That was disgusting all round from the ref.
1) Ref blew too early:Â He should have never blown when the wall and keeper were still sorting themselves out. Unless they brought back the old rule of taking the freekick quickly like Henry used to. But at some point that was stopped to prevent him from doing that and taking the freekick quickly before the ref blew.
2) Was whistle blown?: Once he did make the mistake of blowing the whistle in the first place, the goal should have stood. There was no question about whether he blew the whistle, it was clear as day on the first viewing.
3) Claim of a second whistle: They mentioned a second whistle from the ref right afterwards but before the ball hit the back of the net but you can't stop a shot on goal kid air because you feel you made a mistake before.
4) Offside Claim: There's no way they could call the goal offside. The keeper was standing on the other side of the goal and the two players they are looking at are nowhere near attempting to touch the ball or blocking the keepers view.
The mistake stemmed from the fact the ref accidentally or otherwise blew the whistle too quickly, in a way that no longer happens in the PL. They then proceeded to realise this and tried to rectify it by looking for any excuse to disallow it, first by questioning whether the whistle was blown, whether there was a second whistle, and whether there was an offside. Absolute incompetence. Guy should be demoted immediately.
