MIKE DEAN MIKE DEAN MIKE DEAN MIKE DEAN
West Ham 1 Arsenal 2
Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike. Dean Mike Dean Mike. Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean – Mike Dean, Mike Dean Mike Dean.
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Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean; Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean Mike Dean.
I’ve just discovered that Mike Dean is refereeing this afternoon’s game, but no matter. All those stories about him making a name for himself with every game he referees and making himself more important than the game of football he is refereeing have been exaggerated over the years. As if a professional referee in the Premier League would be allowed to make contentious decisions that affected the outcome of a game just to make fans remember him and not the teams playing. It couldn’t happen these days, especially with VAR. Not a chance. Those guys in Stockley Park are professionals and their entire remit is one dedicated to fair play and ensuring no team gets cheated out of points their performances would otherwise deserve.
West Ham and Arsenal both start ponderously, hitting twenty-five yard cross field balls across their back third of the pitch, rarely moving forward more than a pass at a time. The philosophy of retaining possession at the expense of creativity or risk-taking, originally cultivated by Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger twenty years ago, dominates the early play.
Bowen looks lively up front and with the triumvirate of playmakers Benrahma, Fornals and Lanzini all starting, there should be more scoring opportunities than there are. Then just when West Ham begin to settle, Arsenal score. From a set play, FFS.
A Bukayo Saka corner, with all the curl that might have been expected from the educated right foot of Pablo Fornals, finds the head of defender Rob Holding, who charters the corner of Fabianski’s goal with a desperate and exact precision.
Delightfully, however, the injustice of the strike seemed to galvanise the Hammers who equalise a few minutes later after Bowen beats Ramsdale with a precise low shot, ensuring the sides finish the first half level.
The second half shows Bowen in his sublime element, breaking away from the Arsenal defence time and time again. First just four minutes into the second half when Saka cynically floors him and gets a justified yellow card. Then three minutes later, in the event that will brand the game, Bowen breaks away, one to one with Arsenal keeper Ramsdale who races off his line and lunges two-footedly at him. Bowen skips over the lunge but goes flying in his effort to avoid being hospitalised and miss the rest of West Ham’s season. Mike Dean heads over menacingly to the scene of the incident and raises a yellow card. Surely Ramsdale must be given a red, even if he didn’t actually make contact with Bowen. It was an incredibly dangerous challenge.
Take a breath.
Dean has booked Bowen. For ‘diving’. Or, more accurately, for taking evasive action. Alan Smith, Sky’s purveyor of fair play and balanced reporting, says, ‘I don’t think it would have been a red for Ramsdale even if he had caught him. It’s a great call from the officials.’ Dean has not actually even booed Ramsdale. Breathtaking biased bullschitt from the gullible gooner.
Of course, Arsenal have the ball in the West Ham net within a minute from ‘scyther’ Saka’s corner, after Martinelli has found Gabriel unmarked at the far post.
Fornals hits a flying volley at the other end, which is blocked, and Nketiah is denied twice by the brilliance and athleticism of Fabianski.
Arsenal now dig in and roll out the time-wasting carpet of cynicism and misery, finally taking the game beyond injury time to its anticlimactic home defeat finish. Worse still, the gooners are now fourth and above the Hammers in the table. How can that be possible? Look no further than the retiring ref for your answer.
Arteta describes Arsenal’s victory after the match as ‘winning ugly’ – it is hardly a revelation. ‘Winning cynically’ might have been more accurate.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 16 Mark Noble (c), 41 Declan Rice, 8 Pablo Fornals, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 24 Ryan Fredericks
Substitutes: 9 Michail Antonio, 28 Tomas Souček
Goalscorer: Jarrod Bowen
