A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON PGMOL

SECOND GUEST POST OF THE WEEK

This is the second installment in a guest series from writer Jamil Alessandro who is a longtime Gooner and Le Grove reader from way back when. Let him know what you think in the comments.

Ahead of the next part of the season, the next few pieces will be where dodgy refereeing has left us so far.

But don’t worry it won’t all be Kroenke-shilling and Arteta-apologism here on out… A more cynical look at where we’re at to follow…

1. Decisions Decisions 

Every football fan knows the experience of suddenly realising that they belong to the most hated set of fans. It might be only for a moment, after smugly boasting a smash-and-grab at home. It might be for a season, after overly gloating a trophy win against a popular lower league minnow. Or it might be, alla Arsenal, decades long, the earning of seemingly permanent place in the deep resentment of rival supporters.  We’re back.

One of the undoubted (and insufferable) hallmarks of Arsenal fans is our superiority complex.  Not only did we go 49 undefeated… but we did it the Arsenal way. The combination of a foreign manager with our indisputably beautiful, incomparably elegant, slick and graceful… Playing surface.

The carpet on which our hale-end sculpted football ballet is played out. 

One of the most irritating things about being an Arsenal fan is that this superiority complex also extends to the reception of refereeing decisions. There’s always a ‘pick me’ flavour to the responses of bad decisions. Rather than just the cathartic unison experienced by other fans, who unleash a stream of unbridled rage against officials and the injustice of the universe, with us, there is always a tendency to turn right away towards introspection. We often argue that it’s necessary ‘to focus on what is in our control’- Rather than blaming the ref, we should look at what we could have done better. 

Generally this is sound advice. All the best managers keep the focus of the team on the variables within their control, using any sense of injustice to build a siege mentality, rather than fuelling resentment which can fester into the bitterness of a loser mentality. Except, this is simply not enough anymore.

Firstly, there is the incredulity of the decisions. The creativity and uniqueness of the calls given against Arsenal has reached the level of absurdist performance art, as captured in numerous twitter compilations: Martinelli receiving two yellow cards. Havertz and Jesus being assaulted…The impossibility of winning a penalty when our opponents decide to recreate their favourite scene from the Chainsaw massacre. Disallowing goals when they simply take too long to loop over the keeper.

The days of an away day soft-sending off for Granit Xhaka now seem like blessings. This season we’ve had two red cards for ‘time-wasting’, whilst no other team has yet to be booked for it.. Incidentally, time wasting is something that can be objectively measured and you’ve guessed it, the red cards have been for delays that are far less than other comparable in-game moments (something neatly broken down by @AFC_Monty).

The second problem with the ‘focus on what we can control’ narrative is that it represents an inability to grapple with the realm of fine margins that battle with City has taken us into. We lost the league by 2 points last season. The fatigue of playing with ten men against them may have given them the point that wins them the league. The egoistic decision to send off Rice against Brighton may already have cost us the championship. Now, that might make any indiscipline extra infuriating, but the thing is the effect of decisions is an extra factor beyond what can already be baked in- finding a way to win, winning ugly, tactical discipline, even luck etc. 

This makes all of the  ‘He was unlucky but silly…’ takes so hard to read. They miss the point. 

An even more infuriating, and unique, tendency amongst our fanbase, is looking for how poor decisions might have been some form of divine justice, or even out in other ways. A number of takes this season have suggested that the ability to negotiate the adverse conditions, the decisions of referees, the way in which our players are hacked to death is the sign of champions. It’s questionable whether this was ever true, and it certainly isn’t now. Perhaps it is a form of stockholm syndrome, a hangover from the days of battling a united side that didn’t concede a home penalty in 6 years.  The idea that we should be able to overcome poor officiating by sheer strength of will? Silly.

Of course rival choruses of ‘delusional Arsenal fans’ are deafening. But they weren’t there man. 

They didn’t live Van Persie in the Nou Camp being sent off on a technicality that relied on him possessing the reaction speed of a cornered viper. They didn’t have the most important landmark in their clubs history cut short by a performance even united fan accounts now call a tragedy. These aren’t things that ‘iron out’. 

The fact that some decisions go our way, doesn’t change thing the overall picture- 

It’s not conspiratorial to believe that there are major problems with biases in football.

