Argentina and Boca Juniors playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme is facing charges of inciting disorder after scoring a brilliant volleyed winner against Racing Club last weekend, that kept Boca on course for the Apertura title as they held on to top spot in the league.

On scoring his volley, Riquelme immediately turned around and ran 50-yard to point an angry finger at a supporter who had been allegedly been hurling abuse at the the number 10 prior to his strike. In turn, home fans at the Bombonera began pushing and shoving the supporter in question, leading to a fracas in the stands.

After the match Riquelme attempted to explain away the incident, arguing “I didn’t do anything bad. I just shouted when my team scored a goal. There are people who pay to get in and think they can insult us for two hours. So many things go on in this country and I think it’s daft to talk about this matter.”

Both the incident and Riquelme’s post-match interview can be seen here.

Last week we exposed Dynamo Kiev’s Olexandr Aliyev as a dirty cheat for a shocking dive at Arsenal during his side’s Champions League match.

Diving is not exclusive to Europe however, as evidenced by possibly the most incredible dive ever, committed by Atletico Junior’s Emerson “Piojo” Acuna last weekend in Colombia.

The action arrived in the first half of his side’s match with America de Cali, as Acuna, building an attack, picked up the ball on the right hand side passing to a teammate with the intention of receiving a quick one-two in return. And in fact that is exactly what happened, as Acuna continued his run into the box, at which point he was supplied with the through-ball he craved.

Roll Platoon.

Inexplicably, the forward, without a single defender around him in any shape or form, then decided to take an incredible tumble in the box when he was clean through. But that was only half of the story, as the referee immediately pointed to the spot, calling a foul on Acuna, which allowed Palacio to then slot home the opener for the hosts.

However karma then set in, and proving that cheats don’t always prosper Acuna then received his marching orders 15 minutes later, receiving a straight red in an unrelated incident.

Video evidence that Emerson “Piojo” Acuna is a dirty cheat can be seen here.

(Credit to Off The Post)

Very sad news from Serie A, as Torino’s Elvis Abbruscato has been ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a horror injury against Siena.

The incident happened during injury time in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat, Abbruscato having come on as a 68th minute substitute for Roberto Stellone.

With a cross slung into the box from the left, Abbruscato jumped unchallenged to try and head home an equaliser, only to land awkwardly on his left leg and breaking it clean. The break was instant, with the bottom the leg visibly separated from the top part, as the players from both sides tried to help the striker who was clearly in incredible pain.

Reports from Torino’s medical staff say the forward has broken his fibula, dislocated his shin bone and damaged ligaments.

For all those with a strong stomach, Elvis Abbruscato’s leg break can be seen here.

It is rare that a team moves to the top of the league and then finds themselves under a barrage of criticism, but that is exactly the position that Liverpool are in this Tuesday.

The writing was on the wall when captain Stevie G committed a schoolboy error by simply failing to make any contact with the ball when attempting a half-volley. With 20 minutes to go the ball fell to Gerrard on the edge of the box, the number 8 controlled expertly on his thigh, only to completely fluff his left-foot strike with an air shot. Comically, Gerrard tried to paper over the cracks of his terrible miss by acting out a scene from Platoon, hitting the deck as if shot from a sniper in the crowd. Sadly, nobody was fooled.

Watch Gerrard’s air shot here.

At full time the home fans then aired their frustration by releasing a short and sharp boo towards their team. On the boos James Ducker wrote, “the boos that rang out in a small section of the home support at Anfield at the final whistle last night spoke volumes about the outcome of a match that Liverpool know they should have won.”

Listen to the boos reign out at Anfield here.

Comment & analysis round-up

Quote of the day: “Sometimes maybe you have a little bit more concentration against a big team, that’s one of the things that we’re going to work on very hard. Those are the things we’re going to discuss a little bit in the dressing-room in the days ahead and see what we can do now against the lower teams. One or two days were not very good, but everyone can see that we keep the title dreams alive and the most important thing is to keep going. I think even if we had lost [to Chelsea], we would never say the title race is finished for us. We want to keep going to the end of the season. We know we have a good team, a good squad and everyone is ready for it.” - Emmanuel Adebayor.

Runner up: “City have good players but the mentality of a small side. They are content with just finishing fifth or sixth. They are content with little, thinking just a draw might be good enough. What they lack is the mentality of champions. I have learnt that being second is worthless so I want to inspire a winning mentality. You can only be content with winning. You need to want to beat Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. Maybe I have changed this a bit but now City have a project to become big, the mentality has to change.” - Robinho.

