Every fucking week….

Here we are again. Every fucking week. It simply isn’t good enough. It can’t go on. I repeat what I said recently - our current crop of match officials aren’t fit for purpose. They’re hopeless. And they’re ruining the best league in the world.

As you’ve probably guessed - I’m angry today. As angry as Arteta was - and he had every right to be. And Arsenal had every right to defend their man.

If we truly believe in free speech why can’t a coach tell us how he feels post match? Fans want to hear what their man is thinking. Free speech - not irresponsible speech, not hate speech. We want to hear genuine opinions, not diluted platitudes.

I believe Arteta was well within his rights to express his frustration following one of the most outrageous injustices I’ve seen on a football pitch this season - and there’s a few to chose from. Ask Gary O’Neil if I’m right. Or Klopp. Or…. There’s too many.

Again - why aren’t we allowed to hear bunker/ref conversations? Why not? If there’s nothing to hide - why not ffs? I know IFAB met last week and ruled it out again - but what on earth is IFAB exec Lukas Brud talking about when he says hearing the conversations would be ‘too chaotic’ for viewers? How arrogant is that? No it wouldn’t.

If it truly is chaotic conversation in the bunker then change the protocol. Get some discipline. It’s all such bollocks - and it’s one excuse after another. It’s our game - not IFAB’s. Not the PGMOL’s. Our game. We want to be involved in it, not treated like second class citizens, who’re lucky to be able to spend hard earned money to see our team play, knowing that some of it ultimately goes to supporting the pompous tone-deaf clowns who run these various organisations. We should all have been listening to the farce at Newcastle as it unfolded.

I’m in the luxurious position of being able to say what I think about the falling standards of officialdom in our top league - but imagine taking a call from a high ranking PL broadcast official reminding you who pays your wages. Scary. It happened to two people that I know recently. The message was clear ‘stop criticising the refs’. What sort of world are we living in when people who run the game also want to steer the narrative?

Between them the guys officiating Newcastle/Arsenal had a nightmare. Havertz has got to go off. His challenge was ridiculous and ticked all the boxes for serious foul play under law 12. I believe Stuart Attwell got his yellow card out thinking that if he’d got it wrong VAR would rule. It’s what refs do these days. They often don’t make big calls because the technology is there as a back-up. As it happened - Andy Madley also failed to make the correct decision. Did he not want to cause his mate trouble?

Bruno Guimaraes should’ve gone off. Attwell missed him hitting Jorghino’s head but Madley should’ve seen it. Another fail.

At beINSPORTS we produced evidence to suggest that Willock kept the ball in play during the build-up to the Newcastle goal by a millimetre. So erring on the side of caution was probably right but would anyone have complained if that ball had been called out?

So play was allowed to develop and then came the next contentious issue - Joelinton’s clear push on Gabriel. He’s clearing that ball if he isn’t pushed in the back. I was told one pundit claimed the Arsenal defender ‘dived under the ball’. What nonsense. I didn’t hear the claim so I can only hope my info was wrong. It was a push. End of. It should’ve been ruled a foul.

Did Joelinton handle the ball? Yes - but the current interpretation of the handball law rules out any offence because he didn’t benefit from the incident himself. So there was no reason to rule the goal out, but we wouldn’t be discussing this if Attwell and Madley had done their jobs properly and penalised Joelinton.

Was a Gordon off-side. Who knows? Somehow there wasn’t a camera angle to prove one way or the other. Why not? Weren’t we told the addition of more cameras this season would end the arguments?

One other thing - the debates about the goal mask another one that Arteta won’t be able to put off much longer. Raya is not an upgrade on Ramsdale. He’s poor on crosses. He flapped at Willock’s. He flapped one onto the bar in the derby v Spurs that led to Son’s equaliser and Mudryk’s mis-hit cross caught him badly out of position. Arteta has created himself a real problem here. ‘He’s good with his feet’ they say. Well he wasn’t v Lens. I’m with Arsene Wenger, who said on a beINSPORTS programme recently ‘I like my goalkeeper to be able to make saves’.

Message to Poch - when you manage Chelsea if asked ‘would you go back to Spurs?’ The answer isn’t ‘why not?’ The answer is ‘I’m the manager of Chelsea. I’m committed to this club now and want to get it right here’, something which he clearly hasn’t done so far. Chelsea fans don’t want to know that you’re still a Tottenham fan at heart.

How much longer has Vincent Kompany got at Burnley? If he doesn’t start listening to some of his coaching staff and change he won’t be around to see them relegated. Bringing in an official drummer isn’t the answer. Tightening up and not being so easy to play against is.