Lol... It's a risk u'll have to take... When the challenge comes, u'll have to get the timing right and make sure the keeper makes contact with you... If u get it wrong and there's no contact in the end, then u kinda "get caught" and it's deemed a dive...

Rofl, that is your assumption, i like the way arsenal play and i think they are 1 of the 2 most entertaining sides in the league, but your whining makes me think that some of you don't deserve to be supporters of such a good team.

I'd pay to watch Arsenal play but not if i have to sit with half you whiners out there.

P.s
I praised essien in the Chelsea's thread, because they deserved it. And they didn't b**** about other teams, go whine but if you make attacks on other clubs, they have the right to defend themselves to. If not go post on a private forum.

If intention to anticipate contact does constitute a dive, 90 percent of all free kicks and penalties would be dives because in a situation such as yesterday's, players can just jump over the goalkeepers (or tackles) instead of running into them but that obviously isn't the case.

EDIT: Rooney was legitimately fouled because he was tripped in the box by Almunia. Yes, you could say he could have avoided it by jumping over Almunia but he didn't and he kicked the ball away so that Almunia has no chance to reach the ball but nonetheless, contact was made.

I've not watched the Eduardo incident but to my understanding, there was no contact between Eduardo and the goalkeeper. Had there been contact and if indeed Eduardo looked for it, it would have been a penalty but to my understanding there was an outrage because the supposed 'dive' looked like what Eboue did as opposed to what Rooney did.

Moreover, looking for contact and simulating contact are two different things. Had no contact been made and Rooney had fallen down, he may have been booked but now that there has been contact, how is it not a foul just because Rooney was looking for it?

EDIT 2: To prove my point, watch Eto'o being fouled by Gattuso last night and compare that to Rooney's yellow card yesterday. Eto'o could ride that tackle if he wanted to but he didn't. Does that make it any less of a foul from Gattuso? On the other hand, the Arsenal player fouled by Rooney chose to stay on his feet. Had the Arsenal player gone to ground, you would say he exaggerated contact but does that make the swipe from Rooney any less of a foul?

Put it this way, had Evra made contact with Eboue, would you book both Eboue and Evra? Evra for committing a foul (because contact was indeed made on Eboue and Eboue fell) and Eboue for looking and exaggerating the contact? It will never happen. In this hypothetical situation, yes, Eboue was looking for it but Evra still did catch him. That doesn't make it any less of a foul than it actually is.

My own special 'facts':
- It was a foul when Almunia made contact
- Rooney may have (in your eyes, he definitely did) exaggerated and looked for the contact to make it easier for the referee to make a decision but it should still have been the same decision.
- Even in that case, it's still a foul.
- It would be DIFFERENT to Eduardo's case if there was no contact made on Eduardo so I wouldn't put the two decisions in the same category just yet.

Admittedly, I could understand your grief at Arshavin's case.

Look, I've mentioned before that I think the scapegoating of Eduardo is farcical because he sure as hell isn't the first player to do it and he won't be the last.

And I'll take what you called Rooney as a compliment. It's typical forward's play. Henry and other Arsenal players have done it in the past and will do it in the future as well. IMHO, UEFA should clamp down on diving but when you say these incidents, are you referring that Rooney dived?

Again, I'm unsure. It's 50/50 to me. There is no rule stating that Rooney should stand upright when the infringement occurs. He was on his way down but Almunia made it easy for the referee by ensuring contact was made. So now that we agree that there is an infringement, how is it a dive?

I quote:
How is it a dive if a foul is committed?