Talk of a conspiracy against Man City is embarrassing

“It’s a f****** conspiracy!” The angry lady behind me shouted in the general direction of Mark Clattenburg as he neared my side of the pitch. “You’re a f****** cheat. I hope you’re f****** happy with your f****** paycheque, ref! You’ve f****** earned it today!” She, like everyone else in the stand, was annoyed that the referee of Manchester City’s defeat to Arsenal last Sunday awarded a goal kick to the visitors, overruling his linesman who had given a corner kick to the home side.

I’ve never truly understood the chant “you’re not fit to referee!”. Of course, the influence is subconscious, but it’s not exactly going to win the referee around to giving the next 50-50 decision to your team.

In fairness to the angry lady, she was right about that call; it was incorrect for Mark Clattenburg to award the goal kick and ignore the decision of his assistant. What didn’t help her case is that she directed a similar torrent of abuse towards the referee after every decision he made that wasn’t in City’s favour. Of course, I wouldn’t expect any football fans of any club to have a totally unbiased view – I do it and you do it. It’s human nature that we all see decisions with our team in mind.

The atmosphere against Arsenal was very feisty, something that was caused by the fans’ perceived view that the referee had given an incorrect red card and then, later, an incorrect penalty, both against City. From where I was sitting, I felt aggrieved about the red card. Looking through my blue shaded glasses, I’d seen Boyata win the ball, but even I couldn’t convince myself that Fabregas had dived, despite my best efforts and the efforts of those around me who had successfully convinced themselves. I had to check with a Belgian friend of mine, who is biased towards all things Belgian, and he told me that both decisions were correct. If he couldn’t find a way for the offending Belgians to be let off, then I wasn’t going to be able to.

I feel sorry for Boyata. It was only his third Premier League start and he’s made a genuine attempt to win the ball from a forward dashing towards goal. There’s no question that he fouled him and no question that a red card was the correct decision, but it’s from instances like this that he will learn. With just five minutes played, allowing Chamakh a shot on goal would probably have been the better decision – with Hart in inspired form this season, there’s no guarantee he’d have scored if he had hit the target. Even if he had netted, it would have left City 85 minutes to pull back the 0-1 deficit with a full complement of players, instead of trying to win the game a man down.

However, there’s no doubt that he’s a rising talent in the City squad and one mistake doesn’t change that. That he was selected over Lescott will show to him how much the manager values him.

Now, of course, only the hardcore of the hardcore City fans are still contesting those two major decisions; the referee got them both correct. But, at the time, those two decisions, combined with a few incorrect yellow cards and fouls – which went both ways – ensured a vitriol of abuse from the home fans. In fact, I’d go as far as saying the Clattenburg’s performance in that match was better than his previous performance at Eastlands when he officiated the match with Blackburn.

There were other contentious decisions besides the sending off and penalty. Some blues are upset, and in my opinion rightly so, by Cesc Fabregas’s imaginary card waving antics towards the referee after Boyata’s foul. A few years ago we were told that it would be a bookable offence because it was ungentlemanly conduct or not in the spirit of the game, but it’s a ruling that’s been applied rather haphazardly since it was introduced. Fabregas may have been lucky to escape a card there mainly because he did it whilst the referee wasn’t looking at him.

But had he been shown a yellow card for that incident, it’s impossible to say that he would have been sent off for the foul he committed later; without getting into a metaphysical debate on causality, if he was on a yellow card he might not have made the challenge that led to the foul.

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Later in the half, having already been shown a yellow card for a foul, a lot of the City support around me was convinced Fabregas should have been sent off for a second yellow card that, they believe, was given to wrong man. However, if my memory serves me correctly, the reason Djourou was shown the card was because he committed a foul and the ball broke to Tevez, who continued with the ball as the referee played the advantage. When Tevez lost the ball to Fabregas, it was clear there was no advantage and the play was brought back to where the foul was committed and a free kick was given.

There are, of course, some decisions by Mark Clattenburg on Sunday that I didn’t agree with. I do believe that Alex Song should have seen a second yellow card; principally because, having already been booked, he committed a very similar foul that had seen City’s Gareth Barry cautioned. Throw in the odd free kick wrongly awarded or ignored and this, to the angry lady at least, showed a definite bias against City.

But that inconsistency doesn’t prove that Mark Clattenburg cheated; it simply proves he is human.

Manchester City vs. Arsenal, however, wasn’t a particularly bad game for him, either. He has no anti-City agenda as seems to be the general consensus amongst my fellow City fans. A few wrong decisions on Sunday and the fact that he gave Craig Bellamy a second yellow card for diving when he was tripped almost a year ago when Mark Hughes was still in charge just proves he can get things wrong.

Those same fans forget, for example, the advantage he played that allowed Wright-Phillips to cross for Adebayor’s header in the City vs. Arsenal fixture last season. In fact, before Sunday, City had never lost a Premier League game with him in charge. Decisions do balance out over the course of a season and City have already had a slice of good and bad.

In fact, it’s all too easy for the word ‘cheat’ to roll off the tongue. It’s a serious allegation and one I don’t believe to be true of the game (there are so many things wrong with football, but this, in my view, isn’t one of them). Making mistakes isn’t cheating. But, then again, I suppose chanting ‘incompetent’ or ‘having a bad day at the office’ doesn’t scan.

The most interesting aspect of the allegation of a “conspiracy” to stop City from breaking into the top four is that, this season, City have been on the receiving end of some quite beneficial decisions. Take Blackpool away: Tevez’s first goal was offside and, on his second, he clearly fouled the defender he stole the ball off. The match previous to that, Sam Williamson gave away a penalty for a fair tackle on Tevez outside the box.

And if there was an enormous movement to protect the established top four, then Tottenham wouldn’t have just pipped City to the post last season. Surely both City and Tottenham would have been out of the running by then?

In fact, on one particular City forum, it’s become a bit of a predictable occurrence to see a thread posted about who the referee for the next game will be, followed by comments about how that referee never gives City anything or how that referee hates the club. It gets tiresome and clearly isn’t true.

Blaming the referee for a defeat like Sunday’s is an easy conclusion to come to. It absolves the team from any blame (not that I feel City should be blamed in any way). I can understand where Mancini is coming from when he says that City’s performance shows how far the team has come; 0-3 was a very flattering scoreline towards an Arsenal side that were matched for large portions of the game by a team with a man less.

But it’s not Clattenburg’s fault that Boyata fouled Chamakh and nor is it his fault that the rules say he had to send Boyata off. It’s not even his fault that another referee in another match with a very similar incident has incorrectly shown a yellow card instead of a red.

Consistency is what is needed in decisions, but consistently correct decisions.

Talk of a conspiracy against City is embarrassing. There just isn’t one.

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