I've just found out Michael Oliver was also the referee at Swansea, when Ighalo got wrestled to the ground by Ashley Williams in the 1-0 defeat. Nearly all the contentious decisions we've had this season have been by the same man. It's easy to forget these things, and I wasn't even aware Oliver was the man in charge at Swansea until now but that was an obvious foul on Ighalo. Once it is highlighted it does appear to be something unusual going on. As far as I'm aware he's only officiated us 4 times. Leicester (h) play off semi final. Ridiculous penalty award for an obvious dive by Knockaert in the last minute of an extremely important game. Bournemouth (a) Soft penalty awarded to Bournemouth which Murray missed late in the game with the score at 1-1. Swansea (a) Clear foul on Ighalo being wrestled to the ground by Ashley Williams, but no penalty awarded. We went on to lose 1-0. Leeds (h) FAC Very dubious reason for disallowing a good goal, plus a clear foul on Capoue in the box not given. Has he given Watford any obvious beneficial decisions at all in any of these games? I don't think there's much to argue about in any of these things......and it seems to be a very strange sequence of constant decisions that have gone against us with this guy. I think the club should write to the Premier League and just ask the question if he could explain these decisions. If nothing else, it puts it out there in the public domain and may make him think twice in future when he is in charge of one of our games.
The easiest thing to do is bury your head in the sand and pretend it does not exist. Is my summary incorrect in any way? Please correct if so. I do not really care if it sounds completely preposterous to some, but we have been on the receiving end of some very poor decisions every time Oliver is in charge of one of our games. It may be coincidence and he may even completely unaware himself. It's easy to watch a game, get annoyed at the time, but then forget about it a couple of weeks afterwards. I've done my best to highlight it.....if you want to continue to ignore the obvious then that's totally your prerogative. But writing to the EPL or PGMOB to just highlight these bizarre performances may make him analyse his own performance and how it looks.
