Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has reacted to Mauricio Pochettino’s comments about diving ahead of the upcoming clash between his side and Tottenham Hotspur.
The Argentine boss this week claimed that diving is taken way out of hand in England, and that it is almost celebrated back in his home country.
This has caused mixed reviews, and our manager Wenger has gone the other way, claiming that it should not be a part of the game.
“We have to get the diving out of the game,” Wenger said.
“I remember there were tremendous cases here when foreign players did it.
“But I must say the English players have learned very quickly and they might even be the masters now.”
Wenger then claims that Poch’s words may have been misconstrued, before insisting that the Tottenham manager wouldn’t apologise for his player’s diving given the chance.
“I am convinced that he wanted to say that tricking your opponent is to say that you have to be clever,” he added.
“How far was it an apology for diving? I’m not sure at all. I don’t think he would.
“In my personal case I don’t encourage them to dive at all.
“Sometimes you want your players to be intelligent, they have played a little bit with the rules, they make more of it on the penalty case.
“Every striker will do that. They extend, a little bit, the rules.
“Where is it and how far can you go? That is down to the referees and I think that sometimes, at normal speed, it is very difficult to determine.
“Most of the time, when a player is going to the goalkeeper, they push the ball away from goal.
“I think they had a good rule in England when I arrived here.
“When the striker pushes the ball away from the goal, they didn’t give penalties because the only resource the striker has after is to look for a penalty.
“In many cases it’s like that now, the guy goes and if the goalkeeper has their hands off, the striker leaves a leg as long as he can to make sure that the goalkeeper touches him. But that’s not really a penalty.”
Is diving taken out of proportion in England? Do many fans complain about diving when it benefits their own team? Can it ever be clamped down or removed from the game altogether?
Pat J
I thought VAR can be used to punish divers? Even Arsenal players dived too, so Wenger doesn’t need to complain about other managers.
If Arsenal can control the game, they don’t have to worry about diving. Unless if Wenger doesn’t have a good plan for the Tottenham game yet…
He didn’t complain about other managers if you read/listen to the interview
Kane? and Alli ?are so good at diving that they should be in the summer Olympics ?. They should wear ?instead of football kit lol
I predict a penalty or two on Saturday
Ali yes but Kane doesnt dive never has and it was a clear penalty last sunday
Take off your glasses Rico
I’m confused. Wasn’t Lanzini and Niasse given 3 game bans for diving this season, and Dele Alli has been caught diving twice, yet I don’t recall him getting a ban?
English players don’t dive. Just the dirty foreign players like Ashley Young, Raheem Stealing and… oh wait.
Good point. Alli should be banned for Sat match lol
Seriously, you are right about Alli
Broken rule. If the ref gets it wrong you get a 2 match ban. If the ref correctly sees the dive, you get a booking and that is it. Alli has now picked up multiple yellow cards for diving offences this season (without them being incorrect). This should have warranted further action from the FA but they are content with their broken rule that over punishes for refereeing error rather than for the actual offence (if a dive is worth a 2 match ban, it should ALWAYS be worth a 2 match ban).
What’s the betting Dele ‘Tom Daley’ Alli dives on Saturday
Sue-the trouble with Dele Ali is he thinks he is far better than what he actually is.i think they will go with either 5 at the back or Wangyama and Dembele as holding midfielders(note please manager)which means Son will be out who is more of a danger than Ali.
Would you have that petulant little twat in our side over Auba Laca Mikki Ozil?Never in a million years for me.
Not a chance Phil, can’t stand him!!!
No more arsene please!!! I know hes won a lot of trophies. I acknowledge that and i am very thankful for what hes done. But thats it. The guys nearly 70.he haahaThe to go home and enjoy the company hiS GREATGRANDCHILDREN. The game is fierce now. Pls. It doesnt make any sense. Even sides like atletico, monaco, schalke, have a stronger desire and will than us. Pls, arsenal is not only academy for youngsters. Weve been glorious before. Even if it takes one or two seasons to reorganize this mess. This greatgrandpa must be shown the door.
No more comments from you hes only done the amazing while here and the football is still enjoyable as ever to watch and your not aknowledgi ng or appre iting anything with that statement give the man the years he has left maybe you should enjoy this legend we have who has such great love for the club instead of being a negative silly nanny who could learn a few more lessons from the proffesor before hes gone
Off topic – @Admin – is there any encouraging news as to when i might see this site reverts back to its thumbs-up or thumb down (popular/unpopular comentraries) features?
http://www.justarsenal.com/justarsenal-server-issues-due-to-these-bleeding-thumbs-up/89122
thanks Admin – i know you be doing your best.
Francis Coquelin out here playin his tail off at valencia right now. Has started every game since moving there, and playin great right now v. Barcelona. Meanwhile here we sit with Xhaka (who wouldn’t get into this valencia team right now) and El Neny (also would not get into this Valencia team).
Persisting with the back 3 for longer than we needed to, and therefore playing and preferring Xhaka over Coquelin ruined what good balance we had in the DM position .
I bet you said about him and Gabriel when they were still our players. Arsenal fans have the problems of not appreciating the players we have and always looking for new shiny player. It won’t take long before some of us call Aubemayang rubbish.
Lol, check ya stats my friend. I’ve been a champion on here for Le Coq since day 1. His inclusion into the triangle that was Mesut/Santi/LeCoq propelled us to our best finish in the better part of decade. Is the solution to the DM that we don’t have right now, but Wenger preferred slow left footed Mikel Arteta as a DM, Xhaka.
As for Paulista, I thought he had the ability to be a useful player for us. The language barrier seemed to hurt him in the beginning, and he was prone to some rash challenges – could be because our CBs don’t get adequate protection. But either way, he was always the scapegoat, and I’m happy to see him gettin on well at Valencia.
They have Kondogbia and Coquelin, and we have Xhaka and El Neny.
When Coq was brought back from his loan spell at Charlton he was just what was needed at the time and it was no coincidence Santi thrived with him beside him in the middle.He was outstanding from the new year onwards and it looked as though we had a real player
I have no idea what went wrong for him at the club but those two and Ramsey was a very good balance.Sadly he seemed to become a scapegoat in his later days at the club and you question why it never happened for him after that.He was an honest player and although he was not in Gilberto class he knew his limitations and kept things simple.
As for Gabriel I thought he was overlooked too often and was beginning to show some promise for the future.Is Mustafi really an improvement?Im not too sure.Gabriels performance against Citeh in last seasons Semi-Final was immense and he was a certain pick for the final but for his injury the week before.He is apparently impressing at Valencia and we could have done with him this season so it’s a shame he is no longer with us but I wish him well.I believe he is a better player than we gave him credit for
Yeah it couldn’t be that people were on their cases for not performing up to par. It’s not like players ever leave clubs where they played poor and have a resurgence in a new environment, right? Nah it’s definitely the fans fault for not blindly accepting them underperforming. And if Aubameyang doesn’t hit the heights expected and goes 2 seasons with little return, can the fans not question his starting place in the team?
xhaka appeared to be wanted by bayern…
So either Arsenal and the pressure of the prem made him worse, or we didn’t scout very well.
Coq was cok but Xhaka is crapper!
As an Argentinian, Ponchettino thinks it is good play to score a goal “with the hand of God”.