Arsene Wenger has been charged by the FA following a bust-up with referee Mike Dean in the wake of the 1-1 draw with West Brom last Sunday.
The Arsenal manager was furious at the decision to award the home side a penalty in the dying stages of the game, and even today accused the official of ‘seeing what he wanted to see‘.
In a statement on their website today, the FA said:
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been charged following the West Bromwich Albion game on Sunday [31/12/17].
It is alleged his language and/or behaviour in the match officials’ changing room after the game was abusive and/or improper and/or questioned the integrity of the match referee.
He has until 6pm on Friday [05/01/18] to respond.
It follows charges last season when Wenger was banned from the touchline for four games for comments made to fourth official Anthony Taylor, accusing him of being ‘dishonest to your federation’ before telling to ‘f*ck off’ a couple of times (and who could blame him?).
It now remains to be seen if the FA will do anything about an official that made a very obviously wrong decision, and booked Petr Cech for politely asking him for an explanation.
Our guess is probably not.
Mike Dean is either a cheat, or absolutely incompetent. For either reason, he deserves to be penalised.
I actually think he might be both.
Oh he’s a very competent cheat just a fckn useless referee
Dean comes from near Liverpool so doesn’t referee their matches.
He was 21 in 1989, do you think he is getting his own back for us winning the title then?
so he is 49 years old…? he has been a EPL ref for 18 years… something not right about that on it’s own. It’s not like he has been un drop-able?
I know its always the way to see it as the officials have an agenda against ‘your team.’ But we have been on the end of some truly woeful decisions this year that have cost us big points. Off the top of my head: The Lacazette goal away at Stoke The Bellerin penalty away at Stoke The penalty awarded away at Watford The offside goals away at City The non penalty not given against United Then the incident just gone away at West Brom And there have been loads of others, I just cant remember them all now. But looking… Read more »
Lacazette was offside, by an inch but offside as confirmed by technology. I can’t remember the penalty incident with Bellerin. Watford was a penalty, soft but it was and Cech still had the chance to save it in much the same way Spurs had the opportunity to defend our soft free kick. I don’t think there’s anything objective about your assessment to be honest mainly because as an Arsenal fan we can’t be 100% objective. I’m sure if we asked fan’s of our opposition they’d come up with lists of decisions that went our way that could have change the… Read more »
But you are not an Arsenal fan, John C. Chelsea through and through.
And you’re a Spurs fan through and through
I think your bias is showing pretty clearly. The chance to defend a penalty is not equivalent to the opportunity of defending a free kick, taken from at least twenty yards away from goal, with a wall in between. I don’t know if you are trolling, as some have suggested, or if you really are an Arsenal supporter but whose incredible hatred of Wenger makes it impossible for you to say anything positive about the team. Either way, it is increasingly difficult to take what you say seriously.
I’ve got no bias, i’m just pointing out he’s not objective.
This ranking of injustice and gain is pathetic. People are trying to prove a conspiracy which is completely unfounded based on the position on the pitch where a referee makes his shit call, as if it has any relevance. They’re incorrect decisions made for whatever reason and as i said as we’re not objective so we completely ignore them as an irrelevance.
Statistically Mike Dean figures stand out like a beacon with his record for Arsenal. No bias – FACTS.
You dismiss any sort of conspiracy yet offer no reason, but just as incorrect decisions for whatever reason…
So incorrect decisions keep on happening with the same ref to the same team (factual) can you offer all plausible causes?
I disagree it is a fact and your statistics could just be made up as you’ve provided no proof of their accuracy.
