The referee has revealed he analysed his error ‘to death’ after he wrongly dismissed Kieran Gibbs during the Gunners’ 6-0 defeat at Chelsea
Referee Andre Marriner admits he was ‘knocked for six’ by the incident that saw him incorrectly show Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs a red card on Saturday.
The full-back was dismissed 15 minutes into his side’s 6-0 defeat at Chelsea at the weekend after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled the ball in the penalty area.
Neither