EPL Monday: Referees in the Spotlight Again; Philippe Coutinho's Really Awesome, Terrific, Fantastic Goal

The Barclay’s Premier League certainly made up for lost time this weekend, didn’t it? After taking a break for the FA Cup, the EPL roared back into action with a weekend jam-packed with all sorts of talking points and controversy from on-field action. A quick, rapid fire recap includes: controversial penalty calls/non-calls in matches involving Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpol and Tottenham; Chelsea dropping points via a shock 1-1 home draw to relegation candidate Burnley; Manchester United and Tottenham each losing ground in the race for a Champions League spot; Manchester City crushing Newcastle United to move within five points of first place, and red cards all over the place.

Beyond that, the pall cast from the ugly, abhorrent incident involving racist Chelsea fans on the Paris Metro last week continued to hover over the action at the start of the weekend. (Sadly the awful behavior continued with West Ham fans allegedly singing anti-Semitic songs on the train before Sunday’s game with Tottenham.)

And come Monday, as is the case often in the Premier League, instead of talking about fabulous goals by Philippe Coutinho or other standout play, we’re bemoaning the match officials and the overall refereeing. Namely Martin Atkinson and Kevin Friend — referees, not players or managers — are having their performances dissected like the Zapruder Film following numerous controversial decisions in the Chelsea-Burnley and Southampton-Liverpool matches, respectively.

One former ref dubbed Atkinson’s decisions worthy of “worst all-time” and cited fatigue as a possible culprit. Friend, meanwhile, found himself in a crazy situation at a rainy St. Mary’s Stadium with three penalty shouts and a possibly Simon Mignolet handball outside the penalty area all within the first half. Debate the calls all you like, no matter how many different angles or Vines you dig up, there’s not much that can be done to change the split-second decisions after the fact.

Writing about the officials is possibly my least-favorite aspect of the Premier League, but at the same time how does the so-called BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD continue to have such inept decisions on a consistent basis? There are 53 million people living in England, this is the best it can do? Is it time for the Premier League officials to take a cue from the players and mangers and begin importing referees? Should there be more technology involved? Should there be a fifth official inside the grounds with access to a video monitor to quickly re-watch controversial calls and get a better angle? Do we live with the human element? Do we eliminate the human element?

Few, if anyone, watches the Premier League (or any sport) for the officials. Increasingly it’s become impossible to avoid their decisions, which in the end turns out to be a detriment for everyone. During the summer the powers that be running the EPL need to take a good look at how the officiating can be improved, keeping as open a mind as possible for suggestion.

When the officials are known, almost on a first name basis, or the mere mention of their name prompts eye rolls, that’s not good. Fortunately the EPL doesn’t, as of yet, have anyone like Joey Crawford in the NBA so we can be thankful for that small silver lining.

Chelsea’s Very Bad Day:

Let’s get this out of the way first, as fun as it is to float conspiracies there probably isn’t a “campaign” against Chelsea as Jose Mourinho has implied throughout the season — David Stern, as far as we know isn’t the EPL commissioner, right? Talking about a conspiracy is much more enjoyable than accounting it to gross officiating incompetence. If there were a campaign against Chelsea, what is the league accomplishing? The EPL remains widely popular and people across the globe are going to tune in regardless of the Blues lead atop the table since there are still numerous things in the table to sort out — the Top Four, relegation, etc. Targeting one team and ruining your global credibility is a pill not worth swallowing.

But … Mourinho, as evidenced in his press conference following the 1-1 draw with Burnley did have a point. Atkinson really did an awful job and his four decisions (30, 33, 43, 69, execute) did impact the game, especially the non-penalty calls.

Mourinho’s best point is the “criminal” tackle by Ashley Barnes on Nemanja Matic, that resulted in a red card for the Serbian midfielder for his reaction. That’s an awful, leg-breaking Shawcross-ian tackle by the Burnley player, albeit unintentional. How he avoided further punishment is hard to fathom.

Even so, Matic’s reaction is still going to merit a red card (Chelsea plans an appeal). Arguably, both players deserved a sending off. It was a little convenient to extrapolate that Matic’s absence is the reason Chelsea couldn’t mark a corner, which allowed Ben Mee to score the equalizer, but fair enough. Chelsea, sans Matic for three games (Leicester City, West Ham) will need to adjust, starting Sunday in the League Cup final vs. Tottenham.