John C*nt, I think you may have already eclipsed the downvote rate record previously held by Fatgooner
@John C Mate, having a free kick from 35-40 yards from goal. Where the free kick taker has to deliver the perfect ball for Mustafi to rise up over the whole Spurs back line and header it into the top corner to get it past Lloris, is not the same as a penalty kick. A penalty is a kick from 12 yards. Where the odds are hugely tipped in favour of the player taking the penalty. Its a goal 9 times out of 10, especially in the Premier League. It is literally a completely non comparable situation. As for the… Read more »
Look i’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but a bad call is a bad call and ranking them serves no purpose and doesn’t confirm any bias. Personally i don’t think the Watford guy dived, i think it was clever play and would expect an Arsenal player to do the same thing in the same situation. The reason a lot of our fans don’t is because they’ve been conditioned over the last 10 years to think that wide men once they’ve got the edge of the box and are confronted with a defender are supposed to turn around and pass the… Read more »
I think you’ve misinterpreted my comment initially. I wasn’t trying to conclude that there was genuinely a bias against Arsenal. I was simply trying to compare the decisions that have gone for us, against the decisions that haven’t. Just to sort of put a hole in the theory that ‘it all evens out over the course of a season.’ Which clearly isn’t true at all. And all of the above hugely influence referees without question. Clattenburg even came out just before Christmas explaining that he went into the Chelsea Spurs game a season or two ago with a game plan,… Read more »
Every fan of every club think refs make bad calls against their team because they’re bias. I think the decision have evened themselves out, WBA should have had a penalty at the Emirates at nil nil earlier in the season in a game which we when on to win, who’s to say they wouldn’t have scored and gone on to win? Ozil was put clear through on goal versus Watford when we were 1-0 up despite being offside but missed, had he score we would have won, that’s been forgotten. Our first against Spurs was score as a result for… Read more »
I am talking about match defining moments where referees got it wrong. Not ifs and buts. Not if ‘what if Ozil scored an offside chance against Watford.’ Which by the way I can’t recall at all. There was the chance when Ozil slid Iwobi in and he missed but he wasn’t offside. Then there was the absolute sitter that Ozil missed when he was one on one with the keeper which he missed wasn’t offside either. So I am not sure what you are on about there. The Koscielny handball goal was last season for a start. And again, that… Read more »
The offside rule states that it must be a part of the player which can legally play the ball… so Lacazette wasn’t offside as a wrist and hand cannot play the ball legally.
You sir, have been playing too much fifa, as the computer game is the only way that call gets made. It was an instinctive call by the linesman at stoke, and it was wrong.
The chance to save a penalty and the chance to defend a free kick are not really equivalent, penalties are 75% – ish propositions and free kicks are much less likely to be scored. Poor analogy.
our win percentage with Mike Dean is about 26% and without him it’s closer to 60% (dating back to 2005 or so). Now, you could argue that he’s always the ref for our games against bigger teams but it sure looks like there’s a pattern of bias against our beloved team.
With Dean Arsenal get awarded a penalty ever 21 games. With every other club the average is 6 games.
So what? Can you show that Arsenal deserved one in more of those games?
Gus Caeser
Yes!!!!
Welbeck being tripped in the end of the game against West Brom.
Prove it then. If it’s the incident I am aware of there was no such foul.
with a 26% win rate – Arsenal would finish in the bottom half of the table every year if Dean refereed all of our games.
Except our win rate is actually much higher than that. We’ve actually lost 25% of league games Dean has reffed.
FA “will see what they want to see” and ban AW for life. Dean will carry on being a legend in his own mind and carry on fouling up games for no good reason other than to satisfy his own ego
Cunt, propably. The sad fact is that the game has progressed to the point a single man cannot follow the game properly. The FA, UEFA and FIFA are a farce by dragging their feet on the issue. Basketball has 10 players, a small court a fraction the size off a footy pitch and yet have two refs.
Three, actually
Yeah it’s clear that futbol needs more refs. American hand-egg uses a similar-sized field and has like 17 refs.
If Wenger gets any ban it’ll confirm that there’s absolutely no integrity left in the premiere league. I understand a Ref making a bad call live in the heat of the moment, but for the FA to look back at the situation, having known Mike Dean’s history as an incompetent cheat, and still ban Wenger, that’ll prove that’s there’s no integrity left in the game (in England).
My favorite part was Mike Dean saying “I’m talking, I’m talking” to Wenger like 4 or 5 times and Wenger just keeps on talking over him.
Haha I know right, loved that. Refs want respect but can show none and increasingly prove they deserve none.
It is a disgrace, Mike Dean and the FA that is. Ridiculous given the amount of money in modern day football.
Hence why it happens – if there wasn’t the money, there wouldn’t be these crazy decisions. Who would have thought it in an un regulated billion quid industry.
The English FA is a joke, continually supporting under performance from referees.
Oh and the national team. The richest FA in the world – but football isn’t their priority.
That is the kind of referees they need to
keep clubs like Arsenal from winning. Man U has close to a billion in debt and Arsenal being the only club in the league with it’s financial affairs in order produces nothing for the banksters. FA is a disgrace but no one there cares about their reputations as long as their palms get well greased.
Someone check Mike Dean’s PayPal account
Or Bitcoin these days ?
