Arsenal dominated Celtic yesterday to reach the finals of the Champions League, with a good display of passing football. Sadly the headlines today focus solely on the dubious penalty Eduardo won for the first goal.
Highlights from the excellent Arsenalist.com:
There was little or no contact, and if it had been given against us I would be upset about it. The fact is though that this happens in football. As Wenger said Babel blatently dived in the CL QF at Anfield 2 years ago which knocked us out of the competition. I have no idea why Eduardo went down like that, but he isn’t the sort of player you expect that of, and it seems to be a one off.
The press seem to be having a field day over Eduardo’s actions, in a qualifier where we were always going to go through. Players like Drogba have a reputation for diving and never seem to get this sort of reaction. That is what I don’t understand. Eduardo wasn’t right, but there are much worse offenders in English football.
Aside from that the game was a straightforward affair, we passed the ball around neatly, and Eboue’s performance was a highlight! He made several nice turns and passes, and his goal topped it off. He was playing in the front three and often was playing as centre forward which was interesting.
Arshavin, Ramsey and Wilshere came on in the second half and all looked impressive. Arshavin showed why he is one of the best players in Europe at the moment, scoring a goal and making an impact within minutes of coming on. Denilson also performed well.
Most pleasingly the central defensive partnership of Vermaelen and Gallas was again solid last night. Vermaelen didn’t miss a header, and made several interceptions as did Gallas, and both made excellent forays going forward.
A good performance, now we need to see the draw this afternoon for the group stages. As well as that we have the small matter of a league tie at Old Trafford on saturday afternoon.
ArseSpeak 
Sorry to disappoint anyone but I have no remorse whatsoever about the penalty yesterday. I’ve seen so many fauls against Arsenal in the last 4-5 years to care what anyone say. So many unfair methods have been used to handle our team that its even talked about openly. Who has’nt heard of “kick Arsenal”, get in their faces all these are metaphors for fauling but no one ever was punished.
Bolton and other northern teams had a habit like that but nothing was done. With that in mind, let the journos talk and I am glad the boys are tougher now and they hold their own in a game with kicking or no kicking.
Like someone said above: journos are having a field day because the team they predicted to wither and die is doing what they said it will not manage. Just wait and see what happens after we go the and do the Mancs.
Diving cheat
Goonerbeall – Sure we’ve had a disproportionate amount against us, but I want things to be fair.
Basically if it hadn’t become this huge thing in the media I would be denouncing eduardo more, diving is cheating. I dont like it when it happens against us, so I dont want our players doing it.
As it happens Arsenal fans now have to appear to defend the dive by pointing out the exploits of drogba, rooney and gerrard that never seem to get the same attention, particularly from the english lot.
The media is a joke.
Id also like to point out the hypocrisy of certain arsenal fans. I’m quite sure plenty of the ones who are defending eduardos dive were using it as the major point of attack against eboue a few months ago. Be consistent
Everybody seems to be missing the point here. Thirty minutes into this match Celtic were still in with a chance of overturning the first leg 0-2 defeat, i admit it was a slim chance but never the less it was still a chance. If Celtic had scored first Arsenal may have collapsed and maybe conceeded another one or two. Look, i know this is all iffs and buts and as much as it pains may to say this,Arsenal were worthy winners over the two legs. But the fact remains your man did dive and yes in the law of the game ‘cheated’ . Celtic were then infact cheated in there attempt to reach the group stages of the champions league. Interesting to see how UEFA deal with this, fining or suspending the player will be UEFA’s admission that the player cheated, does that open the door for Celtic to claim compensation or indeed demand a replay.
Nobody mentions the biggest ballerina of them all!
Any guesses?
As an Arsenal fan for many years I have the firm conviction that football needs to be played in a fair way.
So I won’t have any complaints if Eduardo gets banned.
Let’s admit it as it is, it was a blatant dive we don’t want to see in the game, especially not from an Arsenal player.
Wanna see diving
Babel dived to knock us out of CL 2 years ago. Roonie dived to end our 49 game unbeaten run, I still remember at the end of the game Sol refused to hand shake with him. Now Educado dived, so? Big deal?
Eduardo’s dive should not be encouraged. Arsenal should keep winning the arsenal way, through honest creativity, team work and talent.
Dudu dived. He did not blow for the foul and point to the spot. The ref made the decision. He should’ve booked Eduardo but he made the wrong call. If any blame is to be assigned then it should obviously go to the ref.
Remember before Ronaldo there was Van Nistleroy! Christ what a cheat that man was. Pretended he’d been kicked by Vieira to get Paddy a straight red, used to hang out offsides and hope to not get caught. Total scumbag. Went for Cashley’s knee at Old Trafford. etc etc.
Solksjaer’s dive when the midget’s face caught Sol’s elbow to get Campbell ejected from an important league game still gets under my skin.
I hope Eduardo gets a two game ban and the game cleans up its act.
But for now I am glad we have predators in our team who don’t have soft centers. Eduardo doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks – he wants to score goals and punish naive defenses. Not walk the ball into the net. He had his f’in leg broke in two places and he’s not afraid of fat Boruc.
Every mid-table team downward can expect a spanking from us for the next while and that is something that has been missing for a few years.
We may have a few too many of our own midgets but they are brave and know how to put teams to the sword. We should be singing, singing…
POPES11 – That isnt the point though.
Yes its terrible its happened to Celtic, but it happens to everybody
Its happened to us enough times. What about the teams who got beat by Utd or Liverpool last year following of diving, dont they have a right to be aggrieved?
I think most arsenal fans would be more apologetic about this if it werent being turned into this crazy situation we’re seeing now by the media.
Also Uefa are actually considering changing their rules after the season has kicked off to give a retrospective ban to eduardo. UEFA! They dont overturn or change anything. You dont get to appeal to UEFA. Something is fishy.
Nobody complained when gerrard dived against madrid. You must understand how this is frustrating.
I do understand where your coming from mate, and the fact that it has just happened to Celtic has left a sour taste in my mouth. But you are absolutely right, it has happened to us all and it is always a sore one to take. I’m not looking for an appology from Wenger, Eduardo, and certainly not from the supporters, why should they? as you rightly say it’s happened to Arsenal enough times in the past ( and i wouldn’t complain if it had been the other way round either) but for the sake of football it does need stamped out. My point is, in the rules of the game ‘diving’ in order to gain an unfair advantage would come under the heading ‘cheating’. The day will come when Whoever FC will take matters higher than UEFA/FIFA.
At the risk if boring everyone, another way to look at the ‘cheating’ incident is this. An olympic sprinter wins the 100mtr sprint, a later drugs test proves he took a substance to help him win that race (in other words, ‘cheated’) he is immediately stripped of his medal and diqualified. One rule for one sport and one for another? enough said, i’m now boring myself. Hope you beat Man U at the weekend.