Former referee, Mark Clattenburg, says that he wouldn’t have given Spurs the penalty Paul Tierney awarded on Thursday night and pondered why we never see that sort of thing given in other games.

Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean striker Son Heung-Min (C) is fouled for a penalty during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on May 12, 2022. (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean striker Son Heung-Min (C) is fouled for a penalty during the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on May 12, 2022. (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)

A point Arsenal fans often make is that they are refereed to a different standard.

It’s not that the decisions that go against them are wrong, necessarily, it’s just that you rarely see them given in other games.

For instance, this is the same referee as Thursday night:

Compare that to the one that was given, and you see why Arsenal fans are annoyed.

It’s the sort of contact you see go unpunished in every game yet Arsenal were penalised harshly.

Writing in his Daily Mail column, Mark Clattenburg wondered why.

“This was a defining decision in a match with so much riding on the result and I’m not sure I would have given this,” Clattenburg wrote.

“Technically, Paul Tierney wasn’t wrong. We were shown a replay of what the referee could see from behind and it looked like a nudge in the back from Cedric Soares on Son Heung-min.

“But if we’re going to give this as a penalty, I could find plenty of other examples when the same ‘foul’ has occurred in the box in other games.

“The inconsistency is frustrating because when this happens next week in another Premier League game, will it be given? Maybe. Maybe not.

“Unfortunately for Arsenal, Tierney considered it a clear foul and Harry Kane said thank you very much.”

As for rob Holding’s red card, Clattenburg believes that Tierney got that right and, again, it’s hard to argue.

What Arsenal fans do wonder, however, is how Son was able to throw at least two elbows at Holding without consequence.

https://twitter.com/TopFootballShow/status/1524838388569755653

It is a mystery…