Michael Oliver

He is blatantly inconsistent. It is absolutely infuriating.

I don't really care if you are a shit ref, at least be a consistent shit ref. Oliver can't even manage that.
 
This place is mental, had a decent game.
 
hobbers said:
He was so petty to send Di Maria off, but specs off that aside he played a good game.

Denying Januzaj a penalty at that end took balls, such a cnutish dive.
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Did you see the look on his eyes when he was barely touched? :lol: Grabbed the chance to make the headlines there.. Of course, by the book he was absolutely right - but a better referee would have calmed the situation.
 
Mrs Smoker said:
Obvious Bellerin second yellow. Even the BBC (or whomever did the TV job) implied heavily that.
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I'll even go as far as to suggest that Bellerin didn't necessarily merit a second yellow. Young gave him the slip, but the foul wasn't a terrible one. He was given a reprieve, which I would have wanted had it been Valencia down our side.
 
Ekeke said:
If someone touches your hand you don't fall over. Not without making yourself fall over
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There was a slight pull on the arm
Same way Welbeck was slightly pulled back in the box in the first half and appealed for a pen. Nobody says he dived, it just wasn't a penalty
 
sullydnl said:
If you get a slight pull and then proceed to drop like you've been shot then the ref is always likely to see it as a dive and that's fair enough. I have no real sympathy for any player who exaggerates a foul to that extent. It's just unfortunate it was one of our guys today.
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The problem is the inconsistency. I go back to Alexis again, he just threw himself in front of Valencia with no contact and got a FK. I just think he doesnt like him and just waited to give him a yellow. Their was the incident where Monreal clattered him from behind, he didnt even give a FK.
 
Di Maria deserved a yellow for grabbing him but not for having his arm pulled while running at full pelt. Bellerin 100% second yellow card, ridiculous not to give it and he used the Rojo obvious yellow as an excuse to bottle it. Januzaj fell, too easily but was hardly a dive, why can't it just be nothing? He didn't even appeal for anything.

Knew and said to my mate as soon as Bellerin got away with it that we would have a man sent off for a second yellow.
 
Di Maria deserved his red, pushing a referee is just idiotic, Januzaj's dive was disgraceful, Rojo fully deserved his yellow for a reckless challenge.

I think Oliver called the majority of the major calls correct, blaming the referee today is petty.

If you're going to blame anyone, put it on individual players complacency such as Valencia, we as a whole should have played alot better.
 
He was 50/50 for me, got a lot of calls right, but then made some really biased decisions on the small calls, and small calls add up. Arsenal players are flopping to the ground left right and centre and getting every foul, by comparision with our players doing similar thing we would barely get a thing.

The Di Maria incident is well again a 50/50 thing. Look its a dive, no if's no buts about it. That said on no planet is that a yellow given what the Arsenal players have been doing all game, if he doesn't give that yellow Di Maria isn't monumentally stupid.

Belluran or whatever his name is, should have gone for the foul on Young, stonewall second yellow.

Rojo, his tackle from behind could have been a red so he got lucky.

That said if Jones and Valencia didn't have the collective brain power of a turd this wouldn't have been a issue at all.
 
He was, very, very inconsistent tonight. And thats about the worse thing a referee can be.
 
He had a good game. Some of your are gimps, clutching at straws when we had only ourselves to blame for going sloppy as shit second half
 
hobbers said:
Yeah I think he's probably in the minority of refs who would send a player off for that. Just because as a ref he's probably one of the least authoritative so he has to compensate with decisions like that.
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Especially when we look back to the Joe Hard incident which was definitely "worse".. Mind boggling.
 
Don't blame the ref. Blame Di Maria and Januzaj for their misgivings.
 
I think he had a very good game on what was a difficult game to officiate. Cannot argue with any of the big decisions, bar possibly an another card for Bellerin (he was in yellow, right?).
 
I actually think he didn't give Bellerin the second yellow because he was too preoccupied with remembering to call Rojo back to book him for the earlier foul where he'd played advantage. So he was waiting for a stoppage to do so, and that's what was on his mind, meaning he wasn't really paying attention to what was happening.
 
walsh said:
Di Maria deserved a yellow for grabbing him but not for having his arm pulled while running at full pelt. Bellerin 100% second yellow card, ridiculous not to give it and he used the Rojo obvious yellow as an excuse to bottle it. Januzaj fell, too easily but was hardly a dive, why can't it just be nothing? He didn't even appeal for anything.

Knew and said to my mate as soon as Bellerin got away with it that we would have a man sent off for a second yellow.
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the Rojo foul was a good cover for quietly not giving the 2nd yellow to Bellerin from the 'don't make a decision until you have to' manual
 
cyberman said:
There was a slight pull on the arm
Same way Welbeck was slightly pulled back in the box in the first half and appealed for a pen. Nobody says he dived, it just wasn't a penalty
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Welbeck was pulled back and should have had a freekick just outside the box where it started.

Di Maria had his hand clapped. Nowhere near the same contact, Di Maria threw himself down
 
Hahaha top ref indeed. Sanchez dives, foul and free kick. Di Maria gets his wrists held and "dives", yellow card for diving. Di Maria touches his back/ grabs his shirt slightly to get his attention = red card. Bellerin second yellow for a very late tackle on Young = last warning and lets Wenger sub him off.

Extremely biased, didn't try to hide it.
 
It was Di Maria and Valencia who cost us, not the ref if we are looking for scapegoats.
 
dsch said:
What's the law about touching referees? I've only seen one replay, but it didn't look like a push. He was trying to get the referee's attention. Gif?
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You must not touch the referee. On French league, a referee sent off Thiago Silva for what was basically a friendly touch. So by the rules, the referee can saction any touch with a red card.

