Burnley manager Sean Dyche’s one-man crusade against diving is all very admirable... but it led to some head-scratching, too.
Following Arsenal’s 3-1 win, Dyche delivered a TV rant in which he accused three Gunners players of simulation, even though there wasn’t an obvious case of diving in the game. An irate Dyche continued his tirade off-camera, though his story changed slightly, suggesting two, rather than three, players had dived.
Dyche refused to specify which episodes he had in mind, but among the possibilities was one involving Granit Xhaka, who won a free-kick in his own box as he was chased down by Matej Vydra, and Matteo Guendouzi, who hit the deck moments before Ashley Barnes’s alleged stamp on the midfielder.