Gerard Houllier labelled Francis Jeffers a "conman and a diver".
Houllier: "I don't blame the referee because he was conned by a dive from their player. But I am angry with Jeffers because he has more quality than that. He is a great comedian. It was a great dive. If referees are going to award penalties like that for every bit of physical contact between two players, there will be about 50 every game."
"Riise is an honest player and he says he did not pull him. I cannot accept the yellow card which was awarded and hope at least the referee will rescind that when he reviews the incident. If we are talking about video evidence, the player who gets the booking should be the diver. Jeffers should be punished for what he did."
But there was disagreement in the Arsenal ranks Wenger defended Jeffers:
"I have seen the incident again on TV and I don't think he went down deliberately. He was caught on the left leg by Riise and had no choice but to go down."
Tony Adams told Sky he thought Jeffers had dived:
"He is an honest guy, a lovely boy but he went over on that occasion. The referee has made a mistake."
The Title Race as Bluesq sees it:
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Arsenal 8/15
Manchester United 2/1
Chelsea 9/1
Liverpool 20/1
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