There were four Premier League matches yesterday and two of those clashes were decided by poor officiating.

Manchester United’s winning goal from Javier Hernandez at Chelsea was clearly offside.

At Goodison Park Liverpool were denied a perfectly good Luis Suarez winner against Everton, when the Uruguayan striker was wrongly flagged offside.

Consistency

The referee at Goodison Park for the derby match was Andre Mariner. I have seen Mariner referee other games this season and he has produced decent displays. However he showed absolutely no consistency in the derby.

Luis Suarez twice stood on Everton players with just a yellow card for punishment and Everton’s first half star Kevin Mirallas should probably have been booked for a poor challenge, before going off injured due to Suarez stamping on his ankle.

Awful

The officials at Stamford Bridge were just as bad. The linesman had a shocker for the winning goal and referee Mark Clattenburg was awful. Clattenburg is one of the worse referees I have ever seen. He seeks attention and gets it through poor decisions.

He has consistently made poor decisions throughout his recent career and I really don’t know how he is still a Premier League referee. As a neutral watching the Chelsea/Manchester United I found myself screaming at the television about his terrible display.

Now Chelsea have made a complaint against language used by the official during the game. This wouldn’t surprise me as Clattenburg attracts controversy.

Punishments

Premier League officials have been very poor for the last few years and surely poor performances should be punished. If players or managers make a mistake they are punished, as professional people they should show a higher level of competency.

Players and managers are judged on performances and it should be the same with officials. Officials in the Premier league should be the best people for the job, but this week proved we have a very poor standard of official in the British top flight.

I subscribe to the theory that a referee has had a good game if his performance isn’t noticed. Unfortunately the likes of Andre Mariner and Mark Clattenburg enjoy the attention far too much. Until we get better officials our game will be blighted by poor decisions.

Does the Premier League need better officials?