One of the 4 major European leagues is routinely subject to match fixing scandals. The majority of English refs come from inside the M60- it would be odd if they *didn’t* have some bias, even if they didn’t openly talk about their vendettas on podcasts on the regs.

There’s so many factors at play: tribalism, personal grievances, implicit biases and the PGMOL mafia sticking together.

But all of that aside…At the very least, the quality of the refereeing is piss poor. Combined with officials’ insatiable desire to always be the very centre of attention. 

We can definitely do better, Arteta can stop antagonising the refs, we can be cleverer with foul rotation, appeals, protecting Saka and even making public statements.  Zinchenko can stop leaking cunning dressing room tricks to the Athletic… (ffs)

But the need to constantly factor in an incalculable pendulum of inconsistency undoes all of the details coaching Arteta thrives in. 

Nicholas Jover has been rightfully praised this season, but what do his marginal gains mean when every carefully choreographed corner routine is undone by a slither of spite in the spirit of a slighted referee? 

Man City have been rescued countless times when they weren’t at their best. This is precisely why the situation with referees is so helpless. This is exactly why decisions are so pivotal. Liverpool could count all the little margins they liked. Thank the gods for all the augurs and symbols at their disposal. Even lady luck herself. But Rodri’s handball was the icing on the cake of their colossal battle. What makes city so infuriating is that despite all their football finery, all their clever tactics, they rely on tactical fouls, dependent on refs looking the other way. They are constantly heralded as an example of ‘football perfection’, but it is actually Arsenal who have been more immaculate over the past seasons, having to contend with difficult refereeing decisions, and numerous rivalries with clubs fighting for their lives, which have just rolled over for the Etihad blues.

This is why I wish we could stick together, particularly when other fans deride us.

The regular chants of away supporters,  ‘Same old Arsenal always cheating’ tailor designed to infuriate have always achieved their intention of making my blood boil. They are so hard to take when Saka is being hacked to pieces in front of a referee who has had to make 2 official PGMOL apologies, when he gives an odd generous throw-in to the opposition.

There are definitely broader factors at play, on one hand our Islington postcode, the situation of the emirates makes it the beating heart of Suella Braverman’s ‘tofu-eating wokerati’ Islington elite. On the other hand, histories of black starting XIs, migrant fan clubs, the first superstar foreign manager should, and often does create a distinct sense of identity, we are rightfully proud of, and a hatred we shouldn’t be naive about. 

Yet in their pitiful attempts to justify the poverty of the refs, the meagre offerings of officialdom have overstepped their mark too. We just have to try and stay calm as we watch them stutter. Howard Webb fronting his ego-boosting vanity show said that Michael Oliver didn’t send off Kovacic last year because he didn’t want to ruin a spectacle. So he has to explain why he wanted to ruin this one, that was tipped in Arsenal’s favour? Webb said that excess force would always be punished, but he’s now got to explain why that doesn’t apply to starboy Saka. 

With Arsenal, it seems the player is sent off first. And then PGMOL scrambles for a justification. The same referee who last year refused to send of Kovacic because he didn’t want to ruin the game, had no qualms dismissing Leo Trossard 7 minutes after the half had ended for a ‘time-wasting’ nothing whilst the entire stadium was waiting for a contingent of city players writhing around on the floor.

Fuck it. Even Guardiola’s roundhouse kick to the F1 seats. I’m old enough to remember 

Wenger being sent off for offending the feelings of a water bottle. Incidentally, PGMOL later apologised for that one. 

Now we have a whole system of apologies alongside VAR. So we get numerous bad decisions followed by the uneven distribution of apologies. Incredibly, there are no repercussions for mistakes or apologies. What would happen if a team won the league and the team in second had 15 apologies? Or 15 apologies and 115 charges? Maybe this season we’re about to find out.

Arsenal fans need to rally together.

The days of being gaslighted about decisions are over.

Time to spit out the facts ™, alla Benitez. 

2. Fine margins/PGMOFML 

At Christmas, children are presented with two possibilities. 

