Is it my imagination or has this season seen a big increase in the number of penalties awarded? Every match seems to have at least one. What bothers me about this is that many of them are really soft, players are looking for any opportunity to go to ground, the slightest touch prompts a dive. VAR it seems, is moving us ever closer to a non contact game. I’m sure that I am watch a different game to that I first saw at the Hawthorns back in the early sixties. Not for the better, either.