Crazy Referee
I was watching the Arsenal Vs Newcastle match at the weekend and have to admit that the referee had a huge bearing on the outcome of that match.
The Tackle
As you can see from this photo the referee is blocked from seeing the tackle by two players. How can He possibly make the decision to send him off from there? That sending off changed the game. Newcastle battled very hard with ten men for 80 minutes and looked like pulling off a well deserved draw.
The referee on the other hand had other ideas, N’Zogbia barely touched off Ljungberg and he went over in the box. Penalty! After that Newcastle had no chance, Henry slotted the ball into the bottom right corner and Van Persie added another just minutes after coming on to replace Bergkamp to seal the victory.
If the referee had seen the incident he would not have given Jenas a red card, but as it turns out he only seen Gilberto’s reaction to the tackle and acted on that. Newcastle were more then a match for Arsenal up until that point and had successfully restricted Arsenals chances.
Will that decision by the referee have a bearing on how these teams finish at the end of the season? Only time will tell.
Update
Some Justice seems to have been done as the referee has requested the red card be reduced to a yellow. This obviously will not be of much comfort to Newcastle boss Souness as he will lament what could have been with eleven players on the pitch.