Absolutely, the 8 seconds thing that the commentator and Arteta post match were going on about is irrelevant, collectively Arsenal took nearly 30 seconds for a throw in and Tomiyasu just happened to be the player booked for it as they played pass the parcel with the ball.
Not sure. I don’t doubt things were likely missed but my concern is that this is then used to undermine the new rules. The question I would ask is overall is our game better or worse for the new guidelines ?
Totally better for the new rules (not guidelines). As long as it is applied consistently. Super stringent in our game, I would guess less so in others?
I agree with your point about player safety being the priority.
My guess would be that some things were just missed. I think it unlikely that some refs adhered to the new guidelines in their entirety and others didn’t in their entirety. In our game the ref clamped down early which is probably key. Player co-operation will also play a part and refs may need to be stronger when there are concerted attempts to undermine their authority.
Dismissing unconscious bias, isn't the answer though is it?
You're not going to get a perfect consistency on this between games. You probably won't get it through the entire season. The rules are there to change behaviour and the earlier games in the season are there for refs to demonstrate that they're applying the new rule(s). I think all we can really hope for is consistency within a game, and a broader consistency across each match day.
But you can’t have consistency from referees anymore than you can have it from players. They aren’t robots.
I don’t think the ref saw the Partey incident. I thought he would be booked as well but when the camera took in the ref he was looking elsewhere. It happens. You can’t expect them to have eyes on 22 players at all times.
No, not necessarily. The longer the sample (in time) perhaps there is some evening out but that doesn’t necessarily occur within a season and it is statistically possible for a club to be on the wrong side of enough decisions for it to have an impact. It’s very difficult to prove either way though which is the reason I am not convinced. Supporters of non big six clubs will tend to be of that view and will re-enforce each other’s opinion. If you go to big six forums though you will read just as many accusations of bias against their team as you do on here. It’s the nature of football support.
I mean, you're right. Ref's whether on a pitch or in a VAR studio are terrified of Klopp, Guardiola etc, and not so terrified of De Zerbi, Hodgson, Frank etc and the leak this has into their decision making is painfully obvious to anyone who watches PL football.
But as a club, we've dealt with fan bases of other clubs in transfer dealings over the last few years. Some fan bases are relatively sensible and pragmatic. Some are utterly deluded. We know this to be true, so I don't think you can compare the opinions of say, Man Utd or Leeds fans, to say, Brentford or Forest. (I'm averaging out there of course).
Absolutely but that shouldn’t have included red carding MacAllister at the weekend- I suspect there will be more obvious errors like that this season with some Refs apparently interpreting the new rules as a message to ‘get tough’ and VAR being even more reticent in overturning what in this case was a clear and obvious error.
I started a similar thread to this ('wouldn't have been a card / goal / pen last season) and made the point that with the exception of adding on the exact time taken for a goal celebration there are no new laws. Referees have merely been instructed to interpret the existing ones more strictly. Quite right too.
