Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat of Liverpool this past Sunday was marred by the sending off of the latter’s goalkeeper, Jose Reina, after a flopping display by Arjen Robben that would’ve done Dick Fusbury proud.


Robben has received widespread criticism for provoking Reina, as well as his subsequent overreaction, but Alan Hansen’s remarks on the BBC website are an unfortunate attack on the proliferation of foreign players in English football.

This is a continental trait. The foreign imports have brought many great things to our game, with their skill and technical ability, but they have also brought bad things.

One of those is going down as if you have been shot when no-one has actually touched you.

If you played in European competition 20 or 30 years ago, you always had to be wary. I’m not talking about raising hands, I’m talking about tackling. The slightest push or contact and they would go tumbling to the ground.

In the last 10 years it has escalated in this country. It has certainly caught on and the penalties and rewards for success and failure are so great that more people are doing it.

I can only presume that Hansen (above) figures Robbie Savage honed his foul-drawing skills by taping each and every episode of Ch. 4’s Football Italia.

PTI’s Michael Wilbon, showing the kind of soccer knowledge that rivals that of Will Leitch, declared today that Freddy Adu “should just go” to Chelsea, rather than remain on the bench for D.C. United.

Hard to argue with Wilbon’s logic. Why ride the pine for United when Freddy could just as easily struggle to get a game with the Chelsea reserves?