Key Premier League Refereeing Decisions: Gameweek 12

Jack Wilshere was lucky to escape a red card, let alone a yellow on Saturday against Manchester United at the weekend. The midfielder fouled Marouane Fellaini, then showed dissent towards Mike Dean, in an aggressive manner, which warranted a yellow card I felt. Wilshere then turned to Fellaini and leaned in with his head. Fellaini did really well not to react and did Wilshere a favour by not doing so. Dean had a superb view and was looking straight at it, but failed to send off Wilshere for violent conduct – a poor decision.

Stoke City were clearly getting frustrated by Burnley’s 2-0 lead in the first half at the Britannia. So much so that Victor Moses dived in an attempt to con Mark Clattenburg. A great decision not to award a penalty, but I would have liked to see a yellow card. It’s not the first time Moses has dived this season and he needs to stop it. More than anything it’s detrimental to the young children watching and in some cases these are the people who are replicating this on a Sunday morning.

It wasn’t the only dive of the weekend however. Ross Barkley’s was arguably worse, but was given a free-kick. Kevin Nolan was left startled by the referees’s decision to award a free-kick. Poor from Barkley, who will get a talking to by Roberto Martinez for sure.

Sam Allardyce does continuously moan about officials, but he had a point regarding Everton’s first goal. A shot was deflected into Lukaku’s path and the Belgian smashed the ball home. Lukaku was clearly offside and as a deflection makes no difference to offside, the flag should have gone up.

The other key decision from Goodison Park was Kevin Mirallas’ yellow card for a foul on James Tomkins. Tomkins then reacted before Mirallas pushed him in the chest. Tomkins’ reaction was pathetic. He held his face before falling to the ground – ridiculous. I hope he is embarrassed when he watches it back as it’s not good to see any player try and get another player sent off.

The common conception from fans was that Claudio Yacob was rightly sent off for a poor challenge on Diego Costa, I disagree. I thought he was unlucky, but I can see why he was sent off. It was two-footed and late, but I don’t think it endangered Costa’s safety, which is the key criteria in the laws. I would have cautioned Yacob, but its a decision where some refs would have sent him off and some would have cautioned. Lee Mason chose the former.

Hull City were in control and winning 1-0 yesterday before an assistant refereeing decision changed the whole game. Gaston Ramirez was caught in a tangle with Jan Vertonghen. There were some afters but nothing to be concerned about. Referee Craig Pawson missed the incident but his assistant wanted a red for Gaston. It was a bizarre decision and ultimately one that cost Hull the game in my view.

Spurs’ equaliser came courtesy of a free-kick from Christian Eriksen, which came back off the post and landed at Harry Kane’s feet. However, looking at Roberto Soldado’s positioning, he is offside at the point of contact from the free-kick. He was in Allan McGregor’s eye line and therefore interfering with play. It should have been offside and if the officials had communicated, the right decision would have been made.