I don't want to harp on about this because I think enough has already been written and said about diving in the English game. However, what I can't stand is victimization of our beloved Arsenal and our players. The incident concerning Eduardo's alleged dive during the Champions League qualifier earlier in the year against Celtic made headline news. The media, pundits and fans of other clubs jumped on the bandwagon to humiliate Eduardo for so called cheating and claimed that his actions were a disgrace. As we all know, this prompted UEFA to authorize a two match ban which they later retracted. However, Eduardo now has to put up with torrents of boos and abuse at every ground he plays at in England as a result of this hate campaign.

On Saturday against the Spuds, Darren Bent won a penalty through controversial circumstances. There was contact with Gomes but not until Bent was falling to the ground. People will continue to argue that he was playing to win the penalty which is all well and good, but isn't this what Eduardo did? Yes, Bent went on to miss the penalty, but the fact still remains the incident cannot be differentiated between the incident involving Eduardo. So, where is the public humiliation of the player, the negative headlines? Alan Shearer on Match of The Day endorsed it and openly admitted that it was the correct decision.

My only conclusion is that Eduardo was used as a scapegoat because he is NOT English. Everyone knows that Rooney, Gerrard etc have all attempted to win free kicks and penalties throughout their careers, but as we are all continuously reassured "English players don't dive". The media's public humiliation of Eduardo after the incident against Celtic was quite frankly disgraceful and completely unjustified. You can guarantee that Darren Bent hasn't and will not receive any further criticism for last weekend's penalty award. The only reason for this being because he is English and a contender to be a possible match winner for England in the 2010 World Cup.