KEITH ANDREWS: A not so helping hand

This week has been yet another where referees have been at the centre of a lot of controversy.

Mike Dein’s performance at the Emirates last Sunday when Arsenal hosted Manchester City was, in my eyes, near perfect. The game obviously changed drastically in the first few minutes as he awarded a penalty to City and rightly sent Laurent Koscielny off for a professional foul. From then on there was hostility from the home crowd to every decision made by Dein and the game became very niggly. It’s at times like this the referee’s experience comes into play and he has to block everything out that’s going on around him and just referee the game as he sees it.

There has been much debate in the aftermath of Vincent Kompany’s red card, first, as to whether it should have been given and then, obviously, if it should have been rescinded. The art of tackling has faded in recent years with the introduction of new laws and I understand the reasons why — to give players more protection and try and to prevent unnecessary injuries. I was a little torn on this one though as, in the current climate, I can see why the referee felt like he had to give a red card — and I don’t think in this case it was just to even things up, which let’s be frank, does happen.