Arsene Wenger was a silly boy on Sunday. He made a mistake pushing referee Anthony Taylor in those tense closing minutes having been given his marching orders by Jon Moss. But the fall out in the media has been hilarious, with journalists far and wide calling for all sorts of punishments, from having to manage Sunday league football, through to a 10 game touchline ban.

Below are a collection of our favourites so far:

First up is Tony Evans in the Evening Standard. Now before I start, a little rant.

Why does the Evening Standard, a London based paper which reports on what is happening in London, employ a Scouser who supports Liverpool to give his view on the weekend’s game? The man is a scab who is still happy to get a pay day from News International when working on TalkSport.

Evans calls for Wenger to be hit with a 10-game ban. Now back in 2012, Alan Pardew shoved an assistant referee. I have looked through the archives of all the papers Evans has worked (and subsequently been let go) for and at no point did he write anything on Alan Pardew. Let alone call for a 10-game ban.

Pardew got a 2-game ban and a £20,000 fine. Surely a precedent set by the FA that they will have to stick with – anymore and Arsenal will win any sort of appeal. But Evans, like every other journalist, seems to be ignoring the Pardew incident.

Why is Evans so demanding, vocal, about Wenger, but was so silent about Pardew? Is it because he is still bitter about 1989 – like so many Liverpool journalists; or still upset Arsenal fans cheered when it was announced that trains back to Liverpool for Everton fans had been cancelled?

Most likely, he knows that a story about Pardew pushing a referee is not of public interest. A call for him to get a 10-game ban will not get the hits. Meanwhile he knows that by beating Wenger with the shitty-stick, the hits will role in.

https://twitter.com/DickinsonTimes/status/823587691606511616

The Times Chief Sports Writer, Matt Dickinson, suggests an alternative punishment. A community service order. He claims that Arsene Wenger should be forced to manage a Sunday League game for 10 games so that he can learn “a lesson in how hard it is”.

This is laughable.

Firstly Wenger knows how hard it is, he manages at the highest level of the game, where the stresses and strains are felt the most. If his side loses a game, he suffers abuse and questions about his future. He has to live football, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of course, he is rewarded handsomely for it.

Without wishing to demean a Sunday League manager, if they lose, they do not dwell on it, they head straight down the boozer and have a beer with their players. On Monday they go to work at their office job, or on a building site, and forget about football.

Managing in the Sunday league would be a cake walk for Wenger.

As for the demand that it is community service, lightly pushing an assistant in a moment of madness is not exactly up there with Eric Cantona karate kicking a fan.

Clearly Matt Dickinson is after some attention, realising that an outlandish, random suggestion of a punishment will get him that attention and build is profile. Afterall, it is an online profile that all journalists need now to become successful, it is no longer about the quality of their writing.

Maybe the next time a journalist is found to have written a fake story, or exaggerated the facts, they should be forced to go and write for a local free paper for 10-weeks. That way they can learn a lesson of how hard real journalism is.

Following in the footsteps of Tony Evans, we have James Olley, The Evening Standard’s Chief Football Correspondent.

Now some of you might not know this, but James Olley is an Arsenal fan. In his article in last nights Evening Standard, he claims that he has been informed by a source that Arsene Wenger called Jon Moss a “cheat”. I have a feeling he has made this up.

And why would an Arsenal fan in the media make something up that harms the club and its management? For clicks! We have it again, another journalist with a sensationalist view point, making things up, for hits and attention. To repeat, in the current world of journalism, it is all about how far your articles reach and how many hits they garner, rather than the quality and truthfulness of your story.

It is why we are seeing the rise of fake news. It is all about the advertising revenue, driven by how many people click your links. Better to have a poor journalist who gets hundreds of thousands of hits due to 10s of thousands of followers on Twitter, than a good journalist who has little online presence, but is a bloody good writer.

At no point does Olley indicate who his source is. It could be just a bloke in the crowd. It could be the magical leprechaun that sits on his shoulder, or maybe he went on a bit of a session with Tony Evans after the game, and between them they concocted the stories that they both created to ensure a big pay day for the Evening Standard. Well that is what my source told me anyway. Can’t reveal them though.

Penultimately we come onto Keith Hackett.

Former Premier League referee. Former referees’ assessor. General manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board. A man who in 2009, had to apologise to Arsene Wenger when the Frenchman was sent off in a game against Manchester United by Mike Dean for that horrendous crime of kicking over a water bottle.

