Man I remember that Rooney dive so fondly. Arsenal totally lost the rag over it and never recovered that season. Actually they arguably still haven't recovered, definitely haven't ever reached the heights of their form going into that game. Winning the game fairly wouldn't have had the same impact.
Van Nistelrooy's celebration when he stuck away the penalty was a real goosebumps moment when you remember what happened 12 months before on the same ground.
Totally forgot about that Rooney dive, the fat ****. I knew there was a reason I've never liked him.
Gonna clarify my position on diving. I don't think players should be throwing themselves to the floor when there's absolutely **** all contact but my biggest annoyance is that 9 times out of 10 it's obvious that the player has done so but the ref falls for it anyway. I don't generally have an issue with players "going down easy" or "making the most of contact" (which is what a lot of the hysteria is all about), and to be honest I don't give that much of a **** about diving. It's hard to give a **** or grab the pitchforks about players falling down when defenders get a free pass to commit cynical fouls all the time and get the same punishment a striker gets for over-celebrating a goal.
What does bug me is diving's ugly cousin, players feigning injury/violent conduct. That's a different kettle of fish, but it's also an issue that could be sorted if a) football's rules on retaliation weren't backwards and b) referees were allowed to consult with a video referee so that the right decision is reached at the time.
Retaliation should only ever be a red card if the player concerned goes over the top. Generally it arises as the result of a weak referee who lets a team get away with repeated snide fouling, and to be honest if a player gets frustrated enough to the point where they lash out, 99% of the time that's on the referee for not dealing with an issue earlier (the other 1% of the time it's because the player in question is a headcase) but I don't think that players should be getting sent off for lashing out after a particularly bad foul or after a succession of snide, cynical fouls. The way the rules are just now, there's actually an incentive for both fouling a player and feigning injury should they lash out. You'll get booked for giving the foul away but the opposition's star man will spend the rest of the game in the dressing room. Why wouldn't you indulge in completely cynical tactics?
And bring in video refs ffs. If the referee has to sort out a potential violent conduct issue then the game's stopped anyway, they're all mic'd to each other so just allow the ref to go "here mate, I think I saw Costa getting a smack in the face from Koscielny, I'm going to send Koscielny off but can you just check the incident before I produce a card."
