Thomas Vermaelen won’t honour modern football’s most annoying tradition against Arsenal

A win for football purists everywhere.

Thomas Vermaelen has vowed to celebrate against Arsenal on Tuesday night if he scores against them in the Champions League. More and more, transferred players are 'showing respect' to their former clubs by refusing to acknowledge that they have deliberately scored against their former clubs. As if they didn't mean to. As if they didn't bloody love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQvguzCi01U But Thomas Vermaelen insists that he won't follow that annoying trend when Barcelona come to London. "That's a bit strange, I think it's a bit fake," he told the Daily Mail of the muted celebration tradition. "You have to show respect for who you're playing for as well. I feel like that's not always real.

"I play for Barcelona now, so I hope we win.

"I will never deny I have warm feelings towards Arsenal, it's a club that's been very good to me. I'm very happy that I played there. Sometimes you go different ways and that happens in football. Now I'm at Barcelona and I want to go through."

So there you have it, he will celebrate if he scores.

He should be so lucky. He's started six league games for them this season. He has, however, played half of their European clashes to date.

The 30-year-old has bagged one goal for his new club since joining at the start of last season.