It was a Sunday when everyone should have felt the love. The Barclays Premier League fixture list had pitted the top four against each other in what a certain TV station was calling its usual Super Sunday. But this my friends was no ordinary Super Sunday, this had all the ingredients of an extra Special Sunday in my opinion. Not alone had we got the top four clubs in the country meeting but the games were to be refereed by the top two officials in my opinion as well. I have always pointed out for the boys at Pitch Talk in my regular blog, that top games should get top referees. In the case of these two huge games, the match appointments were spot on. Martin Atkinson was given the Arsenal v Leicester game and Mark Clattenburg was to take charge of the Manchester City v Tottenham clash. I have been pointing out for weeks now, that the last thing we needed in this season of some poor refereeing decisions, was for a referee to make a mistake that would hand someone the title. So on Sunday I sat back and relaxed as I knew Martin and Mark would put both of these games to bed without any issues. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear how wrong could I have been. Both of my favourite officials had big calls to make and I am not convinced they got them right. Read on below to see were I thought it went a bit off track for me.
In the game at the Emirates their were three main talking points. The cases of two penalties and one red card. Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, was reported to be fuming with the referees handling of the game. His main gripe was the red card shown to his defender Danny Simpson. Well I am sorry Mr.Ranieri, but the referee called this one perfect in my opinion. Simpson was already on a caution from earlier in the game when he decided to pull back Arsenal,s Olivier Giroud in the second half. In my opinion the action of Simpson deserved a yellow card, because it was a tactic employed by Leicester once they had gone one nil up. Their sole mission on Sunday was to not let Arsenal back into the game and it was stop the Gunners at all costs, Martin Atkinson got this decision correct, but that was the only good point of Martin,s game. The other incidents in the game that have me critical of the referee is two big penalty calls. The penalty that Leicester got in the first half was at very least questionable. Jamie Vardy might have come from the lower leagues to the top of the goal scoring charts this season, but he has in a very short space of time learned the art of winning penalties for his side. Now for those of you who read my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk, you will all know I hate players who cheat to gain penalties. On Sunday when Vardy attacked at the corner of the area it was to his pleasure that Monreal stuck out a leg to challenge. The Leicester player threw his leg out towards the Arsenal defender and, well you know the rest. He conned the referee in my opinion and unfortunately Martin Atkinson fell for it. A lot of people have been discussing recently what can be deemed hand ball, especially in the penalty area. Well on Sunday at the Emirates, Leicester City,s player Kante should have been penalised by the awarding of a penalty kick against his team for deliberate hand ball. No if,s but,s or maybe,s, he clearly made a movement with his hand towards the ball and contact was made. I could not believe that the referee or his assistant did not see it. This is the criteria for giving a handball and I fail to understand how a penalty was not given. I am sure for those of you who would like to see it, I would imagine it is on some network somewhere to view. It was the clearest of penalties and was just another error by the referee on a day when I expected very little.
Martin Clattenburg took control of the City v Spurs game and although he did not have as much to do deal with as his colleague in the Emirates, he made, what was in my opinion a game changing decision by awarding a penalty to Tottenham. A Danny Rose attempted cross was blocked by Sterling and to my utter disbelief the referee awarded a penalty, as he deemed that Sterling had handled the ball. It was a very poor call by Mark and I am sure when he looked at it later in the privacy of the dressing room he would have been honest with himself and recognised his error. The ball clearly struck Sterling on the ribs then deflected onto his hand, this in my opinion could never be seen as a penalty. It was a game changer, as it gave Spurs the opportunity to take the lead from the resulting penalty. It was only one mistake in a huge game but not acceptable in my view. Only last week I was praising Mark,s refereeing and backing him to go and have a good tournament in France this summer. I have no doubt he will but this is one error he could have done without.
So there you have it, another weekend over in the Barclay,s Premier League. It has been a very disappointing one for me, as my two favourite referees had bad weekends. I believe it will be a long time before the two lads have bad performances again. Top referees are top referees, because they make the least errors on a regular basis, that is what makes them tops. As we face into the final run in now, over the next couple of weeks, I really do hope I am not reporting for the boys at Pitch Talk about more errors from the officials. Until next week I do hope you enjoy your football and the referee does not cause your team to be going home without points they should have been. Ciao !
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