Chiles rightly rants against play-acting - and is mocked by Vieira

I didn't see the pundits' discussion at half-time in the Germany v Portugal game the other day, but on the advice of a friend, I caught up with it last night.

Basically it consisted of ITV's Adrian Chiles complaining about Thomas Muller's (Germany) play-acting which eventually led to the sending-off of Portugal's Pepe. It was, he said, cheating to get a member of the opposition sent-off.

Yet Patrick Vieira seemed to defend Muller's actions, saying that it was all part of the professional game (attempting to belittle Chiles's complaints).

Fellow pundit Lee Dixon seemed to agree with Chiles, saying that such actions do happen, but questioning if and why they had to.

Neither Chiles nor Dixon made any attempt to defend Pepe's eventual head movement towards Muller that did result in his sending off (and, incidentally, had the effect of making Muller leap to his feet!).

Chiles added that such play-acting was putting off a potential US audience from whom he had heard many queries about the amount of play-acting in "soccer".

I watched this clip at half-time in the Brazil v Mexico, the first half of which had been blighted by ridiculous rolling around.

No, Patrick Vieira, you are wrong. We do not want this play-acting in our game. We do not want cheating of any sort. Let's all get on and play the game fairly, eh?

Vieira set to galvanise City

Patrick Vieira is 33 years old and does not have the same dynamism that he used to have with Arsenal. However, in arriving from Inter Milan to Manchester City the Frenchman will fancy a couple more tilts the English Premier League before signing off.

Vieira is expected to be unveiled at Eastlands today, with an 18-month contract under his belt.

Joes Mourinho decided that Vieira wasn't required at his Italian league leaders, and no doubt the terms at City were as enticing as the football challenge for the player.

It will be fascinating to see if Vieira can galvanise City for a push at the title. New boss Roberto Mancini has already had the desired impact, winning all three games since taking the helm. With the top teams all showing vulnerability, City are ten points behind leaders Chelsea with a game in hand. That could reduce the gap to a manageable seven points. City have lost the least games of all teams in the Premier League.

Monday's game - assuming it goes ahead - against Blackburn Rovers, will make for interesting vieiwing.