Had Robin Van Persie not been sent off on Tuesday night against Barcelona then it would be Arsenal in the last eight of The Champions League and not the Catalan side. Honestly... no word of a lie.Tthat would be an undeniable and undisputable fact! That is the belief of Arsene Wenger, Robin Van Persie and many an unwitting "gooner". Of course we will never know whether this would have been the case or not but of course there is only one man to blame - Massimo Busacca the match referee. But then when a team loses or does not get the result it needs it just HAS to be the referee's fault. Doesn't it?
Of course Mr Van Persie and Mr Wenger (who has coined the phrase "I did not see it") will conveniently forget that perhaps Barcelona should have quite probably been awarded a penalty earlier in the first half. It is quickly forgotten too that Barcelona also had a perfectly good goal ruled out for off side in the first leg at The Emirates when replays subsequently showed that it was not off side. Of course these are mere trifles and irrelevant's compared to the deep injustice felt by the North Londoners on Tuesday last! "If 'if's' and 'and's' were pots and pans there'd be no need for tinker's" once wrote George Bernard Shaw. Or you could opt for the more modern coloquiolism "if my aunt had a pair she......." I'll leave the rest to you.
But back to the referee's decision to send off Mr Van Persie for a second cautionable offence; that of "delaying the restart of the game". The case for the defence states that in a cauldron of 95,000 souls the referee's whistle could not be heard. This despite the fact that it was heard on every other occasion, and if hearing was an issue in all that noise then why were the managers bothering to shout instructions across the pitch? Perhaps they should be miked up to their players in future? No; Van Persie knew precisely what he was doing even if it was a supposed "one second" after the referee blew the whistle (as the English media sought to ridicule the "injustice" of it all). His peripheral vision would have seen the assistant referee's flag raised and the aimless rushed swing at the ball with his right foot rather than the controlled finish that he would otherwise have exercised would probably confirm that he was aware that he was caught off side in my opinion. Or perhaps his right foot is actually that bad? You have to wonder which team would gain more from kicking the ball behind the goal at that precise moment and using up vital seconds?
However the question remains as to whether the referee was right to issue a second caution? He could perhaps have shown that Nirvana that is "common sense" so often cried for by the same footballing pundits that rarely contemplate the contradictory context in which it is requested. Maybe just a warning perhaps by the referee and then play on. But Mr Busacca was right in law and on that point no matter what anyone else may think, the decision was the correct one. Mr Van Persie will think twice in future before showing such petulance. But then again when do footballers ever learn?
What is more concerning were the after match comments. Mr Van Persie called the referee a "joke". Mr Busacca had apparently "been whistling against us all night" and Mr Van Persie didn't "understand what he (the referee) was doing here anyway". In fact Mr Busacca had been a "joke all night"! Clearly the player's comic threshold is a very low one or perhaps he had been watching Mr Busacca perform a comedic stand up routine all night that none of us mere mortals could appreciate?
Furthermore, Mr Wenger thought it appropriate to admonish the referee on leaving the field of play and whatever was said in the tunnel after the game, Mr Wenger is now questioning the referees integrity further by disputing what was seemingly included in the post match report. Of course Mr Wenger should be allowed to question the integrity of the game because after all his team lost and should have been in the last eight of the Champions League. The loss had nothing to do with tactics or footballing ability! Then again this is football isn't it and we have grown to expect such fireworks from perambulators!
Mr Wenger denied aiming "inappropriate language" at referee Massimo Busacca. He said: "It would be good for Uefa to show humility, to apologise, not charge people who have done nothing wrong." An unrepentant Wenger continued: "I deny completely any charge". I am sorry but suddenly the air is filled with pots and kettles all in Model T Ford black.
For as long as players and managers do not take reponsibility for their own actions and for as long as the football authorities continue to levy ineffective sanctions then this behaviour will continue. Mr Wenger would have better spent his energy asking of his striker Niklas Bendtner exactly why he wasted Arsenal's one and only decent goalscoring opportunity of the game? Hang on did i just say "one and only goal scoring opportunity of the whole game"? Must have been the referee's fault that.
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