Down periscope! The good ship EPL is, we hear, being undermined by enemy divers.

The incident that sparked the current debate came last Saturday at Derby, when the noble Savage was brought down in the area, leading to Muzzy Izzet's match-winning penalty. One week earlier, Savage had tumbled in the area under the challenge of Ipswich keeper Matteo Sereni, with the same result, except that Izzet's eyesight was a touch more fuzzy. Then, he missed the spot-kick. Suddenly, the Welsh midfielder has become a scapegoat for all dubiously awarded penalties.

You can argue either side of the referees' decisions on both occasions. Savage proclaimed his innocence, saying he has never dived to win a penalty. I'm inclined to believe him. Enough contact was made to force him to the ground, enough for the officials in any case. Sure, the Leicester man's celebrations were over the top, as was Derby captain Craig Burley then trying to wrestle Savage to the ground, but then it was the last minute of a local derby with a first win of the season on the line. Robbie's real crime appears not to be his lack of balance (Emile Heskey goes over easier), but his style of play and his hairstyle.

Throughout EPL history, there have been players that opposing fans love to hate, in turn making them darlings of their hometown supporters. The likes of Vinnie Jones, Roy Keane, Dennis Wise, Paul Gascoigne and Paul Ince are midfielders always in the thick of the scrap, jostling and baiting opponents with glee.

Savage is from this school. Rejected by Manchester United, where he was a youth-side teammate of David Beckham's, the Welshman received his soccer education at Crewe, where manager Dario Gradi -- 19 years in the same job making him the longest-serving football manager in England -- prides himself on fair play.

That's not to say ex-Crewe players are the cleanest around. Derby's Seth Johnson and Liverpool's Danny Murphy, for instance, are no angels. Neither is Savage, but lacking the natural skills of a Beckham, he compensates by non-stop running and dervish-like determination. Film a Leicester game with time-lapse photography and all you would see are his blonde locks, streaming like headlights down a freeway. Savage's headlong charges will result in collisions -- it's the only game he knows. And in the box, the call will go either way.

The likes of Savage, his new buddy Wise, Ince at Middlesbrough and Gascoigne at Everton, currently reside with decidedly average teams. They are the lone bright sparks in those dismal outfits. At times insanely committed to the cause, they at least play with passion and a smile on their face.

On Monday, the Leicester duo wore "9.9" T-shirts as an ironic rebuff to the "diving" accusations, while Boro's Ince tried his hardest to muscle in on the act. As Everton succumbed to Liverpool two days earlier, Gazza at least found time to acknowledge the Reds' fans chants. How else to respond to "You fat bastard!" than with a trademark smirk. He has, after all, eaten a lot of pies in his day.

These players certainly do not cheat the fans, always giving 100% effort. At their worst, they give us all a laugh. As Tottenham boss Glenn Hoddle said this week, players are not cheating, but "trying to work their corner and gain an advantage."

You try to win the game within the boundaries of how the officials enforce the rules. How many penalties have we seen given when players are anticipating contact, or avoiding contact but falling, or being unbalanced by the slightest of contacts? This is not the "hand of God" here. Robbie Savage is not Diego Maradona.

The real cheats are the clubs that inflict a Neanderthal approach to the beautiful game on the fans. I think I have rumbled the Everton game-plan. Long ball to Duncan Ferguson, flick on to Kevin Campbell. Remember the Toffees' inept attempts to pass the ball around nine-man Spurs last month? An old Evertonian does the same at Sunderland -- long ball to Niall Quinn (or Lilian Laslandes), flick on to Kevin Phillips. Do they train with five-a-side football or just run around cones?

The EPL resumes hostilities on Saturday. Man Utd hosts an Ipswich club deprived of the suspended Sereni following his Savage encounter. Sir Alex Ferguson, apparently not worried by the Devils' having the league's third-worst defense, says that he wishes every game could end 4-3 like their thriller at Newcastle. It's a simple message -- come on, attack us, you might win. Roy Keane might even lose his marbles again.

Steven Gerrard's recent red card makes him Liverpool's conspicuous absentee when they play a Tottenham team that proved in midweek that turning off the Stadium of Light is no problem, especially when abandoning their usual defensive posture and going for it. Same again please, Glenn. Attack the Reds.

Leeds' lack of goals has begun to worry David O'Leary, so the Whites might be cautioned, when facing Derby on Sunday, that the Rams' last two visits to Elland Road have resulted in 0-0 draws. Third time lucky?

At the other end of the table, West Ham is yet to score a goal from open play this season, whereas buoyant Newcastle has four goals in four of its last five games. The Magpies are, however, winless in their last 25 matches in London, dating back almost four years. Could it be Hammer time?

The weekend concludes on Monday with Aston Villa heading to Southampton. Which Villa will we see -- the one that dismantled Liverpool at Anfield, or the one that ground out a nil-nil draw with Sunderland? John Gregory, ever the honest appraiser, conceded that was dull.

Will we see David Ginola? It wasn't so long ago that Villa's Gin and his former Spurs teammate Jurgen Klinsmann were chief instructors of the EPL's diving school. Klinsmann responded with humor, initiating a plunging celebration copied most famously these days by another alleged flopper, Fabrizio Ravanelli. Leaving Ginola on the bench is cheating the fans too. Without the tonic of Gin, there's just not as much fizz.

Without a little bit of Savage, life's just a little bit tame.