Arsene Wenger and Steven Fletcher stick up for themselves: EPL talking points

Moral high ground 2.0

The moral high ground needs delineating. If absolutely everyone opts not to celebrate a goal scored against their former employers – in a sport so patently overrun by mercenaries – then who is the bigger man?

The non-celebration craze is sweeping the game, and it is getting confusing.

Frank Lampard chose not to cheer when he scored against the club that has defined him for a club who is briefly renting his services. Fair enough. Good on him.

Romelu Lukaku did similar when he scored against West Bromwich Albion for Everton, even though he only had a relatively brief stint playing there. Hmm.

Then, on Saturday, Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, betrayed no emotion when his new side scored a decisive goal against his old one – Southampton. OK.

If euphoria is so easy to suppress, even when the emotion of scoring would presumably be even more acute than usual, then what is all the fuss about the rest of the time?

Fletcher is fed up

Then there are the players scorned. The ones who you might think would happily knife their former employers – or current ones, for that matter – for the rough ride that they believe they have been given.

Steven Fletcher clearly had the hump with Sunderland’s supporters, given the way that he greeted his belated goal against Stoke City.

The striker cupped his hands to his ears in a message to the boo boys in the stands. “You want to let the fans know you are not just going to take the stick off them,” he said after.

Nacer Chadli, the Spurs forward, was booked for gesturing in a similar way to opposition fans the previous week. Maybe they will start cautioning players doing the same to their own crowd next.

Wenger a passable tough guy

Arsene Wenger said he was just trying to get from Point A to Point B when he encountered a Jose Mourinho-shaped obstacle on his way down the touchline at Stamford Bridge.

Which is believable, of course, given Wenger’s notoriously bad eyesight. The Arsenal manager probably never saw his opposite number stood right in front of him in the Chelsea technical area.

Or, more likely, it answered his craving for physical retribution for years of being picked on verbally by Mourinho. The Portuguese manager did not look quite so tough, actually.

Geordies sore

Not sure the humour has universal appeal, but if it needs interpreting, here goes.

When Newcastle United’s supporters crossed the border from England into Wales for their fixture against Swansea City at the weekend, they would have passed plenty of road signs for places starting with “Ll...”

Then when they got to the ground, they unfurled a banner reading: “LLWDLLLWWLWLLLLLLLLWLLDDLD – Not a Welsh Town, Our Form in 2014.”

Which is excellent patter – as well as being another indictment of their failing manager's regime.

pradley@thenational.ae

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