Mark Clattenburg admits Man Utd aura got them favourable calls under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Klopp recently pointed out that United have received more penalties in two years than his Liverpool side have in five-and-a-half years, which Clattenburg believes was a clear mind-game attempt ahead of their crucial meeting on Sunday.

Discussing Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s similar attempt to put pressure on officials, Clattenburg said in his column for the Daily Mail:

He does not like losing, he never has. He gets prickly. But he is wrong to suggest there is an aura around United that sees them given favourable decisions. There used to be when Fergie was there, but that has eased massively since he left.

To admit that United got such a big influence on FA and refeeres, having favourable calls and saying that influence has eased off in the era when United is getting most penalties out of every single team takes some guts. Rubbish, rigged, corrupted league.

@quikzyyy Yeah, that was a really bad call from the ref, even I have to concede that. I mean, for me, it was at very least a yellow card.

Though, in all honesty, I thought the ref was pretty bad in that game. Both side got away with some nasty fault. Lacazette and Maguire for example both pulled the same kind of move that Kane is condemned for by the fandom.

Personally, I get its frustrating and to be fair, not only for Arsenal fan but honestly, I personally rather think this is due to referee doing poorly or being biased (on their own) rather than the league or that specific individual in the organisation being outright corrupt.

Red card... no doubts!

Emobot7

Lacazette and Maguire for example both pulled the same kind of move that Kane is condemned for by the fandom.

To be fair, Lacazette was looking at the ball the whole time, Kane is intentionally taking the opponent down. That's where the anger comes from I feel

The Fernandes challenge has been called as a red before. It has also not been called as a red before. I'm not going to die on that hill.

I will raise in this thread though, that Ole's press conference this week included the delegate's report of the Sheffield United game last week where the officials noted after the match that Sheffield's first goal should have been disallowed due to De Gea being interfered with, and United's second goal should have stood due to an incorrect call for a foul on Maguire. United of course, lost the game 2-1.

Maybe the overall point I'm trying to make here is that referees are human. VAR, while not human, is controlled by humans. The subjectivity by which the game is governed naturally plays a part, but in general I do not believe that any team has a natural advantage in the officiating world, I believe that managers, media personalities, player reputations, and narratives all play a part in how calls get made from the various officiating crews.

Barcalona got favorable calls because they had a (strangely looking back on it) reputation for being clean. Fellaini could get two-footed or headbutted (looking at you Wilshire) and wouldn't even get a foul because he had a reputation for being dirty. Dan James can get tripped in the box over and over again and get yellow cards for diving instead of PKs because he got a reputation for diving after earning a PK through such a manner within his first month and never again since.

TL:DR: officials are human and narratives impact them more than I think you all realize. That's why managers play the mindgames to begin with.

Hopefully Arteta starts to play these mind games, because there’s no way that’s a fucking red card for Luiz there

@amir

Tough spot. By the letter of the law because denial of goalscoring opportunity + not attempting to play the ball it's a red, even in the box.

It's a correct decision. If that rule should exist is a different question, and I'd argue it shouldn't. Not attempting to play the ball should be lumped in with violent conduct. That should be a yellow at most by the rulebook.

EDIT: And there it is again in the United game. That should not be in the rulebook as a red.

_

Ughhh, Martial...................

Its Crazy how the poor red card rule was exposed today in the arsenal and man utd games and both teams got 2 red cards. Neither Luiz nor Bednarek deserved a red and the man utd one was not a penalty

SunFlash

Fair enough, I can't argue too much with that. It shouldn't be in the rule book as a red because there's no intention at all.

@amir actually I watched it in slow motion and the wolves player is a professional diver, there was no contact which caused him to go down.

@Sunflash credits where it's due, congrats for the win!

However neither of these 2 tackles are red cards, I would seriously like to hear what are the referees saying why is this a red card, in NFL they have the mics on in EPL? They do what the f*ck they want.

Another EX Premier League referee

I've already accepted the corruption of the officials. It makes winning trophies meaningless, I just watch for fun now

Woah, seem like the snowstorm made me miss some crazy results. Didn't even realize that Arsenal got 2 red card in a single game and that United beat Southampton 9-0. Crazy stuff. :U

What's the point of var?

lmao the funniest part is that the Southampton defender got his red card rescinded but arsenal with the same problem got their appeal denied?

Just remember that the guy who is in charge of the referee's association is the same guy who referee'd the match between arsenal and man u when arsenal lost their invincible streak..

Anyone see how martinez brought down lacazette in the corner but the ref gave a free kick to Aston villa and it wasn't even checked. Hilarious

Got you bro, literally fuck whole FA, referee doesn't see this and VAR doesn't see it as well? If Xhaka or Luiz did this, they would get red card, 20 matches suspension and penalty for opponent.

I don't even care about losing the game anymore, this is clear bias by FA against Arsenal. It's been only 3 matches since I opened this thread and in all 3 matches we have been fucked by FA decisions. This shit gives me same vibes as Chelsea vs. Barcelona in 2009, absolute disgrace.

well that's a ridiculously obvious shirt tug, who cares about bringing him down, we've seen var being used to call penalties all the time for shirt pulling inside the box ( even when its been 5 metres away from the ball. )

Yeah quikzyyy its the norm for us. doesn't excuse us from losing because we've always had this treatment and we've just had to be better. But now that we are down in the dumps it's more noticeable as we have fewer escape routes by just plain being better.