It’s hard to sit here this morning and not think about tomorrow night’s game.
Even though there’s part of me that’s annoyed about what happened at the weekend. Not the weekend gone, the one just before. I watched the Merseyside derby last night and Everton were very Everton again. To be fair, the home advantage for that game and the fact they could set up a pitch that was dry and bobbly was a big help for Dyche-ball, but still.
I saw Everton described as ‘toothless’ in a match report about last night. Against us, they were all teeth. They were like someone had taken all the teeth from Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers and that lad in your gym who went to Bulgaria and came back with a set of choppers so white you need shades on to look at him when he opens his mouth. Toothy McToothface. And last night, not a molar or an incisor between them. Twats.
Of course I’m still annoyed about the weekend just gone too. You can only hope that the Premier League will recognise that refereeing cock-ups like we saw in our game, the Brighton game, the West Ham game, and beyond, might well cause plenty of drama and coverage, but reflect badly on the league as a whole.
I am dubious about Howard Webb in his new role as chief refereeing officer at PGMOL, but I suppose all we can do is hope that he’s open to making improvements. Under Mike Riley, this organisation has been opaque and answerable to nobody, even though it is funded by the Premier League, the EFL, and The FA. There’s a lot of work to do in raising the standards, and I would love to know what exactly his remit is.
PGMOL has been resistant to technology under Riley. VAR was introduced later than in other countries, and while other leagues use automated offside technology, it has yet to be introduced in the ‘best league in the world’. The richest league in the world too, which should mean it’s out in front with stuff like this, but as ever – in part because of how officiating is run – it trails behind.
What can Webb do to improve the quality and diversity of the officiating pool? Can they offer a pathway to a good career? Incentivise refereeing as an option with good salaries, but with accountability too. You can earn good money, but like in any other job, if you don’t do it properly, there are consequences. There are no black or minority referees in the Premier League. As user Phillip Fort said on our Patreon, ‘There are more refs from Australia than London.’
Something’s gotta give. Like I said, I’m not confident. It’s a bit like a corrupt police force appointing a new head commissioner. He might say some of the right stuff about cleaning things up and making things better, but the fundamental DNA of the organisation itself makes that nigh on impossible.
Still, we know that the man who drew the VAR lines in the wrong place in the Brighton v Palace game, and who was due to be on VAR for our game tomorrow night, has been replaced. That’s a very small step in the right direction. I have no idea what fixture Lee Mason was supposed to do next, but if you get dropped for drawing the lines in the wrong place, there must be worse coming if you forget to draw them at all.
We had a bit of a conversation about this on the Arsecast Extra yesterday. Is it absolutely necessary for full-time VAR officials to have been full-time referees? If you know the rules and understand the technology, is there a way to provide a career path for people who could be good at the job but don’t want to spend years as the man in the middle? It’s hard to know, but then it’s also hard to find out any information regarding PGMOL – in 2023 they don’t even have a website. They made their announcement for this season’s crop of referees on Instagram. It strikes me there’s a fair bit they can do in a short space of time to provide basic info and transparency.
I also think that most football fans will acknowledge that a ref’s job is not easy, and in football there’s a culture of dissent that is not tolerated in other sports. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to have the best standards as possible; nor does it mean that a referee can make up a rule about a player being the third one to run up to him so he gives him a second yellow card. There’s a lot on the line for every team, but for Arsenal this season the list of officiating errors has undoubtedly cost us points this season. I know some people don’t care for this entire discussion, but there comes a point where unless you actively acknowledge and speak about the problem, it will never get fixed. From any perspective.
As such, I’m curious to hear what Mikel Arteta might say about it in his press conference later. He’s a man who usually choose his words carefully. He might well play it down because there’s nothing he can do about the points that were lost on Saturday, but a few choice remarks ahead of a home game against a team like City might well be useful. That, plus the noise of 60,000 Arsenal fans who will be in no mood to tolerate any more refereeing nonsense could be impactful in the biggest game of the season so far.
Let’s see. Press conference coverage on Arseblog News later, and we’ll have a preview podcast for you over on Patreon this afternoon too.
For now, have a good one.
