Time for video to sink the divers

I suppose now the Premiership has been reduced in numbers possibly six games might be acceptable, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when looking on my old faithful ceefax and teletext in the weeks leading up to the season all the tables were produced without a game having been played.

They were in alphabetical order except sadly in League One where Southampton came after everyone because of the points deduction which I still think is totally wrong because it has punished the people who should be the last to feel the pain – the supporters. However, that is another argument which has already been lost.

But the media are loving it at present with the league table showing unbelievably the two north London rivals, Tottenham and Arsenal, not only unbeaten but banging goals in left, right and centre.

I suppose Arsene Wenger even at this early stage can allow himself a wry smile as all the pre-season talk was who was to take their place in the big four.

It seems to me that he is now developing more of a team structure rather than a side with one or two outstanding individuals.

I thought the move of Adebayor was done rather quickly and it seemed from a distance that Arsenal were pleased to move him out.

Even their strongest supporters thought the team would suffer but Wenger has proved yet again how much he is on top of the job.

My old saying of long service gives stability and continuity is proved to be correct.

Down the road at Tottenham, Harry does not seem to stay in one place too long but certainly has an impact.

He is now one of our most experienced managers, a master of the transfer window and as it stands he has brought more money in than he has spent so far in August and the ground isn’t big enough to get the Spurs followers in at present.

On the other hand in the north west incredibly Man United and Liverpool have already lost three games between them, Liverpool losing their first home game since 2007.

However, while Man United may have lost 1-0 at Burnley you couldn’t want to be the manager to face up to them the week after and Alex again proved his worth with his team banging in five goals away at Wigan.

Whereas Rafael Benitez does not seem to give off the same confident vibes, it could be back to my old argument of continuity and stability that he hasn’t been there a fraction of the time that Alex and Arsene have served their clubs and as yet cannot give that air of invincibility that messers Shankly and Paisley did.

While I admire Arsenal as a club they were in the news this week for the wrong reasons because Eduardo blatantly earned himself a penalty by diving against Celtic.

Admittedly Arsenal were already 2-0 up from the away leg but that first goal in the second leg was always going to be critical because it effectively ended the tie. Arsene in a pre-season interview admitted that there have been times in his career where he has said he didn’t see certain things to defend his players.

There is definitely a change in him because he is quoted as saying from the touchline it looked a penalty but seeing it on television he agreed it wasn’t.

Two things spring to mind.

Firstly, wasn’t it Eduardo who admittedly suffered an horrendous injury but wanted the offending opposition player banned for life and talked about how cheating should not be allowed in the game? Against Celtic he didn’t break anyone’s leg but he broke a few hearts. Secondly, and possibly more important, surely it is time for cameras to be allowed to assist the referee.

The game is so much quicker nowadays that it is very difficult for referees to be able to make every decision.

It has been proved in other games such as rugby, cricket and tennis that the fourth official, second eye or whatever it may be called, can work.

I know the argument against it has always been those games are at a standstill waiting for the decisions to be made as to whether it was a try, a runout or a ball over the line.

But surely a voice in the referee’s ear at the Emirates could have said ‘dive’ at which point the referee could have stopped the game, awarded a free kick to Celtic and booked Eduardo.

In addition the ball over the line incidents could be dealt with in the same way.

Yet the UEFA officials continually turn a blind eye with the latest innovation from Mr Platini, who I think as a world class player in his own time should know better, being an experiment not with cameras but an extra two officials positioned near the goals.

I suppose it’s all right if you can get them and at European level no expense is spared.

But in England we continually read about the shortage of referees at grass-roots level and if every league had eventually to do this it would take many years to train up enough bodies.

It seems ironic to me that the other incident this week and naturally the biggest because it harms the game so much was what happened at Upton Park when West Ham and Millwall met in the League Cup.

Everybody in football and living in the East End of London knew the minute the draw was made there could be trouble.

The clubs knew and that’s why they organised extra security.

The police obviously knew but it still did not prevent horrendous scenes which not only leave a bad taste in our domestic game but do not help the FA’s quest to bring the World Cup back here in future years as those pictures will be shown all round the world.

We benefit more than ever from games being shown and paid for all round the world so we cannot argue that the bad stuff is shown as well.

How ironic though that one of the first things that will be done to punish those that offended will be for the cameras to be called in and the film taken on the night inside and outside the ground.