The Barclays Premier League returned over the past few days after a break for international football. It has been hugely controversial this season with a lot of refereeing decisions coming under the microscope. I was hoping that over the short period off, the referees could get together and sort out a few of the issues that have cropped up in the opening games of the season. The boys in the middle needed to take time out and evaluate their season so far. So on Saturday I put my feet up to enjoy a list of games that had potential for problems and needed to be refereed by the top men, after all they are the elite officials in the country. This season every Saturday has had it,s fair share of controversy and as sure as night follows day this one was to be no different. As soon as final whistles were been blown all over the country there was news coming to me of problems at Palace and West Bromwich. Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce were complaining about decisions in their games that had affected the result. As a referee the last thing you need is your decisions to be affecting results. Let me below explain why I think both Pardew and Big Sam were talking out of their backsides to try and shift blame for their tactical errors on the day.
The man in charge of the Palace v West Ham game was Mark Clattenburg, so when I heard he had supposedly ruined a good game by sending off Dwight Gayle I was astonished. As I have said it on many occasion, in my opinion Mark is the best referee in the country. I made sure I had a look at the incident that got the Palace player his marching orders and yes as I thought Alan Pardew was talking nonsense. The two cards the player received within eleven minutes of each other were 100% correct. As the rule book states you can not dive in like he did and expect to get away without a caution. What I actually thought was total stupidity by the Palace player was to dive in to a tackle after already picking up a yellow card for a similar challenge. The total nonsense Pardew spoke after the game was beyond belief. I do not mind a manager having a go when warranted, but the Crystal Palace manager was totally out of order with his comments. On this occasion the referee was a correct in his carrying out the laws of the game and applied them correctly.
Meanwhile Big Sam is back in football and already complaining about refereeing decisions. The man who puts out fires at clubs in trouble, tried to claim his keeper had been fouled for the winning goal by West Bromwich Albion,s Berahino. To be perfectly honest I feel he was clutching at straws. His keeper could possibly be the biggest one in the league and when he came for the cross, he failed to deal with it correctly. In my opinion as a goalkeeper you need to come and take everything when dealing with a cross, something the Sunderland player failed to do. As regards to a claim that Berahino then handled the ball, please do fe a favour Sam, the ball struck his arm not the other way around. Referee Martin Atkinson had a superb game and I saw nothing wrong with the big decision of the game.
So the referees got it right this weekend and the managers once again complained. I do wish these guys would have a good look at what's around them and if their teams lose don't try to blame referees on your poor management decisions. I will leave you this week with the knowledge that there will be more controversies over the coming months and I will be here each week to try and unravel the issues for the boys at Pitch Talk. Until next week enjoy your football and I do hope your club does fall foul of a bad refereeing decision.
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