Whilst the referee got it right in sending off Gervinho (if you raise your hands you should know what to expect), Barton the instigator should have received the same punishment for dragging the Arsenal forward up by the scruff of his shirt using ‘excessive force’ – one of the key ingredients in FIFA’s description for a violent conduct dismissal. Barton however escaped with only a yellow card for his part. Mistake number two. It is also worth noting that Gervinho’s penalty incident was a tough call, even showing replays I cannot make my mind up whether it is a penalty, or a dive.
But if deemed a dive the referee, who waved play-on, should have stopped play and booked the Ivorian. However once Walton waived play-on, and Barton became physical with Gervinho ‘off-the-ball’, the officials would have been well within their rights to then give a penalty to Arsenal. Another mistake.
Onto the final major incident of the weekend which occurred at Anfield and involved Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, Sunderland’s Kieran Richardson and the ever incompetent Phil Dowd. After a mistake from Richardson put Liverpool’s Uruguayan clean through on goal with only the keeper to beat, Richardson brought down Suarez inside the area just as he was in the process of rounding the Sunderland keeper.
Dowd correctly awarded a penalty – but incorrectly left Richardson on the pitch, instead of giving him his marching orders for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Dowd’s excuse? Suarez was moving away from goal. Newsflash Phil, that’s what players tend to do when attempting to round the keeper. It was a flimsy excuse for not having the bottle to make the correct decision only 4 minutes into the game, and whilst Liverpoolmissed the ensuing penalty, they should have been playing the remaining 86 minutes against 10-men.
It is these types of decisions which annoy fans and cost club’s valuable points and sometimes, managers their jobs. However referees for the most part, continue to be immune from poor play. New season, same old referees.
Written by Jimmy Areabi for FootballFancast.com. If you want to read more from myself including news, thoughts and views you can follow me on Twitter @fantasista1077 thanks!
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