Alexandre Lacazette has made it clear what he thinks about Sean Dyche’s comments on diving after Arsenal defeated Burnley 2-1 at the weekend.

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Sean Dyche, Manager of Burnley during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Burnley FC at Emirates Stadium on August 17, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 17: Sean Dyche, Manager of Burnley during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Burnley FC at Emirates Stadium on August 17, 2019, in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

With Sean Dyche managing Burnley to their 10th straight defeat to Arsenal under his leadership on Saturday, the manager went out looking for a new excuse as to why that was the case.

Considering VAR had prevented any major incorrect decisions with the goals, Dyche chose to claim that the game had been influenced by comparatively minor refereeing calls on diving and free-kicks. He argued that “the game is in a really poor state with players literally falling on the floor”.

Arsenal striker Lacazette, who scored the opening goal – ironically after being pulled to the floor but getting his shot away anyway – saw the comments courtesy of Instagram user @threesixtytv_.

The video was captioned: “Sean Dyche complaining about diving & cheating… I didn’t see any Arsenal players diving or cheating against Burnley. Sour grapes.”

Lacazette liked the post and responded with laughing emojis:

https://twitter.com/afcstuff/status/1163142010183868417

To everyone outside the Burnley fanbase, the comments were indeed laughable. Diving wasn’t even a talking point in the game until Dyche made it one afterwards, and you’d struggle to point to any key incidents where a player from either team should have been booked for simulation.

Andy Jones from The Athletic attempted to put together a compilation of the occasions Dyche was likely referring to, but even he admitted that with at least three or four of the five incidents the problem was exaggeration, not simulation, meaning the referee was right not to take action.

The only incident Jones claims to have been an actual punishable dive was in the 19th minute, when Maitland-Niles went to ground under no contact.

The Englishman was clearly expecting a heavier challenge that didn’t quite come, he didn’t appeal for a free-kick and immediately got back up, with Burnley receiving possession of the ball anyway.

It was an irrelevant moment that had no impact on the game whatsoever, and that was the worst of the five incidents. Diving simply didn’t influence the result, and Lacazette is right to laugh at the implication that it did.