Just our reffing luck

First things first. Chelsea were too good for us. Going to Stamford Bridge where the record now stands at eight played, eight won was always going to be a big ask to take anything from the game. The gulf in class was just too big, and even if Song and Sakho had started, I believe we would still have been beaten as convincingly.

Still however, I believe we should have been going there and started our very best side, giving ourselves a small chance. It sends out the wrong message to the players and the fans, almost conceding defeat before the ball has been placed on the centre spot. I do however understand that they are difficult choices for the manager to make, with the games coming thick and fast over the festive period which almost makes me forgiving. Almost.

The second London derby came with the visit of the Gunners two days later and although we stood toe to toe with them, the result didn’t go our way. A rip roaring , end-to-end game, missed chances, an absolute howler from contract rebel Winston Reid (I watched it 50 times, it was a stonewall penalty) and a lapse in concentration just before half time ended up costing us at least a share of the spoils. Oh the decision to chalk off our opener had quite a bit to do with it too.

It was such a strange decision and a hard one to argue for or against, one of those that, since the change to the offside rule, is firmly stuck in the grey area of the law where active players and phases of play seemingly differ from referee to referee, given at their own discretion.


This angle shows the goalkeeper's view is not blocked by any West Ham players


There were two West Ham players marginally offside when the ball was struck, that I have no bones about. Neither of them touched the ball, ie there was no deflection that took the ball past Szczesny. Sakho jumped over the ball, so the decision has to be from the referee and linesman that the goalkeeper was unsighted by the two offside players, which they cannot possibly know. In fact Andy Carroll, if anyone, was slightly hindering the keeper's line of vision, but he was onside.

I have never been a fan of the change of law since it was introduced. It has referees and fans scratching their heads in unison as to what actually constitutes an active player. They could have 10 referees viewing the same Song strike and most would give the goal. That has to be addressed.

A rule shouldn’t be a matter of opinion, it should be clear, black and white. If it was the old days and it was chalked off it wouldn’t be a talking point as it would have been offside. It was a poor decision in my opinion, the goal should have stood, and even old Arsene Magoo saw it and thought it was a goal, so it must hold some weight. If it would have stood I believe we would have gone on to win the game.



Kevin Nolan is adjudged to be offside at Old Trafford by an eagle-eyed lino


It’s not the first time of course this season that we have found ourselves on the receiving end of a wrong decision. Cast your minds back to a few weeks back at the Stadium of Light, Adam Johnson seemingly being caught in a big gust of wind and being awarded a penalty, which was converted. Final result, 1-1.

Go back a bit further to Goodison Park and Romelu Lukaku scoring from an offside position. Then of course McCarthy's tackle that should have bought a red , but didn’t; final result, a 2-1 defeat. A bit further still and Old Trafford, piling heaps of pressure on the hosts, a last minute equalizer from our captain disallowed, wrongly, for offside.

The old saying is that these things balance themselves out over the course of a season. Well, if that’s the case, we must be due some major decisions going our way because over the first half of the season, I cannot recall one incident of this nature going in our favour.



Yet Romelu Lukaku's goal at Goodison Park is allowed to stand


Now I know that these people are only human, and that error is part of human nature. I know they have a difficult job , the game moves so fast these days that sometimes it is impossible to tell in a split second exactly what has gone on. We as fans have the advantage of multiple replays from an array of angles in about six different speeds to mull over.

But this is what they are paid to do and offsides are what the assistants are primarily employed to call. Incidents like the Lukaku goal are absolutely inexcusable.

The standard of refereeing has been quite poor this season overall, and something has to be addressed. The debate about goal line technology raged on in this country since the Lampard 'goal' four years ago and we only just solved that problem.

So how do we address these issues? Well, I haven’t got the answers, and even if anyone outside of football did, it would probably fall on deaf ears as it seems that the bigwigs who make up the rules of football talk in a different frequency to the rest of the world and therefore wouldn’t be able to hear it.

They could start however by making the job of the referee a little bit easier, and putting the offside rule back to the way it was. Although it would have gone against us this week, it would stop these debates raging on in the future. if anyone is offside, then call it as offside. As Bill Shankly once said: "If a player is not interfering with play , what's he doing on the field?"

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