Got to say the ref in the Arsenal game has been excellent.

Athleticos player fully deserved to get sent off so early in the game, Simeone deserved to get sent to the stands by trying to ref the game.

And the ref has refused to be conned by the usual Spanish cheating to try and even it up.

Agree very good ref.

This game of football has now become a contact free sport, which is ridiculous for a game played (by some teams) ay a very fast level. You can not avoid contact, yet as soon as there's contact of any sort nowadays the players react as if they have been taken out by a sniper on top of the floodlights. To see not just the Spanish players, but Arsenal as well - especially Wellbeck - throw themselves to the ground trying to con the referee left a very bitter taste in the mouth. FIFA need to act to bring a degree of common sense to the game regarding contact and I'm not advocating a return to "Chopper" Harris and Norman "Bite yer legs Hunter" days either. The game is lifeless without it.

Quoted from jock dock tower

This game of football has now become a contact free sport, which is ridiculous for a game played (by some teams) ay a very fast level. You can not avoid contact, yet as soon as there's contact of any sort nowadays the players react as if they have been taken out by a sniper on top of the floodlights. To see not just the Spanish players, but Arsenal as well - especially Wellbeck - throw themselves to the ground trying to con the referee left a very bitter taste in the mouth. FIFA need to act to bring a degree of common sense to the game regarding contact and I'm not advocating a return to "Chopper" Harris and Norman "Bite yer legs Hunter" days either. The game is lifeless without it.

Spot on JDT.
What really gets me is when the pundits (ex players) say how someone ‘cleverly’ won a penalty or a free kick.

I would love someone to burgle Gary Linecker or Alan  Shearers  house. Just so I could say how ‘cleverly’ someone got past their burglar alarms/security!!

If it’s wrong it’s fecking wrong. And beating it cleverly doesn’t make it right.

Agree with Jock Tower completely, any challenge/ tackle is always classed as a foul by one of the participants, it just depends which one falls down squealing the loudest. I cannot understand why the refs fall for the play acting, just whatch the World Cup where the refs are told to be more lenient as FIFA don't want any star names to be banned, the games are more flowing and a better spectacle. A player like Souness or Robson would not avoid "x" number of sending offs nowadays.

A phrase I hate is 'entitled to go down'.

Basically you've been touched in the box (oo-er!) but the force isn't enough to make you fall over... but you fall over anyway to make sure the referee gives you a penalty.

I understand why players do it - to highlight the contact and make the foul more obvious to the referee.

However, it's still technically diving, and I don't like it when pundits advocate it. Pundits spend a lot of time criticising players for diving, but they are indirectly advocating it with this 'entitled to go down' rhetoric.

The solution is for referees to start giving free kicks, irrespective of whether the foul forces a player to fall.

The problem with this, clearly, is that there will be outrage when a ref gives a penalty for a clip on the ankle but the player remains on his feet.

I admit that this is a tough one to manage but players can do more to stay on their feet, referees can do more to 'reward' players when they've been fouled - irrespective of whether they hit the ground - and pundits can do more to not advocate this 'false' falling over guff.

Players will be protected from contact because they cost so much to buy and pay. Football is protecting it's assets like never before. You will always get cheats in high level sport, but it wasn't that many years ago that some players received absolutely brutal treatment on the pitch. Italians and especially South Americans were well known for their scything tackles. It had to stop, but it has gone a bit too far the other way now, i agree. There needs to be a concerted effort to clamp down severely on simulation.

According to Simone, he has utmost respect for referees.

However. it didn't looked like he was saying "My dear chap, would you be so awfully kind as to send that Bellerin fellow orff?"

I thought that the ref was just right - but after he send Simone to the stand, he was certainly letting other fouls by Athletico go - not least the one on Welbeck that led to their equaliser.