Arsenal: “Shameful” Danny Welbeck understood the moment

Arsenal secured an all-important equalizing goal via a Danny Welbeck dive and while it was certainly shameful, how much can you fault him?

I hate diving. It’s the number one thing in the sport that I find detestable and most people are of the same mind. It always seem like Arsenal get the worst of it and Tottenham get the best of it. Against AC Milan though, Danny Welbeck was guilty of either a flop or of tripping over himself and framing it with a flop.

While it was hard to tell which, the point is the same – he flopped like hell. And that’s a bummer, because some may say that it cheapens the result or what have you, but, while I won’t defend Welbeck’s decision to dive, I will say this much – he understood what was happening.

Arsenal are in a state of tumult with their recent struggles and they absolutely need to come out on top in the Europa League at all costs.

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Going up 2-0 at the San Siro was obviously massive, but it was also pressure-inducing given how Ostersunds reacted after going down 3-0 and how the Gunners inevitable end up looking at times, when the heat is up.

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AC Milan had just scored five minutes prior and the Emirates as a collective whole was sweating profusely. They could see it unfolding before their eyes.

At that point, had you asked me if I would take a cheap flop penalty, I would have sacrificed my pride and said yes, absolutely. And I don’t fully believe any Gooner that would tell you otherwise. Shameful? Absolutely. But we’re Arsenal supporters and we are a desperate bunch.

So Welbeck takes his tun towards the goal line off a through ball from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and maybe he has the same internal debate – do I sacrifice my pride to potentially win a cheap penalty and secure my club’s advancement to the next round?

And, as a bonus to Welbeck, his confidence is only just now returning, a goal would do wonders for him, penalty or no.

So Welbeck answers the question the same way any Gooner would – sacrifice that pride and win the penalty. We may gripe the next time someone dives against us, but we will just brush that off as them not understanding the plight of an Arsenal supporter.

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Win the Europa League at all costs. If that cost is suffering through a bit of shame, screw it, I’ll take it. Don’t try to tell me that any player is “too upstanding” to do what Welbeck did.