Quintin Jardine's blog

My friend’s partner is a Spurs fan. He will be walking on eggshells today, but her anger is justified. Her team were always going to lose last night, but to be walloped thanks to the second-worst penalty decision of the season, that takes some accepting.

The worst call of the season is the penalty awarded to Chelsea in the last minute of injury time vs West Brom, a howler for which the referees’ boss apologised. The same ref gave last night’s spot-kick to Man City, but only after he had awarded (correctly) a corner kick, and then allowed himself to be over-ruled by his linesman. His sin was compounded when he red-carded the Spurs player involved, thereby cheating everyone who had paid to see a much-anticipated eleven-a-side encounter. There are millions riding, in various ways, on every Premier League game. If a referee’s confidence is so low that he can’t back his own judgement, then he should not be out there. As for the flag-wavers, they should stick to their own job, which is difficult enough. If they’re asked for a view, okay, but they should never be allowed to contradict a referee once he has given a decision.