Is officiating starting to get silly in the Premier League?
On the weekend Mikel Arteta was, for the 4th time this season shown a yellow card on the touchline. Now, if were being honest, he probably deserved it, Kaoru Mitoma had committed to what was a pretty nasty challenge on Bukayo Saka and Arteta has thrown his arms up in frustration and was quickly shown a yellow card by referee Tim Robinson and as I said, he probably deserved it, but personally I feel like these decisions are starting to get a bit silly and referees just seem card happy.
This is not the first time Arteta has been punished for his antics on the touchline and a lot of people out there are saying maybe he should be learning from his mistakes, but I think people really need to take emotions into consideration. No, it’s obviously not okay to go abusing the officials or anything like that, but when it comes down to pure emotion I think caution must be taken.
Football is such a passionate sport, a lot of decisions don’t go your way at times, and you have to learn to deal with that, but for some it’s harder than others to keep your emotions inside and for me, as long as it’s not abusive, I don’t see the issue. How can you expect managers or even plyers to not react to things that they don’t agree with? Arteta was one of four managers that were shown a yellow card on the weekend and for me that’s just ridiculous. We’re entering a stage of the game where referees are becoming more protected than managers and players, and whatever they say apparently goes.
Take the Liverpool vs Manchester United game this weekend for a prime example, as much as I have a distaste for United, Diego Dalot was shown two yellow cards in the space of 30 seconds for exactly the same thing, dissent. And to me, that makes absolutely no sense and of course the referee who branded the red card was Michael Oliver, who I’m sure you’ll all remember did something similar with Gabriel Martinelli. All these decisions that the referees are now allowed to make are ruining the game for me.
I might just have my red and white tinted glasses on and I’m sure every football fan feels the same, but for me, Arsenal seems to always be targeted by these decisions. Unless the manager or the players are abusing the officials, I don’t see why they should continue to be punished for passion and emotion. Taking that out of the game would be a huge mistake but that seems to be where the game is heading.
What’s your thoughts Gooners? Is the officiating getting a bit too silly in the Premier League this season?
Daisy Mae
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