da betsul： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
da apostaganha： “Wilfried Zaha’s a diver!”
“Cheat!”
“Ban him!”
You may well have heard these kind of shouts from the opposition terraces whenever the Ivorian is playing for Crystal Palace, and to get straight to the point, these accusations are lazy and can be put down to sheer conformity.
Back in January, The Guardian’s Paul Doyle declared that opposition fans willingly “pretend” to watch Zaha dive, when they know deep down that they’ve just seen him get taken out by one of their own players – even describing the Palace talisman as one of the Premier League’s most persecuted players.
“Every week supporters get their metaphorical kicks pretending they are watching Zaha acting when they know full well he is not. Usually, in fact, Zaha is receiving literal kicks, on top of verbal abuse.
“Zaha is one of the Premier League’s most persecuted players, partly because lots of people pretend he is not persecuted at all.”
It is a bandwagon that Zaha himself has pleaded with people to stop jumping on in the past, and it is also one that was put to shame by the VAR intervention in the Eagles’ 2-2 draw against Arsenal.
“I feel just everyone jumps on the bandwagon. I read stuff on Twitter, half of you lot don’t even watch me play, but you come online and say ‘he is a diver’. Actually watch me play and then you will see how often I get kicked.”
Before you could have even uttered the two syllables that make up the flamboyant winger’s surname, referee Martin Atkinson sounded his whistle to penalise Zaha for diving after a challenge from Calum Chambers in the box.
After a VAR check, however, Atkinson retracted the booking and rightly awarded the south Londoners a spot kick.
Ian Wright – who played for both Arsenal and Palace – summed it up perfectly on Match of the Day, highlighting how quickly Atkinson had made up his mind on a decision that eventually turned out to be incorrect.
How did he make up his mind so fast? One assumes that this unfair assumption towards Zaha, the perception of him being a diver, came into play.
This is the first incident in which VAR has jumped in front of the metaphorical bullet that are the largely baseless accusations aimed towards Zaha, and it was a moment that got a few thoughts flowing, chief amongst those being whether the 26-year-old would even have this ridiculous reputation if VAR had existed since his Premier League debut for Palace in August 2014.
Because it seems that, once these incidents involving Zaha are put under the microscope, the level of wrongdoing is minimal. Clearly, an unfair reputation precedes him.