If Mikel Arteta is under any illusions that throwing his teddy out of the pram last week is going to improve the standards of refereeing, then he was very badly mistaken.

His unprecedented outburst in the wake of his team’s 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United undoubtedly came from the heart, and I don’t fundamentally blame him for sticking up for his players and his team.

But the way he did it just further serves to undermine the integrity and public perception of every single match official at a time when they are already under the most intense pressure and scrutiny.

I’m not going to disagree with him when he says the standard of officiating is not up to scratch. While the Premier League is supposed to be the best league in the world, the officiating is simply not up to standard.

But belittling and questioning match officials in such a public and humiliating way is not going to help. Just as it didn’t help earlier this season when Jurgen Klopp did the same and suggested Liverpool’s game with Tottenham Hotspur should be replayed due to an obvious error.

VAR is now giving managers an excuse to demand perfection when that was, is and always will be, impossible

Referees, their assistants and VAR officials are not making mistakes on purpose (and I am yet to be convinced allowing Newcastle’s goal was a mistake, by the way) but the more they are abused in public, the more mistakes will happen as they overthink every decision they take.

Of course, in my opinion, all this controversy can be traced back to the introduction of VAR.

There were mistakes made before video replays became a thing – of course there were. But there would be a mistake, we would moan about it for a while, chat about it over a beer or 12, and then move on. But now we have the ‘insurance’ of VAR, and when that goes wrong, we have a whole lot more to complain about, and many additional officials to get angry with.

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou is probably the manager speaking most sense about this whole officiating situation. Describing himself as “old school”, he says he longs for the era when the referee’s decision was final, and that was that. Like it or lump it, things moved on.

“I understand goal-line technology. That’s a simple one as that came in and no one’s complained about it. But in searching for this utopia where there are no wrong decisions in a game... that doesn’t exist and it never will,” he said. “It’s so hard for referees to officiate these days. Their authority is constantly getting diminished. I grew up afraid of referees like they were policemen.”

A manager who speaks so much sense, we should have him framed.

As I have mentioned many times before, VAR isn’t solving problems, it is only repackaging and rebranding them and, if anything, accentuating them.

But worse than that, VAR is now giving managers an excuse to demand perfection when that was, is and always will be, impossible. And they are being backed by their clubs who sense a weakness in the system now that didn’t exist before; a weakness they are only too happy to exploit.

When the ‘referee’s decision was final’ everyone had to suck it up and move on; moan, complain, vent, but ultimately get on with life knowing that these things even them out over a season.

Now they sense blood, and the scary truth is that it is only a matter of time before the Premier League, the Football Association or the PGMOL are sued by a club over an erroneous decision. And that will bring about the downfall of the sport as we know it.

 

Getting shirty over nothing

Oh look, another storm in a teacup!

At half-time in last Tuesday’s game against Manchester City, Young Boys captain Mohamed Ali Camara asked Erling Haaland to swap shirts as they walked off the pitch.

This sparked an outcry of condemnation from commentators, analysts, observers and assorted keyboard warriors who said the move showed a negative, awestruck mentality.

While I can see their point, things should always be taken in context.

Had this been Harry Kane, Antoine Griezmann or Kylian Mbappé asking to swap shirts with Haaland after 45 minutes of a crucial Champions League tie, then yes, it would have been ill-advised and worthy of criticism.

But this was Young Boys, the Swiss team who are relative minnows in European competition and who were pretty much already out of the competition before the match started. They were also 2-0 down at half-time to the defending champions, and Camara just saw an opportunity to grab a little bit of history.

There is little doubt that Haaland is going to end up being considered as one of the greatest players of all time and Camara may never play against him again. So why the devil shouldn’t he take advantage of an opportunity after 45 minutes instead of fighting with everyone else for the shirt after 90?

Football has all sorts of proper problems right now, so everyone getting their knickers in a twist about something so trivial is just rather daft.

 

That winning feeling

Just to be clear, the piece I wrote last week about Sheffield United having the season from hell was not some sort of cheap attempt at reverse psychology.

That it happened to be published the day after United finally won their first match of the season is little more than a freaky coincidence.

And, let’s be honest, this was a lucky victory that only came about because United were wrongly awarded a penalty deep into stoppage time. If VAR hadn’t made another mess of a crucial decision, the Blades would have had two points out of a possible 33 as opposed to the mighty four points they now have.

I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy the win because I did. It’s been so long since we won a match I had totally forgotten what it feels like – that warm, fuzzy afterglow that hangs around for a few hours.

But neither am I going to pretend this is some sort of turning point in the season because you can bet your bottom dollar that normal service will be resumed this afternoon against Brighton and Hove Albion.

 

E-mail: James.calvert@timesofmalta.com

Twitter: @maltablade