An analysis into refereeing decisions against Arsenal

The only other consideration is that Theo dived (which he didn’t) and therefore it is simulation and he should have been booked. There is no other option for the referee. Mike Dean has a clear view of the situation and can plainly see it is not a fall, that the tumble Theo took was due to a kick to the legs and no contact was made with the ball.

The only other explanation is that he believed Willian touched the ball which given his proximity to the foul and line of sight is bonkers. His bosses should be looking at that decision and his positioning and doing something about his poor judgement or lack of conviction in making a decision. If he has “covered” it up by writing in his report that he believed Willian got the ball then he should be removed from duty until his eyes have been checked.

Against Cardiff yesterday, Jack Wilshere was fouled in the box but no punishment was given to either player. He just waved play on. From the angle the ref is at he can clearly see the situation, if it’s not a foul then the only other scenario is that Jack threw himself to the floor, which is simulation which is a card.

Surely by looking at the way these players are falling the referees can tell if it’s natural or forced. These are trained professionals who get paid to make the decisions they are shirking.

It doesn’t just happen to Arsenal, it happens to all teams, and the reason is because referees in this country are not held accountable for their actions or inactions. The review committee do not do their jobs properly when it comes to potentially career ending tackles like Yaya’s on Arteta but will swiftly dish out a two game ban to a young player flipping the bird to 50’000 people who have been abusing him for 90 minutes.

Referees in this country are lazy and weak in my opinion. I appreciate that it must be hard dealing with up to 28 multimillionaires every week, but it is weak to refuse to make the big decisions, it is weak to favour the home team because the fans are whistling and booing, and it is weak to allow players to get away with several minor fouls because they are already on a yellow card.

Homeblowers are the purge of all away fans but what concerns me more is the shocking imbalance of referees home towns.

Of the 18 referees officiating in the Premier League only two of them are from the South East or South West (including south Wales) despite 9 of the 20 Premier League clubs being in the South East, South West or South Wales. The rest are from the Midlands, North East and North West.

I would like to see a 3 or 4 of the South East, South West and Wales based referees currently in the Championship on the roster for the Premier League. I would like to see referees performances scrutinised the way players conduct is scrutinised.

When referees make such bad decisions maybe they should be allowed to speak to the media to explain what happened. We’d all have a lot more respect for the referee who publicly says “I cocked up and I’m sorry” because you know that in his next game he will be extra aware of making a mistake again.

The referee that doesn’t have to own up to his bad decisions can just go into the next game and do it again because he hasn’t had to hold himself accountable.

Maybe the answer is having more ex-players as referees. It might be hard to attract Premier League players who have earned millions of pounds but there are plenty of lower league players who might be tempted to stay in the game.

Do Arsenal get treated unfairly? Yes I think so but I don’t think we have exclusivity on poor referees, it happens to everyone and we just have to make sure it doesn’t affect our title bid.