The Premier League title race would have entered the final match round with Manchester City two points clear of Arsenal, according to The Athletic’s analysis of key match decisions made by referees and their video assistants.
■ Arsenal, Chelsea and Sunderland benefitted the most from errors
■ Bournemouth earned four fewer points than they should have
■ Fulham should have qualified for the Europa League
■ An extra 17 red cards and 36 penalties should have been awarded
@Refsplaining analyses every key match decision to evaluate how on-field and VAR refereeing decisions shaped the Premier League in 2025-26.
Free to read here ⬇️
🔗 https://t.co/aCM0ROTHLY
Feel for Gabriel and Arsenal.
With that said, for football — it must be underlined that the right team won.
PSG was a broken team in many ways. They played the Club World Cup. They are severely restricted by a Settlement Agreement with UEFA. Kvara, Diomande, Vitinha and co came off. The below is largely the XI PSG had for the last 30-45 minutes.
Arsenal got a healthy squad. Gyökeres, Eze, Zubamendi, Martinelli and Madueke comes off the bench.
Still it’s all PSG from kick-off until minute 120, only one team try to play football. 75.3%/24.7% possession. The most lopsided CL final ever.
Arteta starts with 4 central defenders. Two CDMs. Odegard who is a defensive AMC. No striker.
As if City couldn’t embarrass themselves anymore…
They’ve refused to host the FA Youth Cup final at their stadium in the fear of a United-dominant crowd.
(Shame about that construction that DEFINITELY couldn’t be put on hold for an extra day 🤣)
They then give United less than 1000 tickets. Sold out in a minute. And now they can’t even sell their own allocation in that tiny ground. They’ve even got influencers on the marketing job…
Pathetic, hollow cheats.
Manchester United have suffered 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐕𝐀𝐑 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐬 this season, with eight decisions going against them.
Chelsea and Arsenal have had the most errors in their favour this season, with seven each.
[as per @Squawka website]
Now people should understand why United fans are often unhappy with refereeing decisions.