Arsenal have had enough problems with the decisions of referees in the games we have played in the Premier League season, thank you very much. But it also seems to me that the EPL officials are hurting the Gunners even in games that we are not involved in, especially the helping hands they keep giving to the league leaders Leicester City.
For once, though, it looked like Arsenal would be the beneficiaries of a contentious decision, with the straight red card shown by Mark Clattenburg to the West Ham midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate meaning that he would miss the next three games, starting with the visit of Arsenal on Saturday.
Well obviously they didn’t want to do us any favours, or at least that is how I see the somewhat odd decision to rescind the card and allow Kouyate to play against us. It is not often that the FA changes these decisions and I fail to understand why they did this time. Yes video evidence shows he got the ball but it was still a studs up lunge and I remember our own Olivier Giroud appealing a similar red and getting turned down, surprise, surprise!
Kouyate is the top tackler in the West Ham side as you can see from the Squawka.com chart and he gives them huge energy as well in the centre of the pitch, so he would have been a big miss for the Hammers on Saturday.
Oh well Arsenal, we will just have to make sure we beat them with Kouyate. But have the refs got it in for us?