Arsenal trapped in downward spiral, Jamie Vardy deserved booking for dive, only United can disappoint in victory

Jon Moss has come in for criticism for his handling of Leicester’s 2-2 draw with West Ham on Sunday after choosing to send off Jamie Vardy for diving as well as awarding two penalties, one to each side, in the closing stages of the match. While the referee can be accused of inconsistencies in his officiating, he got the decision to book Vardy – and subsequently send him off – spot on.

First of all, Vardy has no reason to go down unless he is looking for a penalty as he has managed to get onto the wrong side of West Ham defender Angelo Ogbonna, with a one-on-one chance available with Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. Vardy also glances at Ogbonna twice as he bears down on goal, and while this is normal for a striker to check the positioning of the defender, his following actions make this appear to be the moment where Vardy is deciding whether to go for goal or a penalty.

Leicester’s leading goalscorers this season makes his decision and deliberately veers away from the ball and into Ogbonna’s path, only the centre-back doesn’t interfere enough for Vardy to hit the deck. Unperturbed, the striker theatrically throws himself to the floor and deserves to be booked, and having already picked up a yellow card earlier in the match, he gets his marching orders from Moss, with his aggressive reaction hardly endearing to fans who will cheer him on at the Euros this summer.

The one problem for Moss is that his performance overall was very questionable. Vardy’s initial booking did not seem worthy of a yellow card, and while he was perfectly within his rights to penalise Wes Morgan for a foul on Winston Reid for West Ham’s penalty given the Leicester skipper was not watching the ball and clearly grabbed the Hammers’ defender, he had to do the same when Ogbonna grappled Robert Huth off the ball in the West Ham area.

There’s no problem with referees trying to stamp out obvious fouls in the area at set-pieces, but any hard line approach much be consistent.

As collapses go, Arsenal’s has been pretty spectacular. Since their 1-0 victory over Newcastle in their first game of 2016, Arsenal have played 13 Premier league matches and failed to win nine of them, with 21 points going begging – enough that had they taken the majority of them they would have been leading the Premier League table by some margin.

The win over Leicester in February should have been a catalyst for the Gunners to push on and win the league, but instead they have crumbled and showed no signs of coming out of the downward spiral they are currently locked in. The players – particularly the defence – have not shown any fight in recent games and with manager Arsene Wenger admitting that he fears for Arsenal’s top four position, the manager must be placed under intense scrutiny by the board come the end of the season.

This Aston Villa side may be the worst team to grace the Premier League, yet only Manchester United could draw more anger from fans despite beating then 1-0 on Saturday. Teenage striker Marcus Rashford was once again the saviour for Louis van Gaal, but the United manager felt the fury of Wayne Rooney after he substituted the captain on his return to the first team as well as the fans for what was in essence a poor and subdued performance.

Van Gaal has struggled to get his side playing attractive football despite investing over £250m in new players, and with Van Gaal facing more questions over his future at Old Trafford, a narrow win over a side now relegated hardly lifts the pressure. With Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool already taking measures to improve fortunes next season, United need to ask themselves when the right time is to bite the bullet and do the same.

Nobody enjoys being relegated, but the one thing you shouldn’t do amid a fit of frustration and sorrow is incense those that pay a lot of money to watch you every week. Yet that’s what Joleon Lescott continues to do, having originally incensed Aston Villa fans with an ill-advised tweet of a top of the range Mercedes-Benz shortly after Villa’s humiliating 6-0 defeat by Liverpool earlier this year.

Immediately after Villa’s relegation was confirmed on Saturday, Lescott felt it was appropriate to tell reporters “now it’s [relegation] confirmed maybe it’s a weight off the shoulders and we can give these fans what they deserve, some performances”. Funnily enough, the Villa faithful did not take kindly to hearing relegation was a “relief” and lambasted Lescott and the rest of the side for not putting in any performances this season.

If that is what fans have to face up to seeing and hearing each week, why would they want to part with good money that can go to much more appropriate outgoings?

In the time that Kevin De Bruyne was injured, Manchester City went out of the FA Cup and dropped 13 points in the Premier League – 13 points that would see them level with leaders Leicester and in the form of Premier League champions elect.

Two defeats in February came at the hands of Leicester and Tottenham, and had De Bruyne been on the pitch for both matches, who’s to say that City wouldn’t be leading the table heading into the final month of the season.

Unfortunately for Manuel Pellegrini’s side, the loss of their playmaker-in-chief appears to have cost them a chance a tilt at the title, and while the Belgium international can help them try and achieve an even bigger success in the form of the Champions League (not to mention torment his former side Chelsea in Saturday evening’s 3-0 defeat), chances are that City will be left to rue a chance missed come the end of the season.

Saturday 16 April could be viewed as dramatic turning point for one of the two Premier League teams in the North-East come the end of the season. Sunderland emphatically recorded a 3-0 victory over Norwich City to reignite their survival hopes, while Newcastle duly followed their rivals’ lead by beating Swansea by the same scoreline.

The result? Norwich lead Sunderland by a single point with Newcastle two points further behind, and with the Canaries playing one game more than their two relegation rivals, they could well find themselves down in 19th once things have levelled out. Last week, both Sunderland and Newcastle looked doomed, but this goes to show how quickly things can change down at the bottom of the table. Here’s hoping it goes down to a final day thriller.

West Ham’s season will go down as a monumental success – not least because of the mind-boggling deal that was revealed in full last week that showed the Hammers will pay just £2.5m-a-year to rent the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

However, on the pitch matters have been a triumph too, and while their top four challenge is in danger of dying after successive draws with Arsenal and Leicester where they let winning positions slip, Slaven Bilic has got his side looking one way – up.

With the right summer recruitment plan and the ability to hold onto their best players while keeping Andy Carroll fit – a Euro 2016 snub will please all but Carroll at the east London club – West Ham can realistically look to follow the lead set by Leicester and Spurs and break into the top four next season.