Can we have a quick chat about referees? I feel I read blogs, watch videos and listen to podcasts of Arsenal fans, with all of us collectively having to repeat the phrase “Now, this isn’t a conspiracy, but…” as a caveat when we speak about referees. We have to qualify any statement before going in on them because we don’t want to seem partisan, but I have watched two performances from referees yesterday and wondered what the heck is going on. In the Man United v Southampton game Harry Maguire stamps on an opponent – no red card and nothing from VAR. Then, in a separate passage of play, Maguire shoulder barges over a Southampton player in the box, but nothing given and VAR agrees. The referee in this game? Stuart Attwell.

The same Stuart Attwell who – with the help of the muppet on VAR – decided to give a second yellow to Gabriel very quickly and easily after a foul on Jesus in our game against City – just over ONE MONTH AGO. So we aren’t talking years here, we’re talking weeks, and this referee has decided that he’s happy to get his card out very quickly for a foul in which in hindsight he probably could have just given Gabriel a talking to. But no, got to get your card out as soon as possible there, whereas England defender Harry Maguire can do what he likes apparently. That includes stamping, or just barging over in the box with impunity.

Is it because he is an England player that he gets extra treatment Stuart? What is different about Harry Maguire compared to Gabriel? I’d love to know, because you reacted swiftly and decisively in our game and yet nothing in this match yesterday.

Or how about Paul Tierney in the game between The Scum and Liverpool? Harry Kane gets away with a horror tackle and VAR ignore sit. Why? Is it becauise he is England captain?

I was listening to a podcast on my run yesterday and there was discussion about this, i.e. how different players are refereed differently. Harry Kane and Harry Maguire seem to be given plenty of leeway when it comes to their fouling, but Granit Xhaka in the box is a bomb waiting to go off. What would Attwell have done if Maguire had added a shirt pull into his blatant barge? Probably nothing.

And when you are starting to see that top flight football matches are being refereed differently based on passport or reputation of a player, we know we have a problem. It’s a problem that is very stark with Arsenal and you can see why Arteta has said he wants to talk to the referee authorities, because we are seeing instances that are happening to us and then never being seen again.

If, for example, players commit two fouls back to back in the same passage of play and get two yellows like Martinelli did on Thursday last week then fair enough, but I bet you we never see that instance ever again. There’s been a video doing the rounds over the last couple of days between Brighton and Bournemouth in which Davy Propper made two yellow card fouls in the space of a couple of seconds and Michael Oliver – yep, THE SAME Michael Oliver who sent Gabriel Martinelli off – decided that just one yellow would suffice.

Is this an “I hate Arsenal” thing from the PGMOL? OF course not. I think if that were the case it would be easier to spot clear biases. But there is unconscious biases going on with referees and us. We are easy targets it appears.

If there is a decision to be made then make it with Arsenal – they do this sort of stuff and so I can send off, give a penalty, a yellow card, to a player because they have players who lose their heads.

That’s the sort of thing that will undoubtedly go through referees minds and that’s why we have ourselves a situation where our players get booked very easily; there is a narrative that surrounds the referees and that narrative is perpetuated with instances like last Thursday, as well as when you see how matches are refereed differently by the same people but when other teams play football matches.

What can we do? Cutting out the silliness of course, but I feel like that’s only going to impact some of the harsh justice dished out. There are instances – like David Luiz last season away to Wolves – in which you look at a situation and just have to admit that sometimes we’re going to get shafted. Unless we can fill our team with England players who can have a laugh and a joke with the Northern referees, all of whom they probably are on first name terms, no doubt.

Sorry, bit of a rant this morning about referees, but seeing Attwell’s performance yesterday has just dredged up more frustration about the standard of officiating in this league. It’s a joke, the PGMOL are a joke, but nothing will change because they are accountable to nobody.

In terms of Arsenal news there isn’t really anything right now, as the team are off this weekend due to Chelski playing in the World Club Cup. My hope is that their schedule becomes so packed that they start to drop points and we can pick up some form and start to look at them as well as the fourth slot, but we have to overcome our immediate opponents Brentford first. We’ll have to wait another six days though, which means it is a watching brief today. Our enemies from last Thursday, Wolves, now become our allies as we hope they can get something on Tottenham at 2pm today, whilst at 4.30pm we’ll be all in on Leicester hopefully picking their game up for a change this season and beating West Ham. If Wolves can get anything over The Scum it’ll mean we are points clear and level on games to them, whilst a defeat by Leicester would mean West Ham are a point ahead of us, but we’d have three games in hand over them. So there is real opportunity opening up if we put together a string of wins. We just have to do our jobs and hope others can also do theirs.

Right, I’ll leave it there for today, I think. Enjoy your Sunday and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Laters peeps.