Pires: I'm not a cheat

Winger Robert Pires today became the latest in a line of Arsenal players to defend themselves publicly against cheating allegations.

Pires came under fire from West Ham manager Glenn Roeder for “needing no encouragement to fall over” when Steve Lomas made faint contact with him in the penalty area at Highbury yesterday.

Following his side’s 3-1 defeat, Roeder warned of a growing trend in the Premiership for players to tumble over seeking spot-kicks.

“It concerns me that players are going down without too much encouragement and it’s difficult for referees as the players don’t make it easy for them. Any slight touch and they fall down,” he said.

“It’s becoming a trend, almost fashionable, that players see others being given penalties for going down after the slightest touch and they are thinking ‘maybe I can also do that’.”

Pires nevertheless insisted he had not attempted to con referee Mike Dean, who sent off Lomas for preventing a goalscoring opportunity with 76 minutes of the game left.

“I did not dive and I am not a cheat. I was fouled. I was going through to shoot and was fouled by his arm,” Pires told the Evening Standard.

“It was a red card because he was the last defender. Maybe next time he will keep his arm in his pocket.”

Francis Jeffers spoke out to defend his reputation recently after Gerard Houllier labelled him a “conman” for his part in a recent match-winning penalty against Liverpool.

While Arsenal are put under a harsher spotlight than most other clubs, Dennis Bergkamp also defended himself against allegations that he had pushed his arm into Lee Bowyer’s head during yesterday’s game.

And Ashley Cole has at least twice spoken out to insist he does not go down too quickly when tackled, with the most recent such charge coming after Aliou Cisse’s Highbury red card was overturned in August.