Arsenal came away from a very feisty game against Burnley yesterday, and the amount of obvious fouling by Burnley is emphasised from the evidence that the Clarets got 5 yellow cards to Arsenal’s 2, but Sean Dyche decided after the game to ignore his side’s blatant tactics and instead attack the Arsenal team as cheats and divers.
He pulled no punches after the game and ranted at the media. “We’re on about blatant, no touch, no contact; about phantom touches and people just jumping up in the air and going over,” Dyche said. “The absolute cheating, dives. No one seems to want to do anything about it, apart from me. If one of their players had been booked for it – he would have been off [Guendouzi was already on a yellow card].
“Even at the end, [Matej] Vydra goes through and touches Xhaka marginally on his shoulder and Xhaka goes down and gets a free-kick. It’s centre-halves now – going down after hardly anything. Incredible.
“Kids are watching and copying it. Millions of children. You wouldn’t ruffle your kids’ hair if they came home after school and cheated in a maths test. But they cheat at a game of football and it’s OK. The game needs to have a look at itself. It was incredibly bad in the World Cup.
“I want to see people banned because if they were, it would evaporate. I’m not talking about gamesmanship. You clip a centre-forward in the box and he goes down. End of story. I’m talking about blatant diving. Cheating.”
Dyche and Emery were seen gesticulating to each other after the game, and the Burnley boss was asked if Emery was upset about the ‘diving’ as well. “Of course he wasn’t – it was his players, not mine,” Dyche said. “He just said: ‘You are questioning the referee?’ And I said: ‘You’re absolutely right I was. All the best. Have a good Christmas.’”
I am surprised that Emery didn’t bother to mention the fouls that were aimed at Arsenal players all the way through the game, but I guess he doesn’t need to. We all saw it with our own eyes.
Merry Xmas to you too, Sean. I hope you don’t get relegated!
Darren N
I cannot, of course, presume to know, but I am convinced that almost all Gooners will be thrilled that under Emery we NOW give – and regularly too – as good as we get, physically and in battling. After the long years of being regularly bullied in so many away games, it is to me and to most of us surely, a source of great pride that the players now are willing , even keen, to fight for the shirt and for their pride. This is how we expect it and what all clubs should always expect of every player wearing our shirt. THERE ARE MANY OTHER PROBLEMS OF COURSE BUT LACK OF COURAGE IS NOW ALMOST ABSENT AT ARSENAL.
Yea agreed Jon ,I think that is the biggest thing I’ve noticed since he’s arrived and the players seem to look after one another aswell ,and it actually looks like they all get on ,and that as a supporter is great to see
?Not only do they celebrate a goal together, but also a good defensive effort.
It appears obvious by the reaction to Ozil’s performance against Burnley, that he still has a lot of support among his fellow players. Similar support has been shown to other players to lift them up. Long may this supportive team spirit continue.
?
I have a red of respect for Dyche but he’s starting to really live up to his Ginger Mouriniho nickname. And not in a good way.
Having said that, our young Guendozi needs to watch himself as he’s been going over far to easy in the last couple of games. His dive yesterday was embarrassing.
I’m with Jon
It feels good that we have a bigger fighting spirit not just mentally but physically too.
MOTD decided to leave out the part where Barnes had Sokratis in a headlock (Ufc anyone?!) & where he stamped on Guendouzi (I know it wasn’t a full force stamp, but even still you don’t do that) then spent god knows how long talking about Arsenal ‘diving’ and only about 5 seconds on Auba being the top scorer! Jeez!!!!
A few things didn’t go our way, but I don’t hear him moaning about that! ?
When we win I tape MOTD. Every time we win I watch it loads times LOL
I’m currently watching it for the 4th time lol
Except we all have to listen to Alan I’m jealous Henry was better than me shearer.
I do that too Innit… lost count the amount of times I’ve watched Auba’s 2nd goal & Torreira’s in the NLD!!!
Excuse me Admin. May I ask a simple question? What has to happen to have my comments published?
It happens nine times out of ten and I am tired of asking myself the above question.
Make sure you type in the right email and username else it won’t send and will put you back on the post thinking youve sent it
I think he’s right about guendouzi,the dive was embarrassing yes I know he did it for the team but such things should not be allowed in football and I think the boy is starting to feel overconfident,he delays pass and go down easily this days,he should be talk to.
@sue MOTD my foot they are a bunch of bias people who couldn’t have a good coaching career,when wenger was here I do think maybe they hate arsenal because of him but now I see they are just so bias..
Shearer, Murphy & Jenas especially do my head in on MOTD!!!
Sue, Why not do what I do and turn the studio discussion sound off when they are talking and up again to watch the games? As I am usually out on Sat evenings anyway I record it and watch it in early hours of Sunday and fast forward through all the studio ego trips. It cuts a full 20 minutes off the watching time and you miss nothing worthwhile. MERRY CHRISTMAS SUE AND TO YOUR FAMILY. A SHERRY IS CALLING ME AWAY NOW!
