Today's referee got what wrong?

3 Barton yellow cards not given
1 Barton red card not given for that tackle on Diaby.
poor penalty call
did not give a legitimate goal for Newcastle

that's a pretty impressive list for one day.

The free kick for the fourth was not a freekick in a million years either.

The first penalty was soft. The second wasn't even almost a penalty.

Oh, and he also missed Kevin Nolan putting our goalie in a headlock.

Honestly, if he can come back and ref again without even a disciplinary, it will make a mockery of all referees.

It's not about standards, it's about taking bribes. I never thought I'd accuse a Premier League referee of being bought just a week ago, but that's honestly what it looks like to me. The last two games have been impossibly bad. Maybe it's time to investigate them properly. They unearthed pretty shocking stuff when they did that in both Italy and Germany not too long ago.

The last goal by Vanpersie. The one ruled offside. From the replays I saw, I thought it was fairly close, and if indeed the benefit of the doubt should be given to the attacker, it was a valid goal.

Not going to moan about refereeing standards, as they have always been relatively poor in the premier league. Don't think there's much to the bribery or corruption claims either, but there is definitely a clear bias against Arsenal most of the time, and for me, it's all down to xenophobia and dare I say a bit of racism.

The media also doesn't help matters much.

Klaus wrote:

It's not about standards, it's about taking bribes. I never thought I'd accuse a Premier League referee of being bought just a week ago, but that's honestly what it looks like to me. The last two games have been impossibly bad. Maybe it's time to investigate them properly. They unearthed pretty shocking stuff when they did that in both Italy and Germany not too long ago.

That is a strong claim Klaus. Let's stick to what we can observe rather than delve into unfounded speculation. There is enough material for discussion in the mistakes made alone.

I said that it's what it looks like to me, and I stick by it. Some things just can't be explained away by incompetence. I've watched 15-20 hours of football each week for most of my life and I can't remember any referee in a professional top league being as bad as Dowd was today.

Klaus, it's not necessarily about bribes, but more about referees wanting to make the games exciting. It's about constructing the premier league as "the most exciting league in the world." Ratings feed off of games like this. If Dowd doesn't make the first penalty call, does Newcastle come back and equalize eventually? Maybe, but probably not. Giving the penalty keeps things interesting, which is exactly what they want out of the league.

Maybe. It's been deliberate at least, I'm sure of that much.

It sounds like such a ludicrous thing to say, Klaus, but I don't know how you can come to any other conclusion after watching that match.

Nobody's that incompetent.

If I were to bet, I'd just say the game is an outlier. Almost every game you watch, referees make one really bad call (equivalent to not awarding the legit Newcastle goal or not punishing Nolan for assaulting our goalie). This is possibly just one game where the referee managed to make multiple such bad calls.

It was bad enough that he should be considered for the Uriah Rennie treatment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/jan/22/newsstory.sport7

I have seen the second penalty incident time and again and it was a suo moto decision as if Dowd was some vigilante. There were a few voices in the crowd but the Arsenal players simply walked away and so did most Newcastle players. It was beyond ridiculous. As a fan you feel the club is being victimized when you have seen what has happened in the last two games. Every other club thinks the same at the smallest of injustices but this happens a lot to us.

I always believed these things even themselves out over the season but something seems very intentional here.

I first gave him the benefit of the doubt for the first penalty thinking from where he saw it, it may have looked like one but the second was robbery and Nolan headlocking Szczensy under the linesman's nose and not even getting booked was unbelievable.

Tony: There's a limit for everything, rather. Like asa said - how else would you explain it. Nobody who has been through the kind of training that referees at this level are exposed to is that incompetent. Especially not at the age of 48 with a full career at top level behind them.

I'm usually not a fan of blaming everything on the referee. I think they've got a job where people fail to appreciate them when they do well and are quick to tear them to shreds when they make a mistake. Dowd was something else though. It's not incompetence when you award a team two penalties out of nowhere. It's not incompetence when you stand five metres away looking directly at Kevin Nolan while he pushes Szczesny to the ground and choose not to act, having sent off Diaby for an identical thing a few minutes earlier. It's not incompetence when you allow Barton to play like he did without giving him as much as a yellow card for 90 minutes. It's sabotage. For whatever reason he deliberately sabotaged the game.

The linesman flagged it so he had little choice.

In any case: I don't know if he was bribed or not and I don't particularly care. It was clear as a day to everyone that he altered the outcome of the game by choice rather than incompetence though. He knew exactly what he was doing.

It's different for an offside isn't it, far more instinctive.

This is two games in a row where the referees have been so bad that it inevitably looks like they're doing their best to rob us. We were fortunate against Everton, not so much against Newcastle though.

The overall poor level of refereeing does surely show the need for technological help, doesn't it? Video replays, goal-line technology etc. should gradually be taken into use.