Rewatched the game from last night. Disastrous refereeing performance. Seriously, anyone who thought that was anything other than terrible seriously needs their heads testing. The fact that many saw that as a good performance, with some even going as far to say that it was one of the best this season, shows how bad the standard of officiating is at the moment. Oliver didn't cost anyone the game yesterday, and he didn't really favour either side with his decisions, but it was just woeful.
He indicated 35 fouls in total, calling 29 (as well as 2 hand balls and 2 dives) and missed at least 2 more. The game wasn't allowed to flow because there was a foul being called every 3 minutes on average, with other stoppages for handballs and dives, which is completely contrary to what some were praising him for. The only thing that happened was that he didn't hand out any proper punishments or do anything about the stupid number of fouls being committed. The highest number of fouls over the last set of league fixtures was 27 in QPR/Spurs, with the rest being approximately 20, with there still be a few below that.
There were 14 fouls in the first half, and 21 in the second. 13 came after Arsenal's second goal in the final half hour. At no point did he call over the captains to get their players to calm down, and the only player warned about future fouls was Fellaini after his 6th or 7th. There was a period immediately following the Di Maria sending off where there were 4 fouls in about 2 minutes, which when you consider the time spent taking a free kick, is absurd.
Fellaini committed 5 fouls in the first half, and didn't get booked until his 8th, which happened to be his 3rd in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Even then I think he only got booked because 7 and 8 were in quick succession. He also managed a 9th before the end of the match.
Incredibly inconsistent with the yellow card for rash and cynical fouls. Bellerin booked, Blind let off, Herrera let off, Rojo let off, Herrera booked, Welbeck let off, Young booked, Rojo booked, Bellerin let off, Monreal let off, Ramsey booked. Some of these were almost identical incidents too, particularly Bellerin's first, Rojo's first, Monreal's and Bellerin's second, and Blind's, Young's and Ramsey's.
Absolutely no clue what he was doing in regards to minimal contact. No action with Welbeck/Rojo, no action with Di Maria/Sanchez, free kick awarded with Sanchez/Valencia, booking for diving with Di Maria/Ramsey.
Similar inconsistency in regards to players waiting until they're in the box to go down. No action for Welbeck/Rojo, booking for diving with Januzaj/Monreal. In fact, Januzaj didn't even appeal for anything.
Monreal got away with murder. Body checked Di Maria and hacked him from behind with nothing given for either, then there was the deliberate hand ball to stop an attack and cynically tripping Januzaj. Miraculous that he went the game without a booking, particularly as all of that happened in the second half.
Rojo should have seen red before Bellerin or Di Maria even got the chance. Cynical foul on Oxlade-Chamberlain in the first half should have seen him booked, then his clattering of Cazorla just before Bellerin pulled down Young should have been his second yellow.
Ramsey got booked for hauling down Young, but then received no punishment for launching the ball halfway down the pitch immediately after the whistle was blown.
Additionally, Di Maria wasn't flopping to the ground every time he got touched, as many were making out. He was body checked by Monreal, hacked down by Monreal, and apart from his booking, the only other time he hit the deck was the Sanchez one I've already pointed out, and that was just another where a player went down with minimal contact. For all this "he'd been given loads of chances and was taking the piss", Oliver didn't once signal to Welbeck or Di Maria that he was warning them for diving, and I'm fairly certain that the rules regarding simulation are that it's a yellow card on the first offence.
Oliver also didn't get "most of the big calls right." In fact, he barely got any of them right, largely because he completely ignored or missed most of them. The big calls were, in my opinion, the Welbeck penalty claim, Rojo clattering Cazorla, Bellerin's second cynical foul on Young, Di Maria tugging his shirt, Ramsey launching the ball away, and then by virtue of him making the Di Maria and Januzaj dives big calls, Di Maria's earlier dive, and Sanchez's dive. He did nothing with the Welbeck penalty claim, did virtually nothing when Rojo clattered Cazorla (which was not helped because he'd already cocked up by not booking him earlier in the game), bottled sending off Bellerin, did nothing with the Di Maria/Sanchez incident, ended up awarding Sanchez a free kick for diving, and completely ignored Ramsey hurling the ball halfway down the pitch despite being in the process of booking him for a cynical foul. He only got the Di Maria and Januzaj dives right if you look at them as isolated incidents, so that leaves the only properly correct call being to book Di Maria for tugging his shirt.
Far too much has been made of the bookings for diving and the call to send off Di Maria, because by that stage of the game he was just playing Billy Big-Bollocks in attempt to gain some semblance of control. The Di Maria dive happened less than 5 minutes after the Rojo card/Bellerin let off.
He went down as easy as Di Maria literally minutes before Di Maria was booked.
(internet, innit?)