After the two biggest games of the weekend, refereeing and officiating is the hot talking point, where after both the Liverpool Everton Merseyside derby, and the Manchester United Chelsea top of the table clash, officiating decisions played a prominent roll in the final outcome.

Torres is shown a red card in the fiercely contested Manchester United Chelsea clash

Firstly, in the Merseyside derby, prior to the game, Everton manager David Moyes, brought diving to the fore, by discussing the subject at length, and putting the onus on the officials to be aware of players diving to draw free kicks. His veiled accusations were aimed squarely in the direction of Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, who rightly or wrongly has become the poster boy for diving.

As a result of his “reputation” the referees seem to be prejudiced against Suarez, and generally treat him unfairly, to the point where on many occasions where he has been legitimately fouled, the referees seldom make the call in his favor.

On Sunday afternoon with the game tied 2 – 2, with Suarez being a centerpiece, to make light of Moyes pre-match comments, Suarez, after scoring Liverpool‘s 2nd, ran up to the Everton bench and did a fake dive in celebration, much to Moyes chagrin.

The move didn’t go down well with the Everton fans, who for the rest of the game soundly booed Suarez on his every touch of the ball. However Suarez was undaunted, in fact, he seemed downright inspired and motivated by Moyes comments and the fans reaction to him. He responded by putting in a Man of the Match performance. He was a constant threat throughout the afternoon, so there was no doubt, that if there was to be any controversy, you knew he would be involved.

With the game in stoppage time and the score tied 2-2, Liverpool have a free kick 35 yards out. Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard, squares up to take the kick and floats the ball the far post, Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates, climbs above the Everton defender and heads the balls down, Suarez, super alert, darts between two Liverpool defenders and redirects the ball into the goal and whirls away in celebration.
But to everyone’s surprise, the assistant referee has his flag up for offside. Amazingly the goal is called back. Suarez, looks on in disbelief, with a mocking laugh, seemingly punctuating the absurdity of the decision and his overall treatment.

Suarez is controversially called offside

Incredibly the goal was denied for offside. Even without the benefit of replays, Suarez was clearly onside. At no point was he ever offside. An incredible call, gotten horribly wrong by the officials.

Meanwhile down in London, the refereeing again was a crucial factor in the eventual result. In an exhilarating game that lived up to its billing, Manchester United and Chelsea both played they’re parts in making a great game. Man United went up to 2-0 and clearly dominated the first 30 minutes. From the 30 minute mark up until halftime however, Chelsea clearly had the upper hand , eventually getting on the scoreboard with an awesome Juan Mata free kick.

The second half began as the 1st half ended, with Chelsea dominating the game. Their game tying goal was inevitable. Man United woke up from their slumber after the game was tied 2-2. They responded by easing themselves back into the game, resulting in a fabulous through ball from Robin van Persie to Ashley Young, who was subsequently fouled by the pursuing Bratislav Ivanovic. Straight red card for Ivanovic, in an obvious call for denying a goal scoring opportunity.

However, what happens next, is the source of the major point of controversy. Merely moments after the Ivanovic sending off, Fernando Torres was making tracks towards the Man Utd goal, he was confronted by United’s Johnny Evans, and in what looked like a blatant foul by the Man United player, the referee did not see it that way. Instead the referee, incredibly, called the foul against Torres, claiming that he had dived. Second yellow for Torres, and he is given his marching orders and Chelsea go down to nine men. Wow! A surprise and disaster for everyone in the stadium, except of course if you are a united fan. Within minutes United go down the field, score to make the game 3-2, ironically a goal scored by Chicharito, who had clearly come back from an offside position.

In the biggest games of the weekend, the referees and officials got the biggest calls wrong. There is nothing wrong with getting the calls wrong, referees are only human as is often heard.

The problem in both of these decisions is, it appears that the referees judgement was not totally objective. Instead it appears as though, their decisions for making these calls was motivated by a desire to punish players that have a reputation for diving. In doing so, in both cases, they got their calls horribly wrong.