Every so often in games there are decisions that are made by the officials which leave virtually everyone scratching their heads.
In the Arsenal v Crystal Palace game on Monday night we saw another one of those when James McArthur completely took out Bukayo Saka who had already cleared the ball.
To anyone watching the game, it was dangerous play and almost certainly deserving of a red card, and yet VAR didn’t come in to advise the referee, Mike Dean, that he had made a clear and obvious error by issuing only a yellow.
Former Premier League ref, Mark Halsey, told CaughtOffside that McArthur was “extremely lucky” to stay on the pitch.
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Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher also noted after the match that the Crystal Palace man deserved his marching orders.
? “It just feels like it takes an awful lot for them to say it’s a clear and obvious error.”@Carra23 calls VAR’s decision not to send off James McArthur for his challenge on Saka an “error” pic.twitter.com/1XfaujDBVY
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) October 18, 2021
? Bent: “McArthur is no where near the ball. I think it’s a red card on its own.”
? Woods: “It genuinely was! If you’ve ever seen a red card…that was a red card!”
Darren Bent & Laura Woods both agree that James McArthur should have been sent off for his challenge on Saka. ? pic.twitter.com/50H2FaLML9
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) October 19, 2021
Darren Bent and Laura Woods, speaking on talkSPORT, talked of Saka being “cleaned out,” and the question has to be asked as to how the correct decisions aren’t being arrived at when it’s so blindingly obvious to everyone else.
Are we really in a situation whereby, after this long, supposed experienced officials are still getting the simple decisions incorrect?
Perhaps a change at the top of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) needs to be effected.