Hackett says that a 1 or 2 game ban for Wenger “will not cut it on this occasion”. Hackett is another one who said nothing about Alan Pardew’s incident in 2012. Why is it that he was silent then, but so noisy now?

He go’s on to say Wenger should receive a 6 game, full stadium ban, going against the precedent that the FA set with Alan Pardew.

In his article, it is interesting that Hackett writes a good few hundred words on Wenger’s behaviour and assault on Anthony Taylor, but does not at any point mention Sean Dyche’s 90 minute verbal assault on Taylor.

Whilst what Wenger did was wrong, and Hackett is right that it does send out the wrong message to the wider football world, what Dyche did was equally wrong. 90 minutes of shouting and screaming at the referee.

Why has Hackett decided to only put across what Wenger did, rather than do the fair thing and also mention that Dyche’s behaviour over 90 minutes was also despicable? Of course, its because Dyche is a nobody who manages a tiny club up North. An article calling for a ban for him due to verbally assaulting a referee for 90 minutes just won’t get the hits.

The less said about Deluded Duncan the better.

I imagine throughout today, other journalists will realise that a ludicrous article calling for all sorted of weird punishments for Arsene Wenger will get them hits. I imagine this is not the end of the matter.

Also if you want to read the response from some but hurt Burnley fans, have a look at our comments page from the morning blog.

And how they will all moan, write more articles, and complain, when the FA are forced to follow their own precedent and give Wenger just a 2 game ban.

Arsene Wenger should be given a  2-match ban, a fine, and a warning about his future behaviour. No more, no less. End of debate.

Keenos

So Arsene Wenger got sent off at the weekend (or asked to leave the touchline, why do referee’s no longer show manager’s the red card?) and I for one was delighted. It showed there is still life in the old dog yet.

From the 1^st minute, Sean Dyche and his assistant were harassing the 4^th official Anthony Taylor. I do not think there was a moment in the match where one of them was in Taylor’s ear. Screaming at him, trying to influence him. A lot of the time the Burnley coaching staff were double teaming him.

Wenger, full of class, barely moved whilst this was going on. Some will say it showed a lack of passion, but it is more that Wenger has often been able to rise above this sort of behaviour. The behaviour Jose Mourinho has shown over the years, the behaviour Dyche showed at the weekend. You could easily argue that Wenger, at times, makes it easy for referees to side against Arsenal as he gives them such an easy time.

Everyone has their snapping point, however, and Wenger snapped in those closing minutes.

He had sat there watching Dyche and his assistant moaning at every single decision that went against Burnley. Meanwhile, referee Jon Moss was giving the Northerners everything, ignoring their thuggish behaviour whilst punishing Arsenal at every opportunity.

In the opening 2 minutes, Olivier Giroud had been thrown to the ground twice by Burnley defenders. It seems there is an unwritten rule in English football that defenders are allowed to pull and push Giroud around how they deem fit without punishment, but as soon as he lays a finger on them, it is a foul.

So Moss was ignoring the thuggish behaviour on Giroud, and then in the 2^nd minute blew up for the 1^st free kick. A challenge by Nacho Monreal which saw the Spaniard win the ball was incorrectly called as a foul.

As soon as the tackle went in, Dyche and his assistant were in Taylor’s ear, shouting, screaming, clearly demanding a booking. It was not even a foul, let alone a booking.

https://twitter.com/PR_WhoRu/status/823235999211917312

The press used to love saying Arsenal do not like it up them – labelling the side as soft. I believe this actually led referees incorrectly officiating games against Arsenal. It caused them to not give blatant fouls against Arsenal players because, in their mind, Arsenal were just being soft. This was highlighted most in a game I remember against Stoke City a good 7 or 8 years ago.

Arsenal lost 2-1 and the same rhetoric went up, Arsenal are easily bullied. But the press ignored the fact that Stoke went above a beyond simply playing hard.

Arsenal ended the game with 10 men as first Bacary Sagna and then Emmanuel Adebayor were taken out in crude fashion. The Adebayor one particularly sticks in the mind. The ball was out of play, Adebayor was off the pitch, and a Stoke thug came in taking him out. The ref did not reach for a card.

The game ended up with Theo Walcott being stretchered off the field with a shoulder injury. Like Adebayor, he was caught late and hard. It was a foul. Nothing given. But of course, it was not Stoke’s fouls that was highlighted, but Arsenal being weak. The referee should have stopped the behaviour in the first minute, but allowed it to continue. The ref was as much to blame for injuries as the Stoke players.

