The Poll Tax

There’s no denying that it seems to be open season on Arsenal. They have suffered at the hands of Mr Bean (also known as Mike Riley). They have endured the inadequacies of Dame Hilda Bennett. They have been deprived of a trophy by PC Howard Webb, who appears to have a ‘special’ affinity for Chelsea. And now, they have been shot out of the F.A. Cup by that great white hunter, Gorgeous Graham Poll, whose pretensions to be regarded as a top referee have long since evaporated.

Poll was the star of the replay against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, but for all the wrong reasons, and under his incompetence, Mark Hughes’ side were increasingly encouraged to believe that if only they could muster one good strike at goal, they might steal the game. And so it proved, as Benni McCarthy’s magnificent 86th minute strike won them a place in the quarter final.

But they couldn’t have done it without Poll. Poll, who allowed Pedersen to stamp on Eboue’s Achilles tendon as early as the 4th minute and escape without punishment. Poll, who watched Friedel pull down Aliadiere in the 22nd minute, and went into denial. Poll, who saw Emerton bring down Freddie Ljungberg in the box six minutes later and declined for the second time to award a clear penalty. Poll, who in a game littered with Blackburn fouls, saved his first yellow for an Arsenal player, Traore. Poll, who permitted Tugay a catalogue of fouls before reluctantly carding him shortly before the interval, when the Gunners might easily have been 4-0 up – if they had been granted, and converted, their penalties. And Poll, who ensured that it was more of the same in the second half. More tolerated fouls. More misjudgement. More mismanagement. And more chance of dumping Arsenal out of the F.A. Cup, ensuring that in the space of four days the crucial factor in Arsenal’s elimination from two competitions which they might have won has been official incompetence – against which there is no redress, because when it comes to referees, their indecision is final.