Danny Welbeck reminded Arsenal fans what he’s capable of on Thursday night by scoring two goals in a 3-1 victory over AC Milan.The English forward, who arrived at the Emirates Stadium from Manchester United in the summer of 2014, was handed a rare start upfront by manager Arsene Wenger.However, Welbeck’s two goals and his impressive overall performance has been overshadowed by one of the worst dives that we’ve seen in quite some time.Less than five minutes after Milan had broken the deadlock thanks to Hakan Calhanoglu’s long-range effort, Arsenal were awarded a penalty when referee Jonas Eriksson pointed to the spot following Ricardo Rodriguez’s ‘foul’ on Welbeck.Replays showed that Welbeck had clearly dived - the only surprise was that he managed to deceive both the ref and his assistant behind the goal, who was standing metres away from the incident.Despite his blatant act of gamesmanship, Welbeck dusted himself down and slotted past Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Arsenal went on to score two more goals in the second half, courtesy of Granit Xhaka and Welbeck, to secure their place in Friday’s Europa League quarter-final draw.
Wenger and Gattuso defend Welbeck for diving
In his post-match press conference, per the Independent, Wenger reverted back to his classic tactic of insisting he was in no position to comment about the dive as he hadn’t seen the incident.
“Do you want to accuse the English players of being divers?” the Frenchman added, with a wry smile.
Milan boss Gennaro Gattuso, meanwhile, refused to criticise Welbeck for helping his side win a penalty.
“He is a striker. He has to do what he does,” the Italian said, somewhat surprisingly. “But we can’t use that as a reference for entire English football. There’s a lot of fair play in England. There was a lot at stake tonight. Even myself, when I was a player, I would try and take advantage of some situations. I’m not going to criticise these things.”
The Mirror's rating for Welbeck has stunned fans
Despite the dive, Welbeck was arguably Arsenal’s star man on the night and has received (mostly) favourable ratings by the British press.
The Express handed him an 8/10 rating while the Daily Star gave him a nine.
The Mirror, however, have stunned Arsenal supporters by ‘awarding’ Welbeck with a 0/10 rating. Yep, a zero(!).
“The dive gets a big fat 0 and nothing can excuse it,” the Mirror’s Arsenal correspondent John Cross wrote. “Highly embarrassing.”
Arsenal fans, however, are not happy…
It’s hard to imagine the same people would be complaining about the 0/10 rating if an AC Milan player had pulled off such a blatant dive.
John Cross: 'It should embarrass English football'
“It was a shameful moment which overshadowed a huge result against one of Europe’s top clubs,” Cross wrote in a later match report for the Mirror.
“Let’s not even try to excuse it or dress it up as anything else, the game will be remembered for Danny Welbeck’s blatant dive to win a penalty.
“It was a moment that should embarrass English football and maybe even shame a few others to stop diving once they see the reaction as even Arsenal fans were left appalled.”
Is a 0/10 rating fair for Danny Welbeck? Have your say by leaving a comment below.