In the same week that Arsenal fans, or me at least, have been left shocked and bemused by the decision to give control of the Arsenal v Hull City match in the FA cup to our old friend Mike Dean, I read with interest that another high profile referee Mark Clattenburg is to be punished for his mistake last weekend.
As reported by The Mirror, the controversial official will be taken out of the firing line and will not take charge of a match when the next round of EPL games are played next weekend. This is after he got it wrong last weekend when awarding a penalty to our north London rivals Tottenham for a handball when replays showed that the Man City forward Raheem Sterling had not in fact handled the ball and furthermore the position of Clattenburg meant that he could not see the incident and had to guess.
Some teams seem to have all the luck and the jammy spuds got another big helping hand this week in the Europa League when their young player Dele Alli deliberately kicked an opponent who was lying on the floor in the stomach. How the referee only gave a yellow card for that I am still trying to understand.
But back to Arsenal and the fact that Clattenburg has been stopped from refereeing one of the next EPL matches after his mistake when Mike Dean was not sanctioned for his bigger blunders when he cost us the game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this season. Dean was straight back in action after his awful performance and the fact that he has plenty of previous with the Gunners should have made it even worse.
But no, he gets no punishment and is now given another big Arsenal match to potentially ruin. How is that fair?