Following Arsenal’s 1-0 win against Newcastle in the Premier League, Ian Wright revealed that he was less than impressed with the behaviour of the Newcastle fans towards referee Andre Marriner.

The match was a feisty affair with Newcastle picking up their first yellow in the opening minutes and then a red card in the 16th as Aleksandar Mitrovic dragged his studs down Francis Coquelin’s leg.

“I was at the Newcastle v Arsenal match at the weekend, in the middle of the Toon fans, and was disgusted by the abuse they hurled at Andre Marriner,” Wright said.

“It wasn’t just a small group, it was thousands of them acting in unison, I found it unfair and deeply offensive.”

The Arsenal legend added, “Andre Marriner got the decision to send off Aleksandar Mitrovic absolutely spot on. He went in over the top on Francis Coquelin with his studs showing and it was an automatic red card.

“I don’t like to see bullying in any form and that’s what the Toon fans were doing, It is not on, and when it gets this bad the football authorities have to look at it and take action.”

The Magpies continued to pick up several more yellows, seemingly not learning from their initial mistakes.

The home crowd at St. James’ Park quickly became irate, feeling as if they’d somehow been wronged by the referee.

The Newcastle fans’ reaction to the referee showing their team cards was nothing out of the ordinary for the modern game. Rightly or wrongly, the home crowd are always going to get on the referee’s back when key decisions don’t go their way.

Of course, the Toon appeared to forget the penalty we should have been given against Hector Bellerin early on very swiftly.

Once the fans watched the match back afterwards, I doubt they felt as if they’d been quite so wronged.