Decisions Decisions

14th February 2006. Referee Graham Poll seemed to take an age to award Liverpool a penalty against Arsenal at Anfield and even then he got it wrong, but justice was done because Jens Lehmann produced a magnificent save from Steven Gerrard’s kick.

Not to be outdone, one of the linesmen (or ‘referee’s assistant if you prefer) flagged Arsenal’s Adebayor offside in the 37th minute, denying him a clear goalscoring opportunity which might have enabled Arsenal to grab a shock lead. He was wrong because Adebayor was not offside at the moment the ball was played – something he could confirm by watching a tape of the game. It is disturbing that an official at this level is either unaware of the law or incapable (probably because he does not know where to look) of implementing it. Unless he was just nervous because he was on the telly.