The ref community were having a grand time after the red card and the penalty given to Arsenal (but stopped posting after the final whistle, funny that). 

⚠️A more pressing issue for me is, with United fighting for the club’s survival — is next season over long before it even has started if nothing is done about the refereeing?

Michael Oliver will call 4-5 of the clubs games. In those games we all know that he will do — everything — in his power to decide the outcome of the game against United. Other teams face less than a 3% shot at facing a penalty from Oliver if he is ref or on VAR, United well over 50%. Even if he isn’t given something, he will just make something up like against West Ham if it’s needed. It was the same against Liverpool last season, looked like they would win easy and Oliver wouldn’t be forced to step in and decide it — then he panicked at the end when it was still 0-0 and gave Dalot two yellows for swinging his arm once and the last 10 minutes every single call went in Liverpool’s favor. This means that the club is starting 25/26 with what minus 6-9 pts? We all know it, he doesn’t even have to try to hide it. Howard Webb won’t stop him. No reporters will cover it. Oliver gave the West Ham penalty and is instantly awarded with the PL’s biggest game, Liverpool vs United.

Other refs know that no matter how poor a call is against United, it will benefit them. @SkySportsPL, BBC and co will praise them like there is no tomorrow, the reporters covering United will be too busy trying to create drama because that gets the most clicks, and so forth. And let’s not even talk about what happens if United gets one border line favorable call once in a season, like Onana punching the ball and crashing into an opponent (which only happens like 25-50 times a season with other GKs without a penalty being called). Imidiately Sky will clear their calendar and cover it for a week. 

How many pts is this costing the club next season?

🔺A question that must be asked is: With how tough the PL has become — how can Amorim compete even for a top 5 spot starting a season minus that amount of pts? Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Villa, Newcastle, Tottenham — they are tough teams to compete with if you start a season down 9-12 pts. 

And it’s not just the points lost in each game decided by Michael Oliver and co. Look at Arsenal, they have derailed pretty badly the last weeks. How much of that is due to the shady reffing against the club earlier this season? Momentum and confidence can’t be overrated. 

Something must be done, the club’s future is literary at stake. What? I don’t know, but I do know that this is possible due to Sky, reporters like @henrywinter, @AdamCrafton_ and the likes who never will call it out because it won’t get you any brownie points/awards.