Ref Review: Arsenal are the week’s lucky buggers

Matt Stead

Each week, our friends over at TEAMtalk conduct an in-depth review of the contentious refereeing decisions in the Premier League. After every round of fixtures, the decisions of Mike Dean and his officiating cohorts are examined, with a verdict given as to whether or not they made the right call.

Ref Review passes judgement on every red card (or avoidance of one), every penalty and any other major incident every matchday. You should probably check them out, but here’s a small sample.


Arsenal’s first goal against Hull City
The Gunners’ 2-0 home win was a much-needed boost for their fragile confidence but should the north London outfit’s first goal have stood? Arsenal took the lead on 34 minutes but Alexis Sanchez applied the finishing touch with his hand.

Hull were rightfully outraged and even Arsene Wenger admitted afterwards: “I am responsible for many things but not the referee’s decisions so I feel sorry for Hull.”

It happened so quickly and it’s obviously a tough one for the officials but ref Mark Clattenburg has bags of top-level experience and really should have done much better here. He even said as much at half-time.

Verdict: Incorrect decision

 

Kieran Gibbs’ yellow card against Hull City
Hull just couldn’t catch a break at the Emirates and felt that Gibbs should have seen red rather than yellow for his challenge on Lazar Markovic early in the second half.

Clattenburg took the view that the ball was possibly going away from goal but it was contentious and Hull surrounded the ref to remonstrate when they saw the colour of the card.

Jeff Stelling, watching from the Sky Sports studio, was in no doubt, shouting “Clattenburg is having a nightmare”, with Tony Cottee unsure about the decision.

Gibbs was the last man and he definitely took Markovic out. On reflection, the Arsenal man should have been having an early bath as he had intentionally pushed the winger to the ground, thereby denying a goalscoring opportunity.

Verdict: Incorrect decision


For the rest of the decisions, including controversial calls at the London Stadium, the Stadium of Light and Turf Moor, check out the full article at TEAMtalk.com.