Newcastle 1-1 Aston Villa - 8 Things We Learned From Villa Draw

By Simon Gallagher / October 18, 2012

5. Gamesmanship Is Alive And Well

If you're looking for an example of a match that proved that Premier League footballers will do everything and anything just within the boundaries of the laws of the game to gain some advantage, whether that is play-acting, time-wasting or arguing every point with the referee to attempt to pressure him into making future decisions in their favour. Yesterday, almost as soon as they scored through Ciaran Clark, Villa started up with the gamesmanship, taking every opportunity to roll around from the slightest of touches, despite going in overly aggressively in most of their own challenges. That gamesmanship (I won't call it cheating because unless penalised that behaviour is obviously deemed within the boundaries of the rules) became more obvious when Newcastle scored and began to enjoy some more possession, and referee Lee Probert should have done more to nip it in the bud earlier than he did. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan was arguably the worst offender, time-wasting with almost comical blatancy and he was booked for his trouble, grinning like a rumbled adolescent as Probert berated him for persistent abuse of the clock.