Manchester City against Everton was packed with big decisions throughout. Andre Marriner was in charge and it’s fair to say he didn’t have the best game of his career. The penalty incident, which led to the only goal of the game was a terrible decision. Marriner judged that Phil Jagielka fouled James Milner in the area, but there was minimal contact and definitely not enough to point to the spot. I didn’t think it was a penalty, watching the game live and was bemused to see a penalty given. Even more so when you consider the view of the referee, which was blocked by a couple of players. He guessed in my opinion and Everton had every right to be disappointed.

Also in the first half, City should have been down to nine men. Elaquim Mangala kung-fu kicked Samuel Eto’o in the back when trying to win a header. It looked deliberate and was a very nasty challenge. Also, Fernando should have also been sent off for a dangerous high foot challenge on ex-City man, Gareth Barry.

A very poor day for Marriner, whose performance was summed up by booking Ross Barkley for diving after an obvious foul – a bizarre decision.

Newcastle United ended Chelsea’s unbeaten run with a 2-1 victory. They had 10 men for the last 10 or so minutes after Steven Taylor saw red for two bookable offences. The first was almost a rugby tackle on Willian and the second was also worthy of a yellow, after recklessly challenging Andre Schurrle. A correct decision by Martin Atkinson.

Arsenal had an abysmal day at Stoke City and it could have been worse after Stoke’s fourth goal was ruled out for offside. John Walters was offside, but not interfering and Mame Diouf was not offside at the point the shot was struck. Despite this, the linesman called Diouf offside after some deliberation. A poor decision which would have killed the game, but from the next Arsenal attack, Diouf tripped Mathieu Flamini in the box. Anthony Taylor this time came to the right decision.

Calum Chambers is a walking yellow card and this time, he received two in the same game. The first was an easy one for Taylor to see, however the second was more dubious. Chambers tugged Bojan back and was sent off. I personally thought it was a touch harsh, but there was no need for Chambers to give the ref a decision when already on a card, especially in the middle of the pitch.

The flurry of red cards from the weekend was also seen at Loftus Road, Upton Park and Villa Park. QPR’s Charlie Austin won the game for the home side before leading with his arm into a ariel challenge, when already in Jon Moss’ notebook. He made the right call and that was evident looking at Austin’s face – he knew what he had done. Lukas Fabianski was very unfortunate to be sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity, after Chris Foy deemed that Fabianski fouled Diafra Sakho. It was a foul, but considering Sakho hit the post with the shot, There was an opportunity to score from, so I think a yellow would have been a more accurate punishment.

After a late challenge from Paul Konchesky on Alan Hutton, the Scot reacted and it looked like both players had put their heads into each other’s faces. Konchesky was then dismissed with a straight red card, but Hutton escaped punishment which amazed me. He instigated the reaction and the confrontation. Maybe referee, Craig Pawson added the ‘booking’ of the foul and the aftermath into a red. However, that logic doesn’t quite work out. In my view, either Hutton had to go too, or a booking for Konchesky and a red for Hutton was the answer.