Arsenal comprehensively beat Leeds United this afternoon despite a terrible decision by the referee and his use of VAR.
Over the last couple of months, I have been embarrassed by some of the constant complaining by some of our own fans over decisions made by the officials, both on the field and off via VAR.
I do not subscribe to all these conspiracy theories being spouted and I do not blame the officials for our overall inconsistent performances this season, that, in my opinion, lies solely at the door of the manager, however, that does not mean that the officials are not slowly bringing the game into disrepute.
You see, I have witnessed some outrageous calls against many sides this season, not just Arsenal and that tells me there is no conspiracy against our club, it tells me that incompetence is rife.
Today was a humdinger, Bukayo Saka was clearly fouled by Leeds’ Liam Cooper and the referee Stuart Atwell, rightfully gave a penalty, only to go to the monitor and overturn his own decision.
That was a scandalous call, one that I simply cannot fathom and this is not me being tribal, you will find no articles on here from me attacking the referees, this is the first one I have done, that is how strongly I feel, in fact, I am not even going to attack the referee but those in authority that refuse to act in the face of so much evidence.
I do not feel that Premier League refs are any worse than the other top five leagues, I see these sort of incidents in La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 and that points to a massive lack of training in interpreting the rules and use of VAR.
It is us the fans that are suffering more than the actual players and clubs. All clubs at the highest levels suffer at the hands of the officials which means all fans are being short-changed and that is not right and something must be done for the sake of the game we all love so much.
I am a fan of VAR and want it to stay, but not how it is being implemented right now.