The English Media. Xenophobic or Arsenalphobic?

Let me start by saying I hate divers.

I hate Tom Daley, I hate the entire Chinese Olympic diving team and I hate the biggest diver of them all, Gareth Bale.

There is no question that the S*urs man is the biggest 'cheat' in the Barclays Premier League. Bale has had 4 yellow cards this season for diving alone. That's 3 more cards than I received for my 30th birthday.

However, Bale says he isn't diving, just trying to avoid injury. So that makes his simulation all right then.

Perhaps after the uproar created by Santi Cazorla's dive yesterday, and it was a dive, the Spaniard should use the same excuse.

Now I don't like the fact Cazorla went down like he had been clubbed with an imaginary right-hook from Mike Tyson, but after the way many outsiders (not Gooners) have reacted to it then I think if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Diving does my head in more than a migraine but after seeing the likes of Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and Ashley Young get away with it regularly, and nothing hardly being mentioned about it, I think the reaction to Santi diving is a bit over the top.

Many Arsenal fans didn't like it, and rightly criticised little Cazorla for doing his impression of Bambi on ice, however the usual overreaction from the English football media pisses me off.

Over the years I have often wondered whether the media in England are xenophobic or just plain old Arsenalphobic.

When Eduardo 'dived' a few years back against Celtic, in the Champions League, the reaction was astounding. At one point I genuinely feared for Eduardo's life. I thought he was going to be lynched with Alan Brazil at the forefront of the lynching. The lynching bastard.

This reaction was way over the top. More over the top than a Stoke City long ball and I wonder if the media would have acted the same if it was Wayne Rooney, the media darling, who had done the diving.

When Arsene Wenger was interviewed yesterday the interviewer put the debate about Cazorla diving straight to the gaffer. And Wenger, as usual, answered.      

However when Wayne Rooney or Ashley Young do their Tom Daley impressions it seems to be brushed under the carpet. I may be wrong here, but I, with my own eyes, have never seen Alex Ferguson questioned about it.

Luis Suarez is vilified for his play-acting. Now don't get me wrong, he annoys me for doing the things he does. But had he been born in Liverpool, had the name Lewis Smith and played for England, would he get slaughtered as he does?

Going back to Gareth Bale, again, he has been booked 4 times for simulation this season. An outrageous amount of yellow cards that if someone had picked up over a period of 5 years they would be branded a serial diver.

Bale has picked 4 yellow cards this season alone for diving yet isn't vilified a quarter as much as Cazorla was yesterday. In fact, on Match of the Day a while back, Bale's diving was laughed off. Seriously I haven't seen as much laughter since I saw Lee Evans live in 2011.

This persecution against overseas players has to stop. It's double standards and hypocrisy to laugh off Bale, Rooney and Young's play acting yet destroy foreign players for doing the same. It's not fair.

As I've said many Arsenal fans were annoyed with Cazorla yesterday. On my twitter time line I only saw a handful of people (myself included) who didn't condone it.

My reasoning, however flawed in my deluded state it was, was say I don't care he dived because I knew what the media reaction would be. After all, Cazorla isn't British, he is a foreign player who plays for Arsenal. The worst kind.

Lets not forget Santi Cazorla, that diving foreign cheat, stayed on his feet against Sp*rs, when fouled, to set up Arsenal's third goal in our recent 5-2 victory over them. I seem to remember Bale diving in the corresponding fixture last season to earn a penalty for them.

Diving is cheating. Easily as cheating as John Terry or Ashley Cole on a night out. But when a British player does it its okay. Don't sweat. But them bloody foreigners....

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Keep It Goonerish.........