Tony Evans: Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger must receive 10-game ban if FA are serious about protecting referees

Tony Evans23 January 2017

It was not much of a push. In a Premier League penalty area it may have gone unnoticed by the referee.

The double shove by Arsene Wenger on Anthony Taylor should have serious ramifications, though. The Arsenal manager needs to be called to account for his jostling of the fourth official during his team’s 2-1 victory over Burnley.

Sure, Wenger was frustrated by the addition of seven minutes of stoppage time with his side leading by a goal. Burnley’s late penalty then seemed to deprive Arsenal of desperately needed points.

Yet there is no excuse for the Frenchman’s conduct in the tunnel after he was sent to the stands. With the FA about to relaunch the Respect campaign the ruling body needs to clamp down.

The comedy of it all is that the Gunners won because of an official’s mistake. The linesman missed Laurent Koscielny straying offside in the moments before Ben Mee fouled the defender to set up Alexis Sanchez’s match-winning penalty. Some say that when push comes to shove these things even themselves out. It’s not true. Attacking teams camping out in the opposition’s area invariably get the better of these decisions, as the Burnley manager Sean Dyche will testify.

The win changed Wenger’s mood. He was apologetic afterwards, and charmingly sheepish. The Professor was a picture of rationality and civility. He knows a touchline ban is on the cards. If the FA has any cojones it should be at least double figures.

Wenger is an object study in the effect of pressure on top-level managers. When things go badly he seethes with frustration, barely hiding his fury. After victories it’s as if a valve has been opened and the intensity released. His mood is light, approachable and his wit shines through. The same could be said about most managers in the Premier League. They enjoy good days.

In Pictures | Arsenal vs Burnley | 22/01/2017

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Good days for officials are getting rarer. There is a refereeing controversy in almost every game. Did Manchester City drop two points against Spurs because Andre Marriner missed Kyle Walker’s push on Raheem Sterling in the area? Or did City have their lead only because Marriner overlooked Leroy Sane’s handball before the opening goal? Either way, both managers had reasons to complain. The officials? After a typical Premier League game they would be shot by both sides. The unpalatable reality is that it’s impossible to referee a top-flight match with any level of certainty and consistency. The game is too fast for the human eye. Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp — and most newcomers to England — are horrified at the pace and style of play. The same phrase keeps cropping up: “compete for the first ball, win the second.” Power and pace matter more than technique and tactics.

Wenger was the main author of this physical revolution. His first Arsenal team in the 1990s was fitter and faster than their rivals. They also passed with glorious precision. The likes of Sam Allardyce, then at Bolton Wanderers, matched Wenger’s teams with physicality but not skill.

Brute strength worked. Acceleration revved up as technique dumbed down. As the game developed into a headlong rush, officials have been left behind. Forget being England manager: refereeing is the real “impossible job”. Technology would help officials, but only in cases where the questions have a definitive answer: did the ball cross the line? Was that man offside? Where the decisions become subjective, the cameras provide little help. Some question whether Granit Xhaka deserved a red card yesterday. Slowing the incident down to one-thousandth of a second would not change the minds of those on either side of the argument.

Refereeing standards are low. There is a dearth of high-class officials. Even so, the weekly pillorying of the men in the middle needs to stop. They will become a dying species unless they are protected.

Wenger should be handed at least a 10-game touchline ban. In a week when John Sheridan, the Oldham Athletic manager, was given a five-game suspension for abusing and threatening the fourth official, the behaviour of the Premier League’s elder statesman was unconscionable.

Refereeing is unlikely to improve. Technology cannot fill the gap. The only way forward is to protect the officials as much as possible and accept that mistakes will happen.

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