'Arsenal critics are narrow-minded and need to get a life over celebration saga'
Celebration police who want managers and players to curtail that winning feeling need to get a life.
Social media spoilsports who claim Arsenal over-reacted after beating Liverpool, a huge result in the context of the title race, were out of order. Football is a game of passion, emotion and entertainment.
Why shouldn’t Gunners captain Martin Odegaard enjoy a light-hearted moment by taking pictures of a club phototgrapher who has supported the club all his life? Why shouldn’t manager Mikel Arteta sprint along the touchline celebrating Arsenal’s clinching goal in a frantic 3-1 win?
Beneath all the sneering at Arsenal, there seemed to be an undercurrent of sour grapes: When your own club’s players and manager celebrate, it’s OK - but it’s over the top when others release the emotion they have bottled for 90 minutes.
I’ll tell you how it works. If Arsenal had lost last weekend, and fallen eight points behind Liverpool, there would have been fans ringing Six-0-Six and saying Arteta had taken Arsenal as far as he can instead of calling him a hero. Those are the fine margins of management.
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So he was well within his rights to release that pressure, to savour the moment. Celebration is part of the game, part of the spectacle at all levels. I celebrated when John Rooney scored with an overhead kick for Macclesfield against Bamber Bridge last Saturday - the thrill of the moment literally made me jump out of my seat.
And if you can’t enjoy the passion of a massive win in front of 60,000 fans like Arteta, when is it OK to do it? Everton boss Sean Dyche says managers should be given more leeway for their behaviour on the touchline because football is an emotionally-charged sport, and he is 100 per cent right.
People who say you shouldn’t celebrate, or give it large ones, until you have won something are narrow-minded. In that world, only Manchester City and Manchester United fans would have been ‘allowed’ to celebrate among Premier League players, managers and fans lat season because they were the only clubs to win a trophy.
Martin Odegaard celebrated in style following Arsenal's win over LiverpoolCome off it - the game has changed enough as it is without taking emotion out of it. I absolutely love the fact that Arteta’s passion and intensity rubs off on his players.
I loved it when my old manager at Leicester, Martin O’Neill, was like a jack-in-the-box in the technical area. I love it when Jurgen Klopp walks over to the Kop after a home win and orchestrates their celebrations.
And when did we first notice Jose Mourinho? I’ll tell you - when he ran along the Old Trafford touchline after Porto knocked United out of the Champions League 20 years ago. Some of the greatest moments in football are defined by celebration, not the actual game itself.
I’m thinking of Jimmy Glass, the goalkeeper whose last-gasp winner kept Carlisle in the Football League 25 years ago, and the joyful pitch invasion it triggered. I’m thinking of Maidstone knocking Ipswich out of the FA Cup the other week, and Wrexham - 92nd in the League - knocking out top-of-the-table Arsenal in 1992.
Those clubs had won nothing. Can’t they celebrate? Steve Evans had a dig about Reading celebrating their 1-0 win at “little old Stevenage” in midweek, but Royals fans had not just been fighting for three points - they have been fighting to keep their club in existence. Surely that’s worth a little euphoria?
We’ve had enough joy sucked out of football by VAR, fans inconvenienced by difficult kick-off times and managers being sacked every week. When your team wins, it sends you to work or to school with a smile on your face. That’s worth fighting for.
So let’s not remove the game’s most priceless commodity - emotion - just because it might upset the celebration police.
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Mikel Arteta was understandably delighted following the Gunners' victory (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)Blue cards introduction is dreadful idea
Blue cards and 10-minute spells in the sin bin are dreadful ideas - because they will only make football more complicated.
As an Under-15 and Under-16 manager I’ve seen them trialled at youth levels, and I didn’t like it. We’ve already got yellow and red cards. We don’t need cards every shade of the rainbow to determine whether a foul was cynical or as a deterrents for dissent.
Presumably VAR would have to examine blue cards, to see if they are adequate punishment, which means games will go on even longer. And the rules for dissent are already clear enough: Yellow card for backchat, red card for foul and abusive language.
Football is supposed to be a simple game. Why are the game’s law-makers trying to make it more complex?
'Blue cards and 10-minute spells in the sin bin are dreadful ideas' (Getty Images)Ratcliffe's big plan
Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to upgrade Old Trafford and turn it into the ‘Wembley of the North.’
If Manchester United’s £1.3 billion investor has his way, hopefully that would mean northern clubs playing FA Cup semi-finals at a neutral venue closer to home instead of everyone having to go down to London.
And for those who feel Old Trafford is looking a little dated and tired, I would argue that the only cracks are on the pitch since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager.
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