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The Premier League is arguably the best known and most followed football tournament in the world. And, to celebrate this UK institution and its return this New Year, we want to do something a little different.
We want to provide the ‘biggest diver’ (based on an analysis of fan tweets) with a brand-new mattress to cushion the blow of a fall. After all, proper rest is a crucial part of match prep and injury prevention in football – or any sport for that matter.
According to fan tweets, Kevin De Bruyne is the biggest diver
We analysed 3,586 tweets for the first half of the 2022/23 season, from 8th August to 26th December. And, according to those tweets, Kevin De Bruyne is the player with the most mentions alongside ‘dive’ or ‘diver’.
Although a surprise inclusion, the Man City midfielder’s stoppage-time penalty against Fulham last year, which has been hotly debated, hasn’t helped his case. In all, he received 161 mentions.
| Players mentioned | Number of times mentioned |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 161 |
| Harry Kane | 109 |
| Bukayo Saka | 94 |
| Bruno Fernandes | 58 |
| Gabriel Jesus | 42 |
In second is England captain Harry Kane with 109 mentions. Once dubbed the ‘King of the Divers’ by former England player and pundit Chris Sutton, Tottenham’s Harry Kane has often found himself on the receiving end of fan’s fury. After Kane went down following a challenge from goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, for example, he received an onslaught of tweets suggesting he dived. In this analysis, we counted 109 mentions.
Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka received 94 accusations of simulation, which could be due, in part, to the controversy over his ‘dive’ against Southampton last year. Some Tottenham fans even suggested he should be ‘marched in front of Sky’ after the incident.
Bruno Fernandes is another player to join the list, with the Man United midfielder on 42 mentions. Last year’s tie with Aston Villa alone caused a spike in diving allegations – while it did end 4-2 to Man United, the win was slightly overshadowed by Fernandes’ bump into Ezri Konsa, a Villa defender. The tweets suggest fans thought it wasn’t as clear-cut as the referee originally thought.
Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus rounds off the top five biggest divers in the Premier League. However, given that Mark Clattenburg expected him to have had a diving ban during his first year in the Prem, this might not come as a surprise.
Here's how sleep can improve a footballer's performance on the pitch
According to a study, getting less than seven hours of sleep each night can increase the risk of injury while training. In fact, getting enough sleep is as important as nutrition and hydration for preventing injuries. So, you can see why it’s actually a good idea for De Bruyne to invest in a good mattress.
Another report reviewed sleep quantity and a range of other factors, such as training load, for 95 endurance athletes over the course of a year. And the biggest increase in injuries occurred for those who, you guessed it, didn’t get enough sleep.
Not only can better sleep reduce the risk of injury but additional studies also found it can improve reaction time, accuracy and endurance performance.
To make sure De Bruyne doesn’t suffer, we’d like to offer him a brand-new mattress as it’s quite clearly important that we get enough rest. There’s a reason Sir Alex Ferguson would go around and spot the players who looked tired, even going so far as to bring in a sleep expert to help his team get better shut-eye.
Enter our highest-rated orthopaedic mattress, designed to ‘soften’ the blow of a fall
Our highest-rated orthopaedic mattress is designed to ensure you sleep like you never have before, even after an injury. And we aren’t just saying this.
The 1,000 Mirapocket springs of the Silentnight Essentials Memory Mirapocket 1000 Mattress form a responsive layer to the body, helping to soothe and support after 90 minutes of graft – particularly after suffering a hard fall. They also help to provide excellent spinal alignment when sleeping.
The layer of memory foam moulds to the body’s contour and overcomes pressure points, which means you are also less likely to feel that ache after hitting the ground.
The all-important orthopaedic support and firmness will cradle those aching joints, too. Not only that, but this type of mattress will also make you less likely to toss and turn at night, providing a more relaxing sleep before the next match.
If there’s one thing the fans are certain of, it’s that Kevin De Bruyne and co, from our research into the biggest divers, need a good rest.
Methodology
Team-specific hashtags were studied, covering 3,586 tweets analysed from August 8th 2022-December 26th 2022. We manually reviewed the tweets to determine which players the fans had accused of diving, and to remove anomalies such as fans naming a player that was judged to have fouled a diving player.
Tweets with pictures and/or the WOL (Wolves) hashtag were not included (due to lack of tweets), and only those referring to current Premier League players.