On one hand, it is perfectly possible that there exists an ancient spirit who takes the form of an old, bearded, kindly man, living in a distant and frozen land. An immortal presence, more powerful than any other human that has ever lived, he dwells in complete secrecy and exists for the sole purpose of making presents for children. Never before seen, let alone photographed, or filmed, he is abetted by a secret race of elves, who work tirelessly to build gifts which exactly correspond with the changing wishes of children over time and perfectly correspond to the material resources of their families. These wishes are transmitted by individual letters written randomly throughout the winter which magically and unexplainably find their way to the north pole via letterboxes, fireplaces and telepathy. On one spectacular night in a year, this fantastical figure, know eponymously as ‘Father Christmas’ or simply Santa, flies through the sky on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, entirely outside of the laws of time and space and apparates down chimneys (most of which are either blocked or defunct) to leave his presents in stockings and in houses of totally varying types and sizes, across the entire world to literally billions of kids. 

On the other hand, there is a global conspiracy to pretend the existence of this ‘Santa’ and to falsely corroborate all of the events above. This multi-lingual conspiracy is supported by parents across the world, many of varying cultures, political values, beliefs and religions. It is a lie that is maintained each and every year, and has been for decades, despite the impossibility, even of any tacit communication between the overwhelming majority of the actors involved, who are nevertheless not merely singing from the same hymn sheet but completely in tune with the finest details of the lie. Not only this, but the entire media, the papers, the radio, as well as TV shows running back almost 100 years into the archival mists of time are all complicit in the deception. There is an incomparably broad and precise agreement on exactly what Santa looks like, how he dresses and the unbelievable magic that he performs. Despite the day he delivers presents being one of the most important religious festivals in the calendar of the largest religion on earth, even the most devout worshippers and pious clergy go along with what in any other age would be a great heresy. More shockingly than this, the parents of every child have been lying cold-bloodedly to their infant children from birth during their most impressionable years.  Many of them have been desperately saving what little money they have to give gifts to the most important person or people in their world, at the most formative stage of their lives, and then pretending these gifts came from an imaginary saviour at great emotional, as well as financial, cost. 

Whenever football fans anger towards referees, turns into a remonstration about their competence or neutrality there is a smug section of supporters and writers who argue that it is ridiculous, bigoted and even conspiratorial to believe that the referees have an agenda against their club. It is the very height of delusion to think that professional officials have it in for a particular player or club. It is Alex Jones level crazy to think that there are profound biases towards certain teams, or individual errors that don’t simply iron out in the course of a season.

But the alternative? Something equally implausible. That all of the referees who are lifelong football fans, are magically isolated from the club rivalries and biases picked up from their family, friends and fellow supporters? That there exists a group of English referees, almost exclusively from the greater manchester area, who are somehow completely and utterly neutral? That there is a small clique of white english men, friends, who have become completely neutralised from the rest of society and are magically perfectly objective. Find one football fan who corresponds to this type. That the mistakes of a frequently erroneous refereeing group, widely chastised for unsporting and incorrect decisions perfectly even out by some mystical or cosmic force, a bend of the universe towards neutrality. 

Add to this the self-evident inconsistency of almost every single type of decision, and it becomes laughable to think that referee decisions are not a pivotal farce. The lack of agreed upon rules for extra time, the wildly different thresholds for handballs, the huge deviation from agreed upon standards of a penalty can all shift teams fortunes by huge ranges, in a league which might be won by a point. How can all of this exist within a game that is predicated on fine margins? It undoes the ‘character’ shown by holding on for 30 minutes with ten men, the need to deal with an injury to the captain, a tactical masterclass at the Tottenham toilet bowl etc.

Then there is the extraordinary lack of accountability, the complete absence of humility, and the incredible egoism of referees who love being the centre of attention. Again there is no reason whatsoever to believe that this magically ‘evens out’. However much fans say ‘it is part of the game’ or ‘something to be dealt with’, poor decisions are not a force of nature, they are not even like injuries which can be managed, they represent a sustained and unbalanced disadvantage for certain teams over others.

It is frustrating that so few Arsenal fans are steeled enough to view this for what it is, who see any complaint about officialdom as an excuse for some metric of better performance that the team or manager could control or better prepare for. Perhaps there is nothing we can do about officials or decisions, but still. For the sake of sanity we should be less naive as fans.

The most celebrated chapter in our storied history, the 49 games undefeated of the invincibles was cut short by scarcely believably awful refereeing. We should remember it everytime that chant breaks out at the Emirates.

