Frontline Football Blog

Arsenal vs. AS Roma

24 Feb 2009 20:45:00 CET
Emirates Stadium-London
Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)

Arsenal finished second in group G with 11 points and their only defeat came to group winners Porto. The Gunners went all the way to the final in 2006 where they were defeated at the hands of Barcelona. Since then, the North London club hasn't been nearly as successful in their quest for European glory.

Injuries and poor form has seen Arsenal slip down the standings and just last weekend they collected their third consecutive goalless draw. The club is currently residing in fifth place with a mighty 17 points separating them from the top-which makes it rather safe to say that they're out of the title race for this time.

Football is not blighted by all the money or by the 24 hour coverage it receives today. In truth, football is probably better now than it has ever been thanks to technology and better training methods, players are all fit and have to be able to kick the ball and not just the opposition in order to get a game.

That said, it is the lack of kicking the opposition that this article is all about.

Diving is the real "achilles heal" for modern football and it personally, makes me sick. Maybe it is because I was never able to dive, in truth, it never ever came into my mind but that is probably why I'm writing here and not being written about.

My old coach Clive Hands inspired me to write this after he gave me the headline, "look at me and I'll fall over" during a recent conversation. Diving is an embarrassment to the beautiful game and it is so annoying to hear our game called a "soft" sport because of the diving epidemic.

Sadly, the only reason that diving has become acceptable is the amount of top players in top leagues that would rather spend 90 minutes on their arse than put themselves about like the game was intended to be played.