Amazing how much influence little ol' no istree Chelsea has on the game of football. Chelsea benefit from a goal-line decision - time to bring in goal-line technology Chelsea win a penalty shoot-out - time to look for an alternative to penalty-shoot-outs Chelsea player dives - time to take severe action against divers Funny enough I am actually in support of all three. Just a shame that it has to be us who benefit from it before there is serious demand for something to be done. I recall Ashley Young twice diving and winning penalties for United last season. There was criticism of the player and the referees, but there were no serious calls for something to be done about diving. Perhaps we ourselves need to dive in the box and win a few penalties in a few Premier League matches before action is finally taken. Maybe we also need to start fouling in the box and getting away with it before something is done about fouls in the box which suspiciously go unnoticed, whether out of choice or negligent officiating. It is a bit of a concern though that Tony Pulis was not as vocal about Luiz's dangerous challenge as he was about the diving. Potentially career threatening tackles are surely much worse than diving so a three game ban for diving would have to raise the punishment for serious foul play. Of course though that would have a much more negative impact on his own team whose "rough 'em up" tactics tend to pass under the radar when playing matches of a lesser appeal to the neutral. Pulis did call for retrospective action to be taken by the FA despite a referee already seeing an incident. I fully agree with him there as it is one of many ridiculous rules that the FA have. We would also in that case have to act on Etherington's elbow on Ivanovic and his attempt to knee him whilst on the ground late on. But Match of the Day made sure to make Ivanovic's dive as one of the focus and talking points. I actually think that MOTD are more keen to talk about controversial decisions than the football because it's easier for Lawro to make a "yes it is or no it isn't" choice (which he some how manages to get wrong too) rather than to have to give a comprehensive insight on the game and make him appear clueless all the time on the modern game.
Tony Pulis campaigning to stamp out cheating. Would this be the same Tony Pulis who just over a week ago had this to say about Peter Crouch's handball goal against Man City: “I haven’t see it, but if Peter’s got away with it then brilliant...”