And mike dean again let off ? Bollocks..
it is by design
That cunt called Dean got some strong connections in FA, he is protected more than polar bears
Disgrace to the association..
Fellow gooners get off Mike Dean’s back. Let’s channel it towards the FA and PGMOL.
You can go sit with Dean in the dicks kate
Mike Dean is indeed a cunt but if you make it all about Mike Dean then FA will sack him and continue their charade with some other guy.
I’m fine with that.
You can question their competence but not their integrity and this is where Wenger regularly oversteps the mark.
Referee’s don’t have a conspiracy against Arsenal, Wenger just refuses to acknowledge when we benefit from equally poor decisions.
Personally I think referee’s make shit (but honest) decisions against all teams but i would also say the constant pressure, intimidation and harassment they receive only serves to undermine them and does nothing to help the situation or improve their decision making. In fact i would say it’s tantamount to cheating and ranks above diving.
Dean’s got it in for the Arsenal and that’s that. It doesn’t have to be an organized conspiracy. Simple incompetence and a willingness to look the other way at the FA regarding Dean’s record with us is all it takes, and we all know they’ve got those traits.
If a referee is to be recused from refereeing clubs they favor, the same should be for a club they evidentially disfavor. The facts speak for themselves.
I’d hate to be in your head. I’ve seen Dean ref other matches and i think he’s a bit of a cunt towards everyone, i don’t think he reserves special treatment for us. For me there’s no honesty with managers either, it’s not just Wenger, they all deflect the blame and use intimidation to try and influence the ref and this is a far bigger problem to my mind then say diving. Referee’s appear the only ones who need to be held accountable for their performances, which is a bit rich coming from a manager who self reviews his own… Read more »
Referees are the only persons involved in football with little accountability.
I’m with you on the whole ‘throwing our toys out of the pram’ aspect of this issue but you are seemingly naive to ignore all the statistics about Dean.
Will Dean be reprimanded for his poor performances? No
Is there some kind of bias against arsenal from refs? Not on the whole.
Does deans stats as an arsenal ref seem bad enough for an investigation? 100%
I’m not saying referees shouldn’t be held accountable but i think the whole relationship with match officials is totally wrong. Currently, refs seemingly answer to no one but get constantly undermined, intimidated and influenced by managers pre match, by the players during the match and then again by the managers after the match and then get asked why they make mistakes. For me this has to stop, and i would make rules against mentioning match officials in pre match press with managers heavily fined for doing so. Wenger is far from alone in this type of behaviour because it’s become… Read more »
It’s not often that I find myself sticking up for John on here but in the spirit of fairness i’m going to stick my head above the parapet and say that I entirely agree with what he’s said above. It was bad decision, I don’t think anyone is disputing that. The ball hit Chambers’ hand and I don’t think that Dean had a good enough angle to judge intent. He gave the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team but called it wrong. Badly. But I would also say that I have also seen many worst decisions, it wasn’t… Read more »
I’ve been going on about competence and fitness regarding the referees in england for years. Phil dowd was awful because he was too slow to keep up with play. Atkinson and moss embody this today. Refs like dean and Oliver use hubris and arrogance to make up for their lack of awareness during matches. First rule of officiating in any sport is this: nobody comes to see you. So do your best not to get noticed. Second rule of officiating: each call must be made in a vacuum. When you try to even out something you’ve gotten wrong for the… Read more »
Fitness-wise Dowd was the worst. Competence-wise Rob Styles takes some beating for ineptitude.
Dear John and Gus, Mike Dean has a definite influence on Arsenal results which when analysed over many games and years has proved to be scientifically beyond chance. Check out the stats by Prof Andy Field if you’re feeling a bit geeky, but it’s pretty damning and quite certainly disproves the notion that he is just a bad ref. He costs us games and points, year after year, when compared to our results under other refs. This sorry example of his abominable judgement against the baggies is just another one to add to the list of evidence for how he… Read more »
It doesn’t prove anything, its just proves we’re shit when he refs us.
The article provides no evidence to which bad decision has he made that has directly lead to us losing matches, just that we lose them at a higher rate when he’s officiating.
Nonsense. He’s made decisions in our favour and decisions against us. Some good some bad on both counts. Those are the facts, the rest is just selective memory to suit your narrative. Nobody is saying he’s a good ref but to say he’s intentionally trying to give decisiions against Arsenal is tin hat stuff, no other phrase for it. In the real world you have to prove bias, not just find a few decisions which went against us (many of which, rightly so) and then say that they were made because of bias. Prove he is actually biased.
