They are called Referees and they are TERRIBLE

[Synical]

I can't remember Arsenal fans telling Wenger to not criticize the refs poor officiating during his tenure here. That was the media which kept saying we complained because we were soft. Wenger literally said (I'm paraphrasing) that when he dies and he gets to the gate of heaven he'll ask his maker where Refs were being directed to go and then he would choose the opposite direction.

How much worse could someone be so hurt by another person/entity for one to make such a statement. And this is knowing who Wenger was - a very meek man.

When fans cry about poor refereeing including potential conflict of interest (like Oliver and others getting paid by City's owners such huge amount of money for a small gig in the UAE and SA), it is because they want fairness not favoritism. And this applies to all teams and all kinds of sports. When a game is refd fairly a team gets the true picture of its performance and knows that the result they get is fair and more often than not correlated to the shift they put in and then they can evaluate where to improve upon.

It'll be highly disingenuous to try to put down others for expressing their discontent about poor refereing in the current cycle of events because you feel it wasn't addressed in the past.

When the call for accountability increases across all quarters (without one set of fans justifying a poor decision that goes against other teams as to why they should suck up the poor decision they themselves recently received), that's when change becomes imminent due to the constant pressure that would be mounted on the top brass - PGMOL, FA, PL etc. And this applies to all facets of life and endeavors. Like call for new leadership in a country, a father finally deciding to pay attention to his family, shareholders replacing a CEO etc. You get the drift.

The long and short of it is that, we should all want fairness in refereeing, and should continue to be vocal about it till we all (fans of all teams) get it because we contribute immensely to the sport and would want to consistently consume healthy products.

There's my little epistle.

They just make things up to suit their agenda

 

[MauveGunner]

Me reading this thead

 

[Makingtrax]

Not on the same level they dont.
The stats don’t lie in this either, always near the bottom of the table for fouls committed and least yellows yet always seem to end up with the most red cards.

Show me the figures for all refs, for all clubs across the seasons and let’s see shall we. Else it’s just a conspiracy theory to rival who shot Kennedy.

 

[Roz]

Show me the figures for all refs, for all clubs across the seasons and let’s see shall we. Else it’s just a conspiracy theory to rival who shot Kennedy.

They’ve been posted here before.
Here are yellows so far this season.

Here are reds

 

[Gunner D]

Who would have guessed Refs are human and keep making mistakes?

Sucking off the refs is embarrassing. I like you, but this is cringe.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Let's not forget with VAR in play now these awful decisions should just not be happening to ANY side. Back in the Wenger days it was still crap but there was a bit more room for forgiveness as refs were making split second decisions with no VAR available.

We haven't been on top form this season and have dropped some really silly points of our own making but It's reasonable to say we'd be around par with Liverpool or at least right on their tail without 2-3 shocking decisions against us.

I think also we have to be careful about crying when any marginal or 'normal' reffing error goes against us. It's football these things happen to every side in every game. Ref's aren't perfect and as fans we're not the most objective when decisions go against us. Our past few games I think the refs have been pretty decent really.

Best to stick to complaining about the really awful decisions.

If we don't win the PL this season I'm not going to be lumping all the blame on those decisions, we could have played better and got better results but It will have been a contributing factor if we end up 5-6 points or so off Liverpool.

 

[Roz]

Show me the figures for all refs, for all clubs across the seasons and let’s see shall we. Else it’s just a conspiracy theory to rival who shot Kennedy.

Im not going clogging up the thread with pics from all seasons but this is a theme across MOST seasons. Same as the fouls per team table in which we are usually mid to low out of all teams, yet end up as one of the most red carded teams.

 

[Gunner D]

I think also we have to be careful about crying when any marginal or 'normal' reffing error goes against us. It's football these things happen to every side in every game. Ref's aren't perfect and as fans we're not the most objective when decisions go against us. Our past few games I think the refs have been pretty decent really.

Best to stick to complaining about the really awful decisions.

Has this been happening though? I get that refs aren’t perfect, and I don’t expect them to get every decision correct. It’s just the ludicrous red cards and ridiculous penalties which people have been rightly moaning about.

 

[A_G]

Me reading this thead

Me watching Oxeki vs Synical:

 

[Roz]

For what its worth I think Liverpool in the past have been unfairly treated by referees though imo this completely changed since CooteGate. I’m sure the PGMOL bootlickers will tell me this is the process of “decisions going both ways”.