That ain’t a bad idea Jon!
Thanks Jon… a very Merry Christmas to you & your family too ?
Thanks a lot @xxNofx. I did nothing differently than what I did when I got published. I hope I get this one and subsequent ones through.
Always painful to not be able to get through. Maybe I need to be a bit less passionate with my posts. Sometimes my passion for anything Arsenal gets the better of me, even on this site.
Some really great minds comment on here and it is great to be part of this.
I loved your final “admission” to being “guilty” of that nasty thing called passion. You horrible man , how could you be so awful! Not a single other Gooner on here, other than you and me has any passion at all, in contrast to us and they are all lovely and perfect, unlike “nasty” us. I felt this awful of passion coming on around 60 years ago and am still trying to find a cure for it. Doubt I will. No doubt at all actually. I definitely WON’T find a “cure”. But will I survive this deadly passion and will you? Tune in after Christmas for the next exciting episode when the answer will be revealed on this very forum.
Apologies that I got the name wrong. See what I said about the passion?
It was just an act of a low class coach who threw tantrums because he did not succeed to rough us over.
His tactics against us had expired. It’s a warning to all those who dare to try the same. We are just not the same anymore. We will take you on anytime, any where.
ain’t no bullying us anymore. gone are the days where we would back down when the going gets physical. This squad might lack the quality and starpower of the other members of the big 6 but their fighting spirit is far better. Even liverpool so called gegenpressing was beaten, out-muscled and outplayed by us
I agree with Sean Dyche. The diving was really bad. Guendozi’s dive was shamless and equally so was Xhaka’s. Additionally, Xhaka didn’t even need to dive and could have cleared the ball but chose the easy way out and did it anyway. Probably Burnley would have scored if play was allowed to continue. That was really fortunate for us and in fact, I think I will start keeping track of the kind decesions that have been going our way and those against us to determine if the referees are really biased against Arsenal as many claim. (my hypothesis is that they aren’t) So far I have:
Aubameyang offside goal vs Everton. Cancelled out by Martial’s offside goal against us
Mane onside goal ruled out at the Emirates. Cancelled by Iwobi’s dubious offside goal vs Burnley.
Xhaka’s possible goal-impeding dive vs Burnley. Cancelled out by Lacazette’s goal vs Huddersfield ruled offside when he latched onto a poor backpass by a defender.
Rob Holding handball versus Leicester unpunished.
Lacazette hand of god versus Crystal palace unpunished (debateable). So far I have 5/3 we are favoured! We will see how this ends in May!
MERRY CHRISTMAS FAM AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Dyche’s wider point is valid – if the PL wanted to get rid of diving they could with retrospective bans etc. I just think he picked a bad time to stand on his soap box when his team tried to kick Arsenal off the pitch.
QD…Dier’s offside goal stood. Son clearly dived & the penalty was given. Guendouzi’s hair being pulled went unpunished…. that’s all I can think of atm….
Merry Christmas to you too ?
@Sue
Thanks for the additions Sue, will add them to my notes and give a summary at the season end.
@Trudeau
You are right too, they did their hardest to clobber us and put us out of the game.
Brilliant Sue, All the best for Christmas and the new year.
Thanks a lot Kenny…. Merry Christmas to you and your family ? ?
Dyche is bitter and he would get a heartache if his team plays against Neymar.. Lol
heartache ? the way neymar flops like a fish out of water, he will go mad.
?? brilliant!!!
Oops. I meant heart attack
Sean Dyche is a decent guy who has the best interests of the game at heart when he cites divers and quite rightly calls for something to be done about it.Years ago we used to call it “the foreigners desease” and in the case of Guendouzi and Xhaka they are good examples of the problem which needs to be stamped on from above and from within our Club.Like JF I welcome the new combative approach which is evident since Emery took over but this has to be tempered if we are not to be faced with red card action which we can I’ll afford.That said , Dyche never mentions the fact that under his stewardship, Burnley are gaining an unenviable reputation for excessive physicality which was apparent in their recent match against Man City and others.If they are to avoid relegation, and I think they will, Burnley should concentrate on improving their skills and cut out the hard man attitude which seems to have afflicted them this season.
The difference is Grandad Dyche wouldn’t have coated the Northern powerhouse’s, United and Liverpool because the media would have then highlighted his dirty fouling tactics. As usual Arsenal are an easy target because of the bias media. They were alright when Wenger’s Arsenal were getting kicked from pillar to post. Sorry if they don’t like it but those days are over.
hello arsenal fans around d world. merry Xmas. just time commenting even when I have been following up on this site for at least 2 years now. I really have to say I am still a little bit jittery watching Arsenal play.is it only me or have u guys not noticed that torreria isn’t played predominantly as a defensive sitting midfielder?