We had not seen this kind of behaviour against Arsenal for a while, but Burnley clearly went into Sunday’s game with the mantra that Arsenal are soft as they tried to kick us off the park. Luckily no Arsenal player was badly injured, despite a lack of protection and fairness from the referee.

Arsenal players were pushed and pulled, they were elbowed, they were stamped on, but Jon Moss turned a blind eye to it all. Stephen Defour stamped on Granit Xhaka twice. Alexis Sanchez pushed out of the way as he headed within the area. A blatant penalty . And still Dyche and his assistant were screaming at the Taylor. Trying to influence him and Moss. And it clearly worked.

Why at no point did Taylor tell Dyche to sit down and shut up, or threaten to send him off, is beyond me. He was probably intimidated by a thuggish Northerner. Scared to tell him to be quiet for the fear of a verbal volley and getting covered in spit and bile.

Then we had the penalty incident. The fact that Jon Moss waved this away showed just how biased he was throughout the match. It was a blatant foul on Mustafi. Of course, Dyche was straight up, in Taylor’s ear, probably demanding that Mustafi be booked for diving.

We then had Granit Xhaka’s red card. Was it a foul? Yes. Was it a red card? borderline.

I have seen players get away with a lot worse this season, and am sure the reaction of the Burnley bench, lead by Dyche, and the Burnley players surrounding the referee, influenced the decision.

Not too long later, Mesut Ozil was bought down by a crude challenge.

Dean Marney went in on Ozil, from behind, studs up, thigh high, and ended up scissoring him. It was a disgusting challenge, much more dangerous and filled with intent than Xhaka’s. The ref reached to his pocket and pulled out a card. It was yellow rather than red.

Maybe had the Arsenal fans made it a hostile atmosphere for the ref, maybe had Wenger whinged, bitched a moaned to Anthony Taylor for the duration of the game, Marney would have got the marching orders he deserved, but Wenger has more class than that.

Marney actually injured himself in the challenge. Hopefully he will be out for a long time. The game does not need thugs like him in it.

Arsenal tried to take time out of the game, slowing it down at every opportunity. When sides come to Arsenal and do this, referees ignore it. They act like it is not happening. As soon as Arsenal started to do it, Jon Moss was on the players back. Telling them to hurry up. Pointing to his watch. Dyche still in Taylor’s ear, ensuring more and more time was to be added on. It eventually ended up as 7 minutes.

Wenger eventually blew his top in the 93^rd minute when Francis Coquelin gave away the penalty which led to Andre Gray’s equaliser. Gray made a meal of it. It was less of a penalty than the challenge on Mustafi. After 93 minutes of being on the end of poor referee decisions, Wenger lost it.

He questioned Jon Moss for the 1^st time in the game to Anthony Taylor and was promptly told to leave the dug out area. He went and stood in the tunnel area before being chased by Taylor like a school boy playing kiss chase. He then lashed out at Taylor, demanding to know why he was being asked to leave the stadium he built.

Whilst all this was going on, Sean Dyche was sitting there smugly, laughing to himself. He had got away with it all game. Abusing the officials, complaining at every decision, and here were Burnley, about to take a point away at the Emirates, it would be the greatest day in Burnley’s history. Dyche had got Wenger sent off, he had gotten Xhaka sent off. He was the master of Arsenal’s downfall.

Jon Moss still had one more error to make. In the closing minutes Laurent Koscielny was kicked in the head by another Burnley thug. Moss did not even think it was a foul, where as it should have been a red card. Studs up to the face? Not a foul in Moss’s eyes.

Luckily the linesman made the right call, Arsenal got the penalty, and Alexis Sanchez slotted it away cooly. 2-1 to The Arsenal. Cheaters never prosper.

At the final whistle, Burnley players surrounded the referee, clearly questioning why he had given the penalty. They were probably confused that after 97 minutes of favourable decisions, Moss had given one the other way. Probably asking why, after Burnley’s equaliser, Moss did not reduce the time added on from 7 minutes to 4. Moss looked distraught at Arsenal’s winner.

Wenger kept his dignity throughout and paid the price. Maybe next time we play a side of Northern thugs, he should rant and rave on the sideline from the first minute. Then we might actually get a favourable decision.

Burnley, Dyche, Moss and Taylor, we overcame you all to get the deserved 3 points.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC