It is great that Arsenal fans felt so strongly about the performance of Mike Dean on Saturday that they created a petition on Change.org to try to persuade the FA to never allow Dean to referee another Arsenal game, but I bet they could never have predicted that they would have got so many signatories so quickly. At this moment it stands at 57,019….and still increasing by the hour.
The creator, Jamie Cassar, chose his words carefully and the petition reads: “After many poor decisions that go against Arsenal when Mike Dean is refereeing the game, it is time that we get an inquiry to his ability to referee Arsenal games. Major incidents have occurred in recent and past games that show he is inept at refereeing at this level now.
“The recent events at Chelsea V Arsenal (19/09/15) highlight this where two Arsenal players were dismissed while Diego Costa the opposition player made 4 straight red card incidents and was show one yellow card only.
“Also the incident where Mike Dean celebrated for the opposition, when they scored a goal, this was in the Arsenal V Tottenham Hotspur fixture (26/02/2012) video attached via link: https://youtu.be/3SPb8CYF4o4”
We could be cynical and wonder why the FA appointed Dean for Saturday’s big London derby in the first place, considering his previous history in Arsenal games. Could it be that the bigwigs were worried about Chelsea getting too far behind in the title race and wanted to make it as easy as possible for Mourinho? Time for another #conspiracytheory!!!