 

[Macho]

Let's not forget with VAR in play now these awful decisions should just not be happening to ANY side. Back in the Wenger days it was still crap but there was a bit more room for forgiveness as refs were making split second decisions with no VAR available.

How can it be more forgivable when it was far far worse?

I don't get that because we literally cry over spilt milk in the current day, nearly every wayward result was thoroughly earned by these lot.

 

[Makingtrax]

Im not going clogging up the thread with pics from all seasons but this is a theme across MOST seasons. Same as the fouls per team table in which we are usually mid to low out of all teams, yet end up as one of the most red carded teams.

So we’re 9th for fouls. Fair enough.

Now let’s look at Punishment table. Here it is . . . 1 point for a yellow and 3 pts for a red. And as you can see we are 15th for Ref punishments on yellows, which is the vast majority.. So really we’re doing very well and all this conspiracy stuff is just bollocks. Thanks for the proof.

 

[Roz]

So we’re 9th for fouls. Fair enough.

Now let’s look at Punishment table. Here it is . . . 1 point for a yellow and 3 pts for a red. And as you can see we are 15th for Ref punishments. So really we’re doing very well and all this conspiracy stuff is just bollocks. Thanks for the proof.

View attachment 32522

So why do we have the most red cards then?
And why are ours always the most controversial?

 

[Makingtrax]

So why do we have the most red cards then?
And why are ours always the most controversial?

Red cards are a small percentage of overall punishments and only vary between 1 and 4.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

You can't fairly equate fouls to yellows anyway.

Not every foul is equal, we all know that. Look at a team like Man City, they're still exceptional at breaking up counters with dirty play before the threat level would warrant a yellow by the letter of the law. That rat Silva is a perfect example.

Also we've probably received 5-6 yellow cards for time wasting

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

How can it be more forgivable when it was far far worse?

I don't get that because we literally cry over spilt milk in the current day, nearly every wayward result was thoroughly earned by these lot.

I meant just because a ref was making a split second decision back then, there wasn't VAR to help him out.

Personally I find my annoyance at clearly awful decisions is worse these days than in the Wenger era because of that.

 

[Roz]

Red cards are a small percentage of overall punishments and only vary between 1 and 4

But are by far the harshest punishment that alters games in more ways than just the direct result. And we seem to be at the top or at least very close to the top almost every season. Have we ever seen the (illegal) double Martinelli yellow which led to a red? Or the Tomiyasu double yellow in mistaken identity or the Rice v Brighton or the Lewis Skelly v Wolves. Even going back to the Wenger days, did we ever see a manager get sent off for kicking a waterbottle half a meter down the touchline?

 

[Makingtrax]

You can't fairly equate fouls to yellows anyway.

Not every foul is equal, we all know that. Look at a team like Man City, they're still exceptional at breaking up counters with dirty play before the threat level would warrant a yellow by the letter of the law. That rat Silva is a perfect example.

Also we've probably received 5-6 yellow cards for time wasting

Nevertheless the vast majority of yellow cards are for fouls. And if we are 9th for fouls and 15th for yellow cards it either means that refs are lenient on us, or our fouls are less severe than most other teams. Either way it definitely does not suggest referee bias against us.

 

[Macho]

I meant just because a ref was making a split second decision back then, there wasn't VAR to help him out.

Personally I find my annoyance at clearly awful decisions is worse these days than in the Wenger era because of that.

Despite all the assistance they still mess up and it just highlights the bias more than ever now? Yeah I get that.

I don't feel as strongly about what I see today compared to Eduardo/Reyes/Ramsey etc. Social media and fan channels have just amplified every minor grievance you can see the same people getting wound up for weeks on end because of it.

 

[Makingtrax]

But are by far the harshest punishment that alters games in more ways than just the direct result. And we seem to be at the top or at least very close to the top almost every season. Have we ever seen the (illegal) double Martinelli yellow which led to a red? Or the Tomiyasu double yellow in mistaken identity or the Rice v Brighton or the Lewis Skelly v Wolves. Even going back to the Wenger days, did we ever see a manager get sent off for kicking a waterbottle half a meter down the touchline?

Mate, this is confirmation bias. The number of red cards given out are very small. In fact 22/23 season was the lowest on record. We don’t even feature in the top few that year. You’re seeing things that aren’t there.