You two need to go back to Uni if you fail to see this as proof…these statistical methods are how we determine proof for success of various medical treatments versus others, so not sure how much more ‘real world’ you want this to be. It is how you ‘prove’ bias, statistically.
And there you have it. John and Gus, so blinkered by your one-dimensional distaste for Wenger you can’t even see a cunt ref when the facts are clearly laid out in front of you.
If you think there’s no bias in football refs you’re a damned fool.
Exactly!!! These ppl are amazingly naive, to say the least. Some fans in here are so blinded from the hate against Wenger/ Club officials, that can’t see any damage caused by other ppl outside the club. This season we must have lost about 10 points because of cunt – refereeing like Dean, but to this ppl (so called Arsenal fans), it’s alright and very acceptable performance from referee. Wenger has all the rights in the world to moan about it. Ferguson refused giving post match interviews to BBC for years. You never heard any Man Utd fan crucifying him for… Read more »
I love Arsenal, i’m largely pro-Wenger. I just don’t tow the line with any old mass hysteria, i prefee to use my own brain & reach my own conclusion based on genuine facts. Try it.
So blinkered by your love of Wenger you’re unable to be objective.
I corrected it for you
I think if you looked at the history of my posts you’d find I’m neither 100% for nor 100% against Wenger. I don’t care for side-ism. It cheapens the discussion.
Ah yes, abuse & name-calling, the last refuge of the exhausted mind. We disagree, accept that, not everyone has to agree with you – grow up.
The exhausted mind. Oh my. You’re certainly not lacking in self opinion. Feathering your condescension up in language does not make your disrespect ‘mature’, amigo.
We do disagree. You can draw any conclusion you please, of course. The numbers, however, would seem to agree with me more.
Except they don’t. The numbers show that the vast vast majority of decisions made by Dean have gone our way. You remember a few because they suit your wish to get agitated and believe there’s a conspiracy, you want to get worked up and excited because presumably that’s what yo get your kicks from, rather than being objective and taking the blinkers off. Throwing around insults because people don’t agree with your perspective is the epitomy of immaturity.
Half of referees are Man U fans.
If someone makes the same mistake over and over again is it wrong to question them? But when you do you are punished by the people you are questioning? These action state there is no integrity.
The FA backing their incompetent staff to the hilt again. Nothing new tbh.
How exactly? I hate the FA but here they’re applying the rulebook. Nobody is saying that Dean won’t also be punished by demotion but two wrongs don’t make a right.
Dean will not get demoted for robbing Arsenal. If anything he’ll get a pat on the back.
He has before hasn’t he?
@Gus
I agree with you on what you said here and above but points lost is points lost. The FA should do something about it. The difference between finishing 5th and 4th was 1 point last season. Perhaps Sanchez and Ozil would have signed, maybe we could have had mbappe. Who knows?
Can’t let referees influence results anymore.
And it would have been a bigger margin had Koscielny’s handball/offside against Burnley been correctly disallowed or we wouldn’t have won the FA Cup had City’s perfectly legitimate goal not been ruled out in the semi.
All teams get bad decisions. Nobody moaned about the points we gained in the home game against West Brom. The best thing to do against the bottom club is to put the game out of reach & not leave yourself vulnerable to a joke/fluke/wonder goal. The real blame for dropping points lies closer to home.
Mike Dean is the one that should be getting charged by the FA for impersonating a premiership referee!!! Utter incompetence
This weird thing about questioning they have going on. Arsene “questioned the match referee’s integrity”. What does it sound like? Do not question authority, do not even think it. If you do so- you’ll face punishment. The outcome of this process is respect? Does it maintain respect? They’re feared, that’s for sure. The use of the word ‘respect’ is hilariously disingenuous. The kids all sing the same songs about match officials that the adults do, they even involve the dreaded ‘swear-words’. They aren’t sat in the stands thinking- boy I sure do respect these match officials today. The players smile… Read more »
I’d like to charge Mike Dean. With a battering ram.
What I wouldn’t give to hear how, at his hearing, he simply says ‘yes, I told him he was a cheating fuckwit. Charge me.’
It only shows how POOR FA & their refs are! 🙁
Where is FAIR PLAY???, what all sports should be about??
