Esteemed football correspondent Patrick Barclay has told Sky Sports’ The Sunday Supplement that he agrees with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger that the north London club are being subjected to unfair treatment from UEFA following the two match ban handed to Croatian international Eduardo da Silva for an alleged dive against Celtic. The Times journalist also drew attention to the media’s very different assessment of an incident involving Manchester United’s Michael Owen in which the England striker won a penalty against Argentina.
"I hadn't seen the Eduardo incident but I'd listened to everybody going on about it," Barclay said on The Sunday Supplement.
"Then I saw it over the weekend for the first time and it was as if I was watching a different incident to everybody else.
"I expected an outrageous dive but it was nothing like that.
"It really bears out Arsene Wenger's accusations of a witch hunt. We are obsessed with diving and simulation in this country.
"Michael Owen has made the point before that if a defender touches you, you go down. I remember he won a penalty against Argentina when England won 1-0, he felt a foot and went down. That was a kind of diving but everybody loved him for doing."
"I think Scotland is a wonderful footballing country, but they're acting like cry-babies about the Eduardo incident at the moment. There was more of an ordeal over Eduardo maybe diving than there was over him having his leg smashed. That sums up the hypocrisy to me.”