Live by the sword, die by the sword !!

Absolutely agree with all your observations. Been a Palace supporter since 1967 myself and as you say the decline in sportsmanship and increase in cheating and cynical behaviour within the game is very noticeable and lamentable. It’s also encouraged by pundits with comments such as the player ‘was entitled to go down’ after the slightest touch or has ‘been clever’ in effectively conning the referee. You can only conclude many managers encourage and condone this type of behaviour as winning at all costs seems the mantra. Can’t imagine old school managers like Roy are happy about such developments in the game either

To echo others, it was obvious that Tomiyasu should never have been sent off in a million years. Ayew is, has always been, and probably always will be a shameless diver. In years gone by he would have been singled out for it, nowadays he is nothing unusual, sadly. Partey did block one of our players for their goal, but we fell asleep at the dead ball and would never have got to Martinelli in time anyway. In any event, taking the player down is not the solution, and it's the second time the otherwise impressive Johnstone has done that in recent games I think (didn't he do it at Wolves, too?).

None of which changes the fact that Arsenal are coached to be niggly.

One of those poxy fly-on-the-wall documentaries they made at Man City caught Arteta (then first team coach for City) telling players to nip the heels of any opposition player immediately that the ball was given away, lest Peps glorious footballing purists be exposed on the counter. He also (I think) told them to rotate the fouling if possible so that each player was only guilty of infringements too small to warrant a yellow, even though the overall effect was significant. Neither of these are new ploys, and with the likes of Ayew going over so easily it's hard to know whether to blame the 'offender' or the 'victim' half the time, but it was a little unusual to catch a coach encouraging it so openly.

In previous home games against Arsenal, two things struck me. Firstly, that Arteta had implemented the 'rotational, counter-attack preventing foul' strategy at his (then) new club as his forwards took turns to nick heels every time we won the ball back and, secondly, wondering whether the ref would act differently in light of the video footage from his time at City. How does a ref handle a situation where he knows the manager of one team encourages a certain form of cheating? Does he possibly overreact to each foul, or treat each on its merits? I'm not sure if Arteta's reputation was a factor in Aubameyang being sent off in 2020 (it was a VAR upgrade after all), but I believe refs were instructed to be mindful of rotational fouling soon afterwards, so it may have been floating around in the system somewhere.

All of this was in my mind when Tomiyasu got sent off. It was the Japanese's misfortune to be left without a chair when the music stopped, however long he personally took to take the throw-in, but the timewasting from the Arsenal team was obvious. Arteta knows that of course, and his post-match comments on that topic are simply an act of deflection. Or of talking bollocks, as it is otherwise known.

For the second yellow card though, I do wonder if the ref just thought 'They're at it again this lot', having had a reminder minutes earlier of the cynical nature of the beast. Perhaps he mistakenly thought it was a cynical clip on Ayew because he was looking for cynical clips from Arsenal?

Who knows? The extent of diving is now so significant that only the most outrageous examples are deemed worthy of media coverage, and it is perhaps telling that (as is the norm now) the aggrieved manager blamed the ref for being conned by Ayew and not Ayew for conning him.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (23 Aug 2023 4.38pm)

And not just imported Johnny anymore. Grealish is an absolute master at simulation.

The one I hate the most is feigned face injury as strikes to the face are more likely to result in sending off. What makes it more annoying is commentators saying it was a blow to the face while watching the same slow-mo as I am clearly showing the slightest touch to mid chest. The "victim" player then needs to spend the next 5 minutes pretending they have been punched in the eye to (forgive pun) save face and cause the referee to ponder. This could involve a lengthy session on the sidelines with physios earnestly squirting water into a completely healthy eye.

I would review and impose a one match ban for the 1st offence, 3 for a 2nd and so on. Since the worst culprits often play for the big clubs, never happen.