddy for more than the dive last night.

This is what I was talking about. Never, ever, would you see that sort of tripe written about an English player diving. It's because Eduardo is a foreign player diving against a British team. F*cking tragic!

I detest diving, but I detest even more the hypocrisy the media display in dealing with these instances. These w*nkers can't pick and choose when and where they take the moral high ground. Pathetic!

 

[Klaus Daimler]

Ah, cheers guys. Didn't bother to look at the site because I didn't think it would be up so soon.

So we're going into the United game without Ramsey and Cesc and possibly Diaby? That doesn't sound too good. We're looking at, what, Song, Denilson and... who? Merida? Arshavin? Wilshere? ...in midfield against United then? I can't imagine Rosicky starting the game.

 

[phenn]

It was a **** dive, kind of a strange move from Boruc and I'm sure Eduardo was expecting contact that didn't come.

Oh well. We did win. Move on. I'm sure karma will come to bit him in the ass later when he fails to win a pen from EPL refs the rest of the year.

 

[asajoseph]

It's a shame Eduardo will be tarred with that brush now.

As a player, he's capable of better.

 

[qs]

So did Liverpool fans not enjoy their last CL win? Did United fans not enjoy the last 3 titles they won. Did we not enjoy the unbeaten season?

Players dive. It happens every week in the Premiership. Its happened to us on countless occasions. It isn't nice but its part of the game and for far too long we've been losing out because of it. Nearly every striker at a top team would've done the exact same as Eddie did. People on here wouldn't complain if we signed Torres yet he dives all the time. I constantly see people who are currently whinging about Eduardo saying we should sign players who dive.

Get over it.

 

[kofigunner]

I'm watching the game right now and it looks like Celtic played a mixture of rugby and football. Caldwell really needs to be in a different sport! It's almost the end of the first half and we're comfortably in control without trying. The passing was ok but not up to our usual defence splitting fluidity. For those with ATVO, I wonder what Wenger said about Eduardo's 'penalty'. Interesting we've only played one game in top gear and that's the Everton game.

 

[Illusion]

The media storm over the dive is going to reach fever pitch, especially considering England are about to face Croatia and we're going to face Man Utd.

The article in the Mirror can **** off because we've been on the end of so many bullshit decisions recently, many dive related and they never uttered a word about it.

Babel dived, he ****ed us over with a dive and everyone criticised our team for being crap at defending rather than criticising him for diving.

Gerrard, Rooney, Drogba, Ronaldo and many more have dived MANY times throughout their careers and no one really mentions it, I wonder why.

The fact they talk about Eduardo's injury and act like he got lots of sympathy when ****loads of fans were laughing at the whole thing because it ruined our season. They also laughed when Birmingham got that penalty at the end of the game, that was never a penalty yet no one really talked about that did they.

Their hypocritical attitude can **** right off.

I don't like cheating in football, I would be happy for Eduardo to have a 3 match retrospective ban for this and all future divers to suffer the same fate. That's the difference between us Gooners and the fans of our rivals, we can admit and recognise the dive, we are disappointed by it and we would accept a ban for the player to help combat the issue. We are not proud of it like our rivals are, we do not want to win this way and we do not accept it, even from a much loved player like Eduardo.

They will use this dive as an excuse to cheat against Arsenal for years to come, just like they did with Pires.

**** the lot of them.

I still love Eduardo.

He's playing by the 'accepted' modern rules of the game, our opponents have been doing it for ****ing years and winning trophies.

One rule for Arsenal and one rule for everyone else.

 

[RC8]

I remember match reports didn't even mention things like Rooney's dive that ended our unbeaten run. They didn't mention that the penalty through which Birmingham equalised and ended our title aspirations 2 years ago was a dive. They didn't mention that Babel's penalty that took us out of Europe that same season was a dive. They didn't mention that Gerrard's penalty that got Liverpool back into the game at Istambul was a dive. I could go on for a long time.

Eduardo did dive, and I think it's terrible and unacceptable. We as fans should lose some respect for him because he did so.

However, I'm willing to bet that had that been Walcott - it would have been brushed aside. By all means condemn the incident, but let's not pretend that a guy who has dived once or twice is a serious diver when the english press were in a love affair with arguably the most disturbing diver of all time (C. Ronaldo) just a few months ago.

 

[qs]

I agree with everything you've said there Illusion. All these ****ing pundits get all high and mighty when its someone like Eduardo or Pires but they wont say a ****ing word when its Gerrard or Rooney, MOTD regularly edit out their dives FFS. And then they give it all the "we need to cut this out of the game", "why are FIFA still letting it go on" bollox. Why are they still allowing English players to do it without any criticism.

