There’s a clichéd phrase in news journalism, before an illustrative interview clip is to be broadcast or quoted, whereby angry interviewees are introduced as being ‘up in arms’ about a particular matter. You’d half expect the tv clip to show an interviewee with their arms in the air, à la Alan Shearer when he scores a goal, but of course that’s not what you get. You just get a person, being angry.

The phrase is clearly as nonsensical and redundant as Neil Ruddock proclaiming his virtues of purity and crowd control. But it does illustrate beautifully the attitude of our very own Dennis Bergkamp, when he considers he has been fouled.

Now Arsenal fans often get coy about criticising our own and we at Highbury High tend to concentrate on the positives rather than the negatives, so I am hardly about to lash Bergkamp to pieces. But I think we’ve all heard enough comments about Bergkamp’s perceived ‘diving’ mentality, to put our own oar in and admit that Bergkamp does himself, and essentially the team as a consequence, little benefit with some of his reactions on the pitch.

Close your eyes and you can picture the moment in your mind, you’ve seen it so many times. The ball is played up to Bergkamp and a sturdy challenge comes his way. Despite the fact that the referee clearly thinks no foul was involved and ignores Bergkamp’s irritation, there stands the Dutch maestro, while the play continues around him, arms flung in the air, his gob open aghast in amazement at not getting a free-kick.

When he first started this routine a few seasons ago we all bellowed “free-kick!” with him. It looked like he’d been fouled and the ref had to give it our way. For quite some time we have all been convinced that Bergkamp is a marked man, who gets an awful lot of unwarranted attention, is often fouled by culprits who gets away with the offence and that he is right to show his grievance to the referee. And we’d be right on each of those reactions. Other than the last one.

Yes Bergkamp gets fouled, more so than most and more so than he needs to put up with. And yes the offending player often is not punished by a free-kick or even earns a blatant caution. But if we want to understand why, we only have to draw the line at Bergkamp’s reactions. When he is tackled and he considers it to be unfairly so, he is often, to quote our ubiquitous phrase, ‘up in arms’.

He may well be sick of continual niggly fouls but his stationary, hands-up routine not only irritates referees, who are not convinced a foul took place, but also makes them wary of just when Bergkamp is being compromised by a challenge or is merely crying wolf, via increasing frustration, rather than through an actual foul having been committed.

It is not up to Bergkamp to decide, on the referee’s behalf, whether or not a challenge is fair. It is not for him to stop in his tracks and wait for a free-kick to be awarded. Bergkamp’s role is to play football for Arsenal and to do his best for the club within the rules of the game. He should let the match referee officiate proceedings, as that is their job and the game flows and is ultimately decided on their say-so. It is no more Bergkamp’s domain to decide what is or is not a free-kick than it is a referee’s task to take throw-ins or score goals.

Every time Bergkamp is ‘up in arms’ he both lessens the chance of us getting the free-kick he wants and also, more importantly for the team, we lose possession while his bickering takes over. Ever since Bergkamp has taken up this tendency he seems to have lost that attacking edge which made us Double winners and himself a double player of the year. His form over the past season, although it would have been hard to maintain such enormous standards, has definitely dropped and many Highbury regulars wonder if he really should be a first team certainty, particularly ahead of Kanu.

For the good of the team and reputation of himself as a world class player, Dennis Bergkamp needs to leave decisions to the referee and to get back to doing what he does best. And that means playing the game with his feet and his head, rather than his arms and his hands.