Of course all the on-field controversy from the Burnley match overshadows a small trend for Chelsea lately: a lack of goals. Since losing to Bradford 4-2 in the FA Cup on Jan. 24, the Blues have scored more than one goal in a match only once, a 2-1 win over Aston Villa. Over this span the Blues haven’t lost, but they have drawn twice in the league (Manchester City, Burnley). Chelsea’s goal scorers over this period are: Branislav Ivanovic (4), Willian, Loïc Remy and Eden Hazard. Goals from a defender (Ivanovic) are a luxury, but can’t exactly be counted on week-to-week.

Diego Costa is goal-less since Jan. 17, albeit with a three-game suspension costing him time on the field. There’s also talk of Cesc Fabregas’ decline since the calendar turned to 2015.

Add it all together and Chelsea’s stroll to the title looks a lot less assured than it did two weeks ago. Bear in mind these sort of things tend to swing wildly one way or another with rapid speed. Manchester City looks atop the world following a 5-0 stomping of Newcastle United on Saturday … but it’s good feelings are only going to last until Tuesday pending the outcome of the Champions League match vs. Barcelona on Tuesday.

Five points remains a lot of ground to make up:

Stat of the Week:

Character? Perhaps a young squad with high fitness levels has something to do with it but obviously there are only 140 characters within a tweet, no pun intended. This is a good stat and a big reason Tottenham can point to a place in the Top Four, but leaving it that late consistently isn’t such a sound long-term strategy. Waiting for questionable 95th minute penalty decisions on Harry Kane isn’t the way to the Champions League, but Mauricio Pochettino isn’t going to throw it back, either.

Buckle up this week if you’re a Spurs fan. Sunday morning saw the crazy finish to draw West Ham 2-2. Thursday is a trip to Fiorentina for the Europa League followed by the League Cup final vs. Chelsea on Sunday. Since this isn’t a video game, there probably isn’t a perfect way to play two such important games with barely 48 hours in between. If you’re Pochettino you have to at least consider winning the Europa League as a viable way toward gaining Champions League access, making it even more difficult to prioritize one match over the other. Since the first leg vs. Fiorentina ended 1-1, Spurs can’t even try to play for the grim, boring 0-0 draw due to the away goals rule.

Hopefully there’s a lot of Lucozade around White Hart Lane.

Dope of the Week:

Yes, I used this stat on Saturday in a post about Joey Barton’s mindless sending off for attempting to dick tap Tom Huddlestone. England’s self-styled warrior poet might want to remember this the next time he goes in on Jordan Henderson, Neymar or whomever on social media.

Goal of the Week:

Phillippe Coutinho … that’s baby-making music right there.

Liverpool, yes, were fortunate to beat Southampton 2-0 on the road thanks to Friend’s decision-making, but Brendan Rodgers club continues to roll and won another match without a traditional striker in the mix. Only a few weeks ago Liverpool relied on Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini for goals, now the Reds can turn to Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling, Coutinho, Adam Lallana, Jordon Ibe, Lazar Markovic and Mario Balotelli for offensive inspiration. Put all those guys together and it helps establish life after Suarez.

If anything, Liverpool’s turnaround — the Reds are two points off fourth with 12 to play and were 10 back on Dec. 26 — can be attributed to Emre Can’s switch to a central defender and Mignolet’s no longer being out-and-out awful in goal. Sunday’s 2-0 win at St. Mary’s was Liverpool’s fifth league clean sheet of 2015.

And if you’re Ronald Koeman and Southampton, you’re definitely pissed losing this match since it directly impacts a chance at next year’s Champions League.

Odds & Ends:

Arsenal went to Crystal Palace and took care of business with a 2-1 win, while Manchester United went to Swansea and lost 2-1. As a result the two rivals switch positions with the Gunners taking over third place. Robin van Persie limped off on crutches for United, so that’s something to obviously watch in the coming days. Arsenal continue to receive goals from Olivier Giroud after his return from injury. … Tim Howard put together another rough game for Everton, which scored late on a nice diving header from Romelu Lukaku to draw 2-2 with Leicester City. … Better news for American Brad Guzan, who started his 100th straight league match for Aston Villa this weekend. … Every now and then I use the term “meh” to describe Manchester City, but I’ll admit they were a lot of fun to watch on Saturday with David Silva and Samir Nasri making moves into the box and scoring silky goals. Suffice to say, City are a different team with Yaya Toure in the mix.

The Table:

26 games played…

1. Chelsea, 60 points
2. Manchester City, 55
3. Arsenal, 48
4. Manchester United, 47
5. Southampton, 46
6. Liverpool, 45
7. Tottenham, 44

18. Burnley, 22
19. Aston Villa, 22
20. Leicester City, 18

Looking Ahead:

Sunday is going to be a good day for English soccer, starting with Liverpool-Manchester City, followed by Arsenal-Everton and then the League Cup final.