Referee Paul Durkin insisted today that he was right to send off Arsenal's Giovanni van Bronckhorst for diving during yesterday's 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield. Durkin maintained that the Dutch star was trying to deceive him into awarding a penalty even though he did not make any claims for a spot-kick after getting to his feet following his tumble in the Liverpool box.
"I had a really good view of it and I just thought he was trying to deceive me to gain a penalty and I'm very confident that I got it 100 per cent right," said Durkin. "I think that diving is one of the major problems in the game at the moment and though referees are going to get one or two wrong over the course of the season, it's something we have to eradicate from the game."
Durkin flirted with more controversy later in the game after he showed a yellow card to Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek for a foul on Freddie Ljungberg in the penalty box even though Dudek was the last man between Ljungberg and the goalmouth. ""I just felt that the challenge he made was careless and I think that people need to understand that not every challenge or tackle is a yellow or red card," explained Durkin.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
