A former Premier League striker called out Jarred Gillett for 'absolutely f*****g honking' refereeing in Arsenal's 1-0 win over Aston Villa, prompting a rules expert to immediately shut him down with an explanation.
The Gunners' perfect start to the season, in which they are looking to retain their league title after lifting gold for the first time in 22 years in March, with Bukayo Saka scoring the only goal in the 59th minute.
After last week's 3-0 win over newly-promoted Coventry City, Mikel Arteta's side are currently cruising through games, never looking like they haven't got full control of proceedings.
But while ref cam footage gave reason to why Christos Tzolis wasn't shown a second yellow card after blocking John McGinn during a counter-attack late in the first half, that wasn't the only controversy that the officials faced on Monday night.
Ex-Premier League Star Lets Rip on Referee Jarred Gillett
A first-half penalty decision saw Arsenal initially given a chance to open the scoring from the spot, before VAR intervened and adjudged the foul to take place outside of Villa's box.
Despite it being a non-event as a result, former Liverpool star Stan Collymore still let rip on Gillett over the time it took him to point to the spot. He wrote on X (see the full post below):
"Referee reacts to the away end penalty shout. Waited a full 3 seconds before pointing to the spot. Absolutely f***ng honking refereeing."
It was a moment that was also picked up by Gary Neville during Sky Sport's commentary, with the reason unknown at the time of the incident.
But it hasn't taken long before Dale Johnson, who works as a rules expert for the BBC, to respond to the scathing critique with an explanation behind why he took his time over the call.
Rules Expert Immediately Shuts Down Brutal Criticism
Responding to Collymore's first post, Johnson wrote: "Clearly checking with the assistant where the challenge took place," to which the retired striker followed up by continuing his blisfull ignorance. He shared the tweet and wrote back (see the full exchange below):
"Hey Dale! IMO, if a referee sees a penalty he should blow immediately and be overruled for being wrong. Anytime a referee waits 3 full seconds to point to the spot for the comfort blanket of an assistant in his ear, it logically means the referee has absolved himself from the one thing he's there for.
"To make a clear, unambiguous, real-time decision based on his ability and his alone. It looks all levels of wrong for an infraction to happen, and a referee waits 3 full seconds to blow and may I suggest, it could be abused in countries where refereeing issues are, let's say, commonplace."
Johnson, looking to shut him down once and for all, lastly explained: "It's standard practice when there needs to be a discussion about where the foul took place. If the referee is behind the play, the assistant who is directly in line will almost always make the decision on position."