Disgrace to such a great game!! :((
I am surprised this incident has not bought up the topic of video referees. If this was referred to a video ref, then I think most if not all would agree that the penalty would not have been given, and Mike Dean would not have been front page of the sports again.
I think it would have been given depending what the question was.
If the question was “is there a reason not to give it?” it would have stood
On the other hand if it the question was: “Is this a penalty?” perhaps not
The directive this season is if it is at a short distance and the arms are in a natural position = no penalty. This was Cech point.
But Chambers arms weren’t in a natural position they were held out at shoulder height when the ball struck his arm.
What game were you watching? He came in at a run and had to turn his body to change direction. When in motion your arm is ahead of your chestand is going to come back across in a bent position and wont drop to your waist until youve squared yourself. Its just how thr human body moves.
Thats how the body moves but unfortunately the brain of Mike Dean doesn’t follow.
When you’re posts are being completely downvoted, it might be a good idea to make a change in something… 🙂
Only that his arms weren’t held out in an unnatural position at shoulder height. That aside you are absolutely correct.
Unnatural position shoulder height my arse!
https://youtu.be/Bkc6sVFKK9g
It’s funny that there aren’t replays of the view down the length of the pitch, the one Dean had, which show clearly Chambers arms held out in front of him, even that youtube video has his arms in front of him.
Do i think it’s a penalty? No i don’t but it isn’t the worst decision i’ve ever seen and i can see why it’s been given.
The ball hits is arm in the box, it’s a toss of a coin if it’s given or not.
They weren’t John – they were inside the width of his body and the ball struck his arm in line with the Emirates logo.
if the ball hadn’t hit his arm, it would have hit him in the stomach. although, granted, mike dean probably still would have given the penalty, but one can hardly argue that his arm was in an “unnatural position” or was “making his body wider”
Are you for real or are you here just to fuck up with our patience???
Who the fuck are you? Adrian Durham??????
But Arsenal would have won. What’s the point of awarding a non existent penalty
In other words he’ll get a ban for pointing out the obvious.
Nobody likes a pedant.
Apologies Pedant, nothing personal.
Np. I think you’ll find in the dictionary:
‘a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.’
What could be better?
A pint of Kingfisher in my favourite curry house after a night out?
No, in the actual words he’ll get a ban for being abusive or calling into question the integrity of an official. In other words the 68 year old behaved like a petulant child. Again.
Maybe he just tried to emulate some of the traits displayed many times by Dean himself. Just to put him at ease. And look what trying to accommodate Dean got him. More petulance by sweet daddy FA. You just can’t win with some people.
Or maybe… a 68 yo manger that is not meant to have an opinion or express it in public!!!!
A bit like in North Korea!
Except he’s not been charged for expressing an opinion has he?
Eh, MD made a bad,terrible, horrendous, decision. The question is, do we allow those types of decisions to stand or do we implement video review for situations like that? Most all professional sports have moved in this direction. It took too long to implement goal line technology. While VR is far from perfect, any official who isnt mike dean would have reversed that call. I dont doubt that dean thought he saw a hand ball. So now that we all know it wasnt after one look back, give these guys the chance to correct honest errors in judgement due to… Read more »
Rest assured fellow Gooner’s, knowing Wenger I’m sure that there will come a day in near future ( once he finally retires) and Wenger will speak, and boy oh boy how many people will then be wishing they didn’t fuck with the crazy professor. As on the very first match day interview he’ll make it plain and simple for all to see. Who is responsible for what and just how fair/equal/incorruptible/modern and many other things that English FA is. How lacking of steroids…all the bodies eventually float and this won’t be any different.
How haven’t we seen the Welbeck incident right after their goal? No replays, no ‘punditry’ on if it is a pen or not. Intriguing.
Not really. He was tackled fairly, lost the ball and fell over his own feet again.
Who lost the ball? You simply haven’t seen the incident, have you?
Welbeck pocked the ball away from the defender , which tackled Welbeck and brought him down without touching the ball…
And, yes! It was stonewall penalty
Yes I have, I just don’t agree with you that it was a penalty as you say. Maybe you haven’t actually watched it?!
Tells you all you need to know. The incident didn’t happen. MOTD didn’t mention it or show it, Sky the same, the tabloids etc.
They didn’t need to, it wasn’t even remotely close to being a penalty. Unless motd replay the whole game that sort of ‘incident’ will nevee be highlighted.
And with that the FA continue to set up their own ref, a very incompetent and questionable one, for a torrent of abuse from fans.
