United v Arsenal preview, Eduardo madness and Phil Neville is a cheat too

Match report:

LET’S start with today’s actual football and then move onto the diving row.

Today should be very interesting. Not so much in terms of who wins and who loses because there is so long to go and as we saw last season United were able to take the title despite a dismal big four record, just as in spite of a decent big four record, we were miles off the pace.

And that works both ways – if we lose (or at least don’t get tonked) then we needn’t obsess over it and can instead put it to one side and worry about winning the bread butter games that we failed to win last season.

The interest lies to an extent in how we cope. How will Vermaelen cope against Rooney? Is he the kind of guy who gets the runaround from the best or can he mix it?

In the absence of Cesc I’m also fascinated to see what team Arsene plays. Of Diaby takes his place, it will make us more attacking and less defensive in midfield. Will Eboue then play on the right as a way of offering some balance? I think that would be no bad thing because for me playing Diaby and three of Arshavin, Eduardo, RVP and Bendtner at Old Trafford is probably a little too bold.

It will be fascinating to see how we (and United) play and in a sense I’m quite glad to get the game out the way when the title race is at such an early stage and there is an international break round the corner.

Now, onto Eduardo and by now you probably know UEFA yesterday charged him with deceiving the referee over the incident against Celtic. He faces a two game ban.

First things first: if a striker goes looking for contact they play a risky game and have only themselves to blame when the contact either does not arrive or is minimal. I think in Eduardo’s case it was minimal at best and so on that premise, unlike Arsene Wenger, I am happy to call it a dive. You have to draw the line somewhere and I think he played for it.

I also think it a little disingenuous towards Celtic to say it had no impact on the tie as it was only 2-0 with an hour to play. A Celtic win was unlikely but not inconceivable.

That said, the decision by UEFA to charge him over the affair is scandalous for so many reasons.

1) Picking on Eduardo appears completely arbitrary. Why have they suddenly charged a player now for diving? Either they are making up the laws of the game on the hoof or they are suggesting that Eduardo (and the Lithuania forward Saulius Mikoliunas‏ who was also banned for diving, ironically against Scotland) are the only two players in the whole of top flight football in recent years to have successfully pulled the wool over the ref’s eye.

In which case, I’d suggest the problem rather less pronounced than people would have you believe.

2) Just because someone once drives just over the speed limit, it doesn’t give the government the right to plaster their name and face on thousands of leaflets and hold them up as the face of speeding in their country.

Eduardo is now tarred as a diver in a way far worse offenders have not been. Arguably if you now ask someone in Europe to name a diver they would say his name above even the likes of Ronaldo.

3) The irony of UEFA using video evidence to sort this out is almost funny. By the time Eduardo strode up to take the penalty a video ref could have long since ruled it a dive, given a goal kick and instructed the ref on the pitch to book Eduardo.

4) How can something worthy of a yellow card if seen equate to a two game ban if not seen? At the very least those yellows should either be rescinded or turned into bans.

5) Read what the UEFA rule he has been charged with breaking actually says:

“Players may be suspended for two competition matches, or for a specified period, for acting with the obvious intent to cause any match official to make an incorrect decision or supporting his error of judgment and thereby causing him to make an incorrect decision.”

On that premise of that second bit about supporting an error of judgement, every Bristol City player should be suspended for not telling the ref Palace’s goal the other week was in. Equally, anyone who has ever falsely claimed a corner should be suspended. And any keeper who has put a ball out for a corner but been awarded a goal kick.

You think I’m being pedantic here? Well imagine it’s the final minute of a Champions League semi final second leg and one team is winning 1-0 and the losing team’s winger’s cross sails out of play after deflecting off a defender. But the ref misses it and gives a goal kick and blows the final whistle ten seconds later

That is a really crucial decision and surely the defender either owns up there and then or else is banned for the final.

6) Why is Phil Neville not regarded as a cheat?

That may sound like a very arbitrary statement. But two years ago with the score at 1-1 in the Merseyside Derby, Dirk Kuyt hit a shot that was going in until Neville deliberately saved it with his hands.

Sure, Neville was sent off and Liverpool scored the ensuing spot-kick.

But he was still guilty of massive cheating.

And yet he was condemned nowhere and is held up as a great professional.

The inconsistency is staggering.