3. Monumental decisions

Twitter now has the receipts for many incidents over which I suffered years of playground gaslighting. I often recall how Rafa Benitez’s famous ‘facts’ rant was always considered a complete breakdown, a moment of pure delusion, and never understood why. What I now realise is that the unwritten golden rule that condemned him was part of a broader gaslighting architecture. Of course it was a loss of judgement, he should have kept the focus on his team, on the league that was still winnable. But in a league of such fine margins and where not only can decisions turn pivotal games but attitudes towards grounds and players, influence multiple fixtures, his point was basically correct.

Arsene Wenger put things in an even more astute way when he pointed to the simple fact that long after he had campaigned for the professionalisation of English referees, not a single one was invited to referee the world cup. Indeed the unavoidable blight of referees has spilled into numerous player interviews, for example Patrick Vieira (in a jk unless kind of way) even felt obliged to mention united’s ‘control’  of officials during his appearance on the overlap.

4. Conspiracy Theories 

Every Arsenal fan has memories of the decision that broke their brain.

Mine was Van Persie being sent off for kicking the ball away, in the deafening cacophony of the nou camp, kicking so soon after the whistle he would have been investigated for doping had it been the start of a 100m sprint. 

Even the jewel in the crown of our entire history, the 49 games undefeated, was brought to an end by one of the most violent games every played in the prem. A glorified pub brawl enabled by some scandalous refereeing and Fergie’s dark spectre.

Stoke.

Stoke. 

Ramsey’s leg-break. Tony Pulis centering his team-talk on GBH.

Eduardo. Title-challenge derailed. Diaby. 

3 shattered legs within a decade. 

Explaining why the refs give the decisions they do is admittedly hard. Pedro has repeatedly pointed to the fact that the PGMOL is hardly a global brand when it comes to referees, they’re all as home-grown as the War of the Roses. Home being Greater Manchester. Kinda an achievement given the international reach of the prem. 

It would be miraculous if any group of middle-aged supporting football fans did not have a bias. I hope one day I get to referee a Tottenham game to prove the point. 

They are corrupt or they are incompetent. It’s probably both washed down with a heady mix of hubris and arrogance, which makes it possible for them to literally say whatever they want when justifying their decisions. I can’t think of another job where forgetting to draw the lines, when your job is drawing the lines, wouldn’t lead to dismissal.

Michael Oliver refereed City vs Arsenal last season in which a red card was waived away. The red was not for an incalculable minutia of time wasting like the dismissal he gave Trossard, but for violent conduct. Mark Clattenburg on commentary suggested giving away a few incorrect foul decisions to soften the mood. Mike Deen admitted that he penalised players that he didn’t like on a podcast. 

There are no agreed upon boundaries for violent conduct, or time-wasting, or argumentations.  The decision comes first. The justification comes second. 

Unfortunately for the modern day referees, there are cameras, numerous amateur statisticians, and OPTA in the modern game. The thing about the refs is it’s not just the case that they’re subjective. Lots of their judgements can be measured. And they’re bs by every measurement.

It just doesn’t matter though? Is a tree really being cut down if it’s being cut down in a forest which is on fire but nobody sees it?

A vast array of spectacularly original decisions have been brought to bear on Arsenal recently. Call it a conspiracy. Call it something else. It makes life incredibly difficult. Of course Arsenal benefit from rules that make it harder for smaller clubs to compete with us. 

But the general tendency of the bigger clubs to entirely dominate is something which takes away all the jeopardy from football. It makes it infuriating to always be confronted with pundits saying shit like the big clubs just find a way. No club has ‘found a way’ against City or Real in the Champions League. And they won’t if when they do, they face an unjustifiable refereeing decision which they have no grounds to appeal at all. 

The ceiling we’re aiming to smash would be difficult enough if this wasn’t something to always consider. Everyone was jumping on The Bayer Leverkusen romance of last season, but as they steamrolled towards invincibility immortality, the sympathy of the officials went along with the poetry of this achievement (and against Harry Kane’s glorious failure to win a trophy at Bayern). They got a few extra minutes here and there to keep the run alive.

It did irk me that we might have had the same kindness in the past seasons, as the representative of the competitiveness of the entire league if we didn’t have such firm grudges and bitter rivalries. We maybe could have even got another gold one but for a few questionable decisions…. (okay don’t @ me)