It’s not been a good campaign for PGMOL’s PR department, with top-flight officials making a string of high-profile errors

“Wtf.” That was Erling Haaland’s take on referee Simon Hooper’s failure to play advantage after he’d threaded Jack Grealish through deep into second-half stoppage against Tottenham on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium.

Initially, it looked like Hooper had waved the play on after Emerson Royal clattered into Haaland just inside the City half. However, just as Grealish was scampering through on goal, the official blew up, sparking explosive – and meme-spawning – reactions from the City players.

Haaland’s X post, which voiced bewilderment at the decision, has been liked almost 500,000 times at the time of writing. The reception of the Norwegian’s outrage is indicative of the feeling around Premier League refereeing currently.

X (@ErlingHaaland)

This season, officials have been subject to a previously unheard of level of criticism, with beleaguered PGMOL chief Howard Webb being forced into numerous apologies. The implementation of VAR remains the hot-button issue, particularly among match-going fans, but as the Haaland example proved, the technology is not the only problem currently facing the current refereeing cohort.

GOAL has ranked the most controversial decisions from the 2023-24 season so far…

 Images1October 28, 2023: Wolves 2-2 Newcastle

Newcastle were fortunate to come away from Molineux with a point back in October. Right on the stroke of half-time, Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot after Hwang Hee-chan seemingly kicked through Callum Wilson in the Wolves box.

Like every penalty decision, it was reviewed by VAR, and the replays appeared to show that there had in fact been minimal contact. Despite this, Taylor was not sent to screen and Wilson converted from 12 yards. Wolves would eventually grab an equaliser, but they went away feeling they deserved more.

“It was a scandalous decision,” manager Gary O’Neil said after the game. “It was a terrible on-field decision, and terrible that VAR didn’t intervene, so I thought they got it badly wrong.”

Images2September 2, 2023: Man City 5-1 Fulham

It would be easy to dismiss this incident as irrelevant. Even if the goal had been chalked off, Fulham still wouldn’t have been particularly likely to get anything from a trip to the Etihad. However, that doesn’t make it any less of an injustice.

With the scores level at 1-1, Nathan Ake’s tame header went in the direction of Manuel Akanji – who was stood in an offside position. The Switzerland international then swiftly moved his legs out of the way, with the effort eventually trickling past Fulham ‘keeper Bernd Leno.

Leno was incensed that the offside flag wasn’t raised and the decision surprisingly survived a VAR review, with City killing the game off from there.

Images3August 19, 2023: Liverpool 3-1 Bournemouth

Alexis Mac Allister’s face when he looked up and saw the red card waved in his direction by Thomas Bramall told the whole story; the Argentine could not believe his eyes. The tackle, a studs-up challenge on Ryan Christie, wasn’t brilliant, but it was difficult to see how it fit the criteria required for a straight dismissal.

In the end, the incident did not affect the result, but an independent FA panel agreed with Mac Allister’s bewildered reaction to the sending off, opting to rescind his suspension a few days later.

Getty4November 28, 2023: Fulham 3-2 Wolves

“You can send me flowers, you can ring me tomorrow, you can do what you want – but we should be on 22 points instead of 15,” O’Neil said as the dust settled on his Wolves side’s 3-2 defeat to Fulham.

O’Neil was reacting to referee Michael Salisbury’s admission that he’d been wrong to award the Cottagers a penalty after Nelson Semedo tackled Tom Cairney in the penalty area. It was the latest in a long line of injustices Wolves have had to deal with this term, and it wasn’t the only contentious decision at Craven Cottage either.

Tim Ream also seemed fortunate to avoid a second yellow card for a push on Hwang, while Carlos Vinicius’ clash with Max Kilman might have seen him dismissed for violent conduct.

5October 21, 2023: Liverpool 2-0 Everton

The Merseyside Derby has seen plenty of red cards over the years, and this season’s meeting between the old foes at Anfield was no different, with Ashley Young being sent off for two fouls on the electric Luis Diaz.

However, should Liverpool have been reduced to 10 too? Sean Dyche certainly thought so at the time. Ibrahim Konate was the lucky man, somehow avoiding a second caution after cynically dragging Beto back when Everton were threatening to counter.

“How they didn’t have [a red card] is an impossibility of football,” Dyche said after the game.

 Images6October 8, 2023: Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City

Mateo Kovacic is clearly a thrill seeker. Why else would he act the way he did during the first half of City’s trip to the Emirates earlier this season. First, he clattered into Martin Odegaard from behind, fortunately avoiding his yellow card getting upgraded following a painstaking VAR check.

Bizarrely, that narrow escape didn’t seem to calm him down. Just minutes later, he was careering into Declan Rice, with referee Michael Oliver again showing leniency, this time not even handing out a caution.

Kovacic would eventually be subbed off and Arsenal would win the game. Still, it was remarkable how he managed to stay on the field for so long.

 Images7November 4, 2023: Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal

Right, where do you want to start? The litany of controversial moments in this game nearly caused Mikel Arteta to spontaneously combust in his post-match interview, and the debate that raged in the media thereafter was all-consuming.

Even before the principal flashpoint, there was several other contentious decisions, with Kai Havertz avoiding a red card for a wild lunge and Bruno Guimaraes not punished for an elbow on Jorginho. The main source of controversy, though, centred around Anthony Gordon’s winner.

There were three separate decisions for the referee – and then VAR – to make, with there being suspicions the ball had gone out, Joelinton had fouled Gabriel Magalhaes and Gordon had been offside. The latter was straightforward enough, but there were significant grey areas for the first two, much to Arteta’s frustration.

“Embarrassing, it’s an absolute disgrace, that’s what it is: a disgrace,” he infamously ranted at full time. “There’s so much at stake, we’ve put in so many hours to compete at the highest level and you cannot imagine the amount of messages we’ve had saying this cannot continue. It’s embarrassing”

8August 14, 2023: Manchester United 1-0 Wolves

Premier League referees wasted little time setting the tone for a controversial season, with Simon Hooper dropping a clanger on the opening day at Old Trafford.

An impressive Wolves side were robbed of the chance to net a last-gasp equaliser after Hooper waved away their penalty calls when Andre Onana absolutely smashed into Sasa Kalajdzic. VAR MIchael Salisbury wasn’t interested either, with Manchester United going on to record a narrow 1-0 win. After the game, PGMOL issued their first apology of the campaign.

Getty Images9September 30, 2023: Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool

It doesn’t get any worse than this. A perfectly good – and vitally important – goal ruled out due to human error. Just in case you were living under a rock when this incident occurred, Liverpool’s Luis Diaz had his strike chalked off when the VAR officials tasked with checking the on-field decision wrongly assumed that the assistant referee had not raised the offside flag.

The fact the Liverpool had been reduced to 10 men at the time, and would go on to have another player dismissed before Spurs grabbed a late winner, only rubbed salt in the Reds’ wounds.

After the incident, PGMOL released the audio and footage from the mix-up. It’s a harrowing watch, with a horror-movie like build-up of tension proceeding Darren England and Dan Cook realising they’ve made a grave error – and there’s nothing they can do to rectify it.

No single incident in Premier League history has done more to strengt