Today’s overview: Despite going top of the Premier League, Liverpool finds themselves under a barrage of criticism this morning for their disappointing 0-0 draw with West Ham at Anfield last night. Waking up to far brighter news though is Cristiano Ronaldo.

While noting that Liverpool’s draw with West Ham put them clear at the top, Andy Hunter knows that “a second successive 0-0 draw at home to mid-table opposition was not the response of championship contenders.” Henry Winter argued that the goalless draw exposes Liverpool’s “reliance on Fernando Torres.” And completing the analysis, Ian Herbert claims that “league table flatters” Liverpool, who “minus Fernando Torres and the Robbie Keane that Rafael Benitez imagined he was signing” has serious attacking problems.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or, with Gregg Roughley reporting the extent of his victory - “The 23-year-old’s coronation was a resounding one, with 77 of the 96 writers voting him as their No1 player of the year.” Henry Winter takes the opportunity to wax lyrical over Ronaldo. “From astonishing free-kicks against Portsmouth in the Premier League to imperious headers against Roma and Chelsea in the Champions League, Manchester United’s magnificent winger is worth the admission fee like no other.”

But not everyone is celebrating, Paul Doyle slamming the notion of the award saying “systematically singling out an individual in a team sport is stupid and possibly even evil.” And the biggest critic is James Lawton, who bitterly argues that “Ronaldo is displaying the gravitas and self-awareness not of great men like Pele and Cruyff, who once beat England at Wembley while hardly crossing the halfway line, but a drastically undertrained pup.”

On the future of Roy Keane at Sunderland, Louise Taylor writes that “the compulsive rotation of his squad and an inability to compromise may lead to a parting of the ways on Wearside.” Keano also receives advise from Tony Cascarino, who suggests that the Mackems’ manager should “let everyone know from boardroom to dressing-room to fans that he’s here for the tough times as well as the good ones.”

Matt Hughes details the mixed financial news coming out from Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea are planning to “cut costs by up to 15 per cent across their entire operation in the light of the economic downturn” while moving towards self-sufficiency due to increased revenue from “sponsorship, match-day and television income increasing dramatically since they recorded turnover of £190.5 million for the year ending July 2007.”

Keeping with Chelsea, according to Sam Wallace “senior Chelsea players have pointed the finger at Florent Malouda as one of the team’s major underperforming stars and there is a feeling in the club that Luiz Felipe Scolari should pick Wayne Bridge on the left wing instead.” While an interesting observation is made by David Lewis, who asks “just like his Stamford Bridge predecessor Avram Grant, bumbling Big Phil has posted ten wins, three draws and two losses in his opening fifteen games in charge which begs the question - is Scolari the new Grant?”

Both James Ducker and Andy Hunter publicise how David Moyes is tracking Henrik Larsson in the wake of Everton’s attacking injury crisis, while James Nursey claims that Tottenham are targetting Reading keeper Marcus Hahnemann.

Lastly, in a standout article, Matt Dickinson offers some sympathy for England’s cricketers decision to leave India by speaking with Graeme Le Saux about his decision to bail out on a Chelsea match in Tel Aviv back in 2001. Le Suax: “It was a much harder decision for me not to go, the hardest decision I ever made in football, but who do I upset - the club and a few journalists or my family? That’s what it came down to. I put my family ahead of my football. If any cricketers decide not to go for the same reasons, they will deserve respect not humiliation.”

Yet another weekend of twists and turns in the Premier League full of incident to chew over that leaves the table almost as uncertain as ever. It is quickly becoming clear that predictions are useless and the latest “crisis” club can not be relied upon to stay down for long. Elsewhere in Europe Hoffenheim, Lionel Messi and the “Special One” march on.

Good Weekend

Arsene Wenger, Arsenal and Robin van Persie

Arsene Wenger has proved his critics wrong once again and now the young Gunners look like potential title challengers. Arsenal seem more capable of beating the best teams rather than the rest and the seven point gap to the top of the league could be breached if they can continue to get results against Liverpool and the return fixtures with United and Chelsea.

Although much of the post-match analysis has been dominated by the offside decision for the first goal, Robin van Persie should receive much credit for his match-winning double in the space of three minutes. The first was a cracking shot and the second was an impressive finish made by the Dutchman’s own work. The same rule applies to van Persie, if he can stay fit he can be a massive player.

December is going to be a big month for Arsenal, if the kids can see off Burnley and then the regular side can get past Wigan next Saturday, there will be a huge amount of confidence coursing through the club. And the games with Liverpool and Aston Villa towards the end of the month should go a long way to telling us yet more about this enigmatic Arsenal side.

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