DEFIANT ARSENAL SECURE POINT - BUT ROT AT PGMOL NEEDS ADDRESSING

ARSENAL SHOW WORLD CLASS CHARACTER TO DEFY ODDS

We have to start with the refereeing once again, because we’re at a point in the Premier League's lifecycle where the officiating across the league is so poor that it’s detracting from the spectacle of the sport.

Michael Oliver went out of his way to ruin the biggest game in the world this weekend. He saw a small bit of kindling, whipped out a keg of hypergolic liquid rocket fuel, and lit a match that he petulantly flicked at the game.

It was ruined. A clash of the titans, playing out in exciting fashion, was reduced to a hearty deep block for 53 minutes.

This is a referee mired in controversy when it comes to Arsenal vs Manchester City. He opted not to send off Kovacic last season for a disgraceful challenge because he didn’t want to ruin the game. He has awarded fewer yellow cards to City compared to any of the top eight clubs. He has given them 11 penalties and has never issued a red card against City.

Last weekend, he was the referee Arsenal fans were pointing at because he didn’t send off Dominik Szoboszlai for hoofing the ball away to delay play while on a yellow card. During the City game, he watched Doku boot the ball to delay play and did nothing. Arsenal fans cheered sarcastically; it was so clear that even Neville acknowledged it.

Then his moment to shine for the cameras arrived. One minute over the allotted injury time, he spotted Trossard kick the ball away, and he whipped out the red card so fast that you have to deduce he really, really wanted to ruin the game.

The Reddit community framed it frame by frame to show how absurd it was…

… they deduced it would have been nearly impossible for him to react that quickly. This was Robin Van Persie vs Barca levels of scandal.

I don’t want to make this post about how to fix referees, but at what point are we going to start accepting that there is something deeply wrong with how the referees are operating that feels scandalous and hopeless at the same time?

They mark their own homework. They are not properly audited. Conflicts of interest of epic proportions have been flagged and swept under the carpet. A group of underperforming men who all look the same and come from largely the same geographic area are wreaking havoc on the greatest league in Europe, and we’re just all supposed to sit here and accept that nothing can be done?