Obviously, Di Maria did far more than touching him and I think that the same decision would have been done in any other league. As red as I have ever seen one.
 
To be fair, even trying to be objective, if Di Maria gets booked for that fall then Sanchez completely deserved one as well. Not saying Sanchez being booked would mean feck all but it's that lack of consistency that causes frustration.
 
I think he was absolutely terrible tonight. Everything went Arsenal's way. Got a few things right, like the Januzaj dive and the first Di Maria yellow (the second was soft in my opinion, far lesser an offence than the Hart thing earlier this season). But had a shocker in my opinion.

Still, not his fault we lost (though he didn't make it easier). We simply didn't create enough in order to win.

There really are a dearth of good referees in the English game at the moment. I always thought Oliver had the potential to be very good, but he's had a few very poor games this season.
 
cyberman said:
There was a slight pull on the arm
Same way Welbeck was slightly pulled back in the box in the first half and appealed for a pen. Nobody says he dived, it just wasn't a penalty
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This is it for me. The ref didn't have a bad game but he can't let Welbeck off and then book ADM - they're the same thing.

It feels like he let the tension build when a more common sense, dare I say "old school" ref would've been a bit human with the players and kept things calm. Di Maria was a bloody idiot to pull his shirt and had to walk at that point unfortunately but clearly it was because Oliver kept on walking away whilst Di Maria was calling to him. All he had to do was actually talk to the player that he had just booked and actually put his ego aside for a moment and it would've been diffused.

Di Maria was wrong to grab the ref but a stronger ref would've handled the whole incident better.

Apart from that he actually was okay. We didn't seem to get the rub much in the 2nd half but I think that's because we seemed to slow down horribly and Arsenal upped the pace.
 
He booked Dim Maria because that was about the 3rd or 4th idiotic dive from him. There was nothing inconsistent about it. It got to the point where not booking him for it would have made the ref look like a joke.

The fact Di Maria had the cheek to even complain about it was worthy of a red card. I thought he was as thick as Nani but I'm begining to think that's doing Nani a major disservice.
 
No one can blame the ref today, he allowed our players to make alot of freekicks before he Got the yellow up and had a decent game overall.
 
He shouldn't be so ducking ignorant as to walk away when someone is talking to him if he doesn't want to be grabbed.
 
noodlehair said:
He booked Dim Maria because that was about the 3rd or 4th idiotic dive from him. There was nothing inconsistent about it. It got to the point where not booking him for it would have made the ref look like a joke.

The fact Di Maria had the cheek to even complain about it was worthy of a red card. I thought he was as thick as Nani but I'm begining to think that's doing Nani a major disservice.
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Apart from the fact that was the first time Di Maria wasn't fouled.
 
Shane88 said:
This refereeing performance won't be forgotten for a while.
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I agree, we need to start remembering games where referees get all the big decisions right instead of always focusing on the bad!
 
Di Maria obviously didn't have to go down, but he was doing what every other player does. Slight touch -> fall over. Arsenal did it the entire game and got free kicks for it (like Sanchez literally minutes before). Even if Oliver doesn't think it's a free kick (which is fair enough) booking Di Maria for diving is insane. If he actually follows that trend (which he obviously won't) there'll be 5+ bookings for diving each game. Di Maria's reaction was equally stupid though and I have no problems with the second booking - apart from the fact it never would've happened if Oliver hadn't fecked up before. Bellerin clearly should've been off as well.

In general, Oliver gave Di Maria feck all. There was at least 2 clear fouls that wasn't given. Sanchez got a free kick every time one of our players came near him though.
 
Not arsed about the Di Maria red, or any perceived inconsistency. If Oliver learnt his lesson from the Hart incident then fair play - he's a young ref who has made mistakes. It was the correct decision to send Di Maria off.

Bellerin should've walked though. You can't hack a player down in a dangerous position and not get a yellow. Completely different game then 11 vs 10, and Di Maria probably doesn't lose his cool.

Thought he got most calls spot on, but that pissed me off a bit.
 
duffer said:
It's ridiculous to suggest being fast means that wrist contact causes leg failure.
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Christ...

When you're running at full speed it won't take a lot to knock you off balance.

When you are already off balance because you've tried to skip past an oncoming challenge, it'll take even less.
 
noodlehair said:
He booked Dim Maria because that was about the 3rd or 4th idiotic dive from him. There was nothing inconsistent about it. It got to the point where not booking him for it would have made the ref look like a joke.

The fact Di Maria had the cheek to even complain about it was worthy of a red card. I thought he was as thick as Nani but I'm begining to think that's doing Nani a major disservice.
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Why didn't he book Welbeck then? I think they were both dives, but definitely inconsistent. Should have given a second yellow to Bellerin as well. Poor game from Oliver.
 
Ekeke said:
Welbeck was pulled back and should have had a freekick just outside the box where it started.

Di Maria had his hand clapped. Nowhere near the same contact, Di Maria threw himself down
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Na it's the time he was in the box and Rojo basically just rested his arm on his shoulder and he went flying.
Maybe I'm misremembering it but I seem to visualise it as in the middle of the box
 
Sam said:
He's got everything right you idiots.
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Trying to be as neutral as possible.
Arsenal should have had a penalty in the first half. (went down too easy? doesn't really natte, rojo should not be pulling him).
Di Maria should not have been booked the first time but does not excuse the way he handled the situation.
Ramsay should have been off for the professional foul and then throwing the ball away! (no excuses there, those are two very bookable offences).
Bellerin should have been off also.
Monreal and Coquellin got away with way too much.
 
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