What you in for? Celebrating

OPINION: Is there a Premier League regulation which bars jumping around in delight when your team wins with the final move of the match?

Friday, 8th December 2023 — By Richard Osley

Arsenal

I SEE Tottenham fans are still going on about getting a fighting away draw against what they are calling the best team in the world.

Just to warn readers in advance, the next line is an unapologetic but rather laboured switcharoo.

Well, they really should get over their 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium – it was weeks ago.

As it happened, Spurs avoided a fourth defeat in a row with a spirited performance at Manchester City but what really caught the headlines was the referee failing to play an advantage as Jack Grealish raced through one-on-one in the final minute.

Two things: there was no guarantee that Grealish would score now Tottenham have finally realised one of their fatal errors of the last decade and replaced the rarely impressive Hugo Lloris with a goalkeeper who appears to have hands.

Also, once the whistle had gone, what could the ref have done when he realised he bungle-blundered it? Let Grealish have a free run from the halfway line like the strange way the American soccer league used to run shootouts.

No amount of Fungus The Bogeyman impressions were going to change things. What was done was done.

But if you want the real injury time sin of the week, look no further than Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. This rotten man had the nerve to celebrate wildly when his team scored a last minute winner at Luton Town on Tuesday evening.

As neither me or you reading this have ever read the binder of rules the Premier League must have somewhere in a filing cabinet, then we cannot say for certain that there isn’t a regulation which bars jumping around in delight when your team wins with the final move of the match. If it is there on statue, it will be listed as an even more grave crime if such celebrations are performed at Kenilworth Road.

Quite rightly, the referee raced over to show Arteta a yellow card for being happy.

Pfft. What are the celebration police like?

Soulless morons who have probably never been to an actual match and instead spend their lives in disco-lit bedrooms offering ‘reaction’ analysis online in the vain hope that one day they’ll be as successful as AFTV.

When your team gets robbed in the last minute, it’s ok to rant and rave for a little while.

When your team wins in the last minute, it’s ok to scream and shout. Yeah, we jumped around at Luton.

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