Mike Dean is a joke and so is the FA.
I repeat what i posted after the west brom game, mike dean the bald headed wank blaster!
Politeness gets you booked. Calling the referee out for being at best incompetent gets you banned. So it’s all stick and no carrot. But then we are talking about the PGMOL, a wholly unregulated body and the FA which is more concerned about providing a retirement home for well connected grandees and otherwise unemployable public school halfwits than doing the job it is supposed to be doing.
Yet they talk about respect….
“Dishonest to your federation” was a gem, I am curious what “abusive” words did the boss use this time.
Thing is this charge is for words Arsene had in private with the officials post game, not his tv interview or press conference.
Mike Dean, or one of his assistants, has taken a dislike to something an (understandably) angry manager has said in private and gone to the FA to essentially tattle on him. That’s pretty fucking petty in my book. Surely a referee should be able to defuse situations like this given their job. Pathetic from both the FA & Dean’s team.
And these idiots wonder why Wenger always turns them down and they have to go cap in hand to done-nothing nobodies like Southgate to get someone to manage the team of cross country runners and rugby league built morons their own “strategy” helps to pump out.. ..
Referees need refereeing. The dive by Richarlison, the Silva offside, the no penalty at Stoke, and now at West Bromwich. Match performances aside, referees have cost us a lot of points. Something needs to be done.
The lack of cards shown to alli and sterling for diving…
The lack of punishment for horrible tackles by alli and kane.
I just want Mike Dean to step on a piece of Lego every day he wakes up and every night when he goes to sleep.
Just wrote my letter to the FA. Probably a waste of time, but at least I could vent a little.
Did you tell them that John Terry has now been officially retired as Chief Cunt with Mike Dean take up the position effective immediately?
Hahahahaha
Well done Liebenrood.
I think it’s time for us as fans to get behind the manager of our club (irrelevant of our disagreement that he should be our manager) and write a petition to FA and PGMOL against Dean … He should NEVER be allowed to referee another game for us.
But, most importantly, I think the Arsenal FC should also write a very strong worded letter to FA and PGMOL asking some questions that should have been asked 10 years ago… When Eduardo, Rambo and Diaby were getting their legs broken by criminals on the pitch.
Video technology assistance will be used for the very first time in the cup match between Brighton and Palace. Fingers crossed this will be the beginning of the end for referees like Mike Dean.
What I fear is if the center ref does the review, it won’t change a damn thing when Dean and Taylor are involved.
Well. That’s what I fear too. This is not incompetence. This is biased against Arsenal and VAR won’t make a blinding difference cuz cunt Dean will still award that penalty even after watching it on the screen in slow motion.
Don Arsene
Don’t forget the time Dean celebrated a Spurs goal. Wow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StRVqK7xgw4
I think the FA have gone into panic mode. They really didn’t have a leg to stand on, and bringing a charge against Wenger is a poor attempt at damage control. The Manager should call their bluff and appoint a QC to “view the evidence” before the deadline. That would put this who issue into the MSM AWAY from the weak Sports media that we have in this country.
At the moment, I think I trust Kim Jong Un more than I do Riley, Dean and these fuckers at the FA.
FA should be reviewing their refs if anything.
First class Premier league ref by a bunch of half baked amateurs.
OTOH we do ourselves no favours.
We did not do enough to win the match regardless of freak (and very likely considering who was in charge) refereeing decisions.
If we want to avoid these sort of anomalies, we need to finish better and be a bit more composed.
Whilst we should have won by more than one goal, one goal is enough to win a game (as per the George Graham training manual).
A win is a win and the ref shouldn’t artificially alter that.
Mike Dean is a Knob he knew that wasn’t a penalty.
There is a conspiracy. But I do not think it is a biasness per se against any club. Rather I feel the FA wants to “spice” and “script” the EPL and their agents are the referees. I think it is done deliberately to create conspiracies etc to make the league more engaging and win more bucks. I do not think it is a coincidence that WBA and Crystal Palace both got soft penalty calls on the same night against the big clubs. I also think that while Leicester played great football that title winning year; the FA saw the opportunity… Read more »
Yes, the refs are the ringmasters for the FA/PL Circus.
Like all good soap operas they have good guys, bad guys, mad guys, plucky hardworking underdogs etc etc.
Unfortunately AW has been their whipping boy ‘johnny foreigner’ for many years.
Here’s what Wenger said…
[let’s hope]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJQU22Ttpwc