There was a blatant instance of cheating 18 minutes and 32 seconds into Manchester United's win over Crystal Palace. Harry Maguire and Jorgen Strand Larsen were jostling for an aerial ball after Dean Henderson's punt forward. Maguire had both hands wrapped around Strand Larsen as the pair jostled for an aerial ball and Maguire won the header. Strand Larsen lifted his left boot to try and win the ball, while clearly being impeded from winning the header himself. Despite Strand Larsen's boot being a good foot away from Maguire, the England centre-back held his head as if dangerous contact had been made and yelped in fake pain in the referee's direction.

Chris Kavanagh fell for it, awarding a foul. It was a blatant and disgraceful act of simulation. The kind that should be punished retrospectively. Simulation is not just a stain on modern football; it is a plague. A national pandemic. If players were punished with significant fines or even match bans, you would soon stamp out such ridiculous behaviour. It is one of several changes the Premier League desperately needs to make, because the current product is vastly inferior...