 

[True Gooner]

You missed the bit about how English players never dived until those foreigners came along and showed honest, hard working English lads that they could get away with it and as a result English players had to keep up with the times by learning how to dive.

 

[Illusion]

I agree with everything you've said there Illusion. All these f****g pundits get all high and mighty when its someone like Eduardo or Pires but they wont say a f****g word when its Gerrard or Rooney, MOTD regularly edit out their dives FFS. And then they give it all the "we need to cut this out of the game", "why are FIFA still letting it go on" bollox. Why are they still allowing English players to do it without any criticism.

This is why I love Arsenal, our club has class and so do our fans.

We are happy for anything that makes the game fairer and stamps out cheating, dirty tackles, professional fouls and bias/manipulation of match officials.

We are happy for these things because we want to win fairly and we are more often than not on the receiving end of the cheating.

Other fans are PROUD of their players when they cheat, you can see it from the constant defending and praising of the likes of Gerrard/Rooney/Ronaldo/Drogba. Our fans initial reaction was disgust, you can see it in the match thread and so can the rest of the world. I bet if you looked at an archived match thread on RAWK or RedCafe covering a game where Gerrard/Rooney/Ronaldo dived you'd see a VERY different reaction.

Perhaps someone who can remember the dates of some of their dives can actually go and do that just to compare and almost certainly prove us right

 

[True Gooner]

I think the fact that a lot of us are making such a big deal shows what we're all about really and our subsequent expectations of the players. Prior to tonight I can't really remember the last time one of our players dived (except Eboue - but he's a non-story these days anyway) to win a penalty.

Compare that to the likes of Ronaldo, Robben, Drogba and Gerrard in particular who fall to the ground every other game in the hope that they can con the ref into a penalty.

I'm disappointed in Eduardo but since this is his first time I'll try and surpress the memory. Unfortunately the press will not do the same.

As I mentioned earler, remember last season when Arshavin turned down incorrect penalty call at Portsmouth? No one mentioned a word about that.

 

[ultradoc]

So did Liverpool fans not enjoy their last CL win? Did United fans not enjoy the last 3 titles they won. Did we not enjoy the unbeaten season?

Players dive. It happens every week in the Premiership. Its happened to us on countless occasions. It isn't nice but its part of the game and for far too long we've been losing out because of it. Nearly every striker at a top team would've done the exact same as Eddie did. People on here wouldn't complain if we signed Torres yet he dives all the time. I constantly see people who are currently whinging about Eduardo saying we should sign players who dive.

Get over it.

Exactly.
but then, damn,eduardo.

 

[xcdude24]

Didn't catch the game, saw the highlights.

Typical Arsenal-Mania overreaction with the Eduardo incident. Sure, i'm disappointed he dived. I really am, I expected better out of a guy with as much class as he has. However I don't think less of him as an individual. I doubt he'll do this very often(if ever again, judging the firestorm that's being created about the incident).

Arsenal Mania has the most merciless bunch of individuals i've ever seen in my life. I applaud all of you for taking the moral high ground, but people **** up sometimes! Lighten up! Sometimes I even wonder if half of you guys are even Arsenal supporters.

 

[SPF103]

I remember that Babel dive a few years ago like it was yesterday. F*cking piece of sh*t. No mention was ever made again of it, and the goal from the penalty eliminated any chance we had of winning that match and going to the semifinal.

So when I think about it, two things come to mind:

1. We should be pissed at Eduardo for doing basically the same thing, since it ended Celtic's chances of going through.

2. I don't give a sh*t about Celtic or anyone else. They were already down 2-0, while in our tie with Liverpool a few years back it was either tied on aggregate or we were set to go through, I can't remember. Everyone dives, and it's just a part of the game. Rooney, Gerrard, Drogba, Messi, Kaka, even Cesc. You can't put up a good argument for any of them saying they don't go to ground. To those above who are saying that we should be above such things, you should wake up. That's never going to happen.

Tonight, we were in complete control. There was not one person in the entire stadium or even up in Scotland that genuinely believed Celtic had a chance to go through at that point in the game. Apparently the general consensus in the media is that the Eboue and Arshavin goals were a result of Eduardo's dive too. It's ridiculous.

I'm not proud of the dive and everyone who does it should be punished, but that rule could have been implemented long ago and it was ignored. It's too late to start crying foul now when it's become just another ugly part of our game.

 

[USgoonergirl]

im happy the fans on here recognize a dive and dont make excuses or just laugh about it, but i think some people (and the media) are going way to far.

 

[qs]

Don't have too much sympathy for Celtic lads. McGeady has won them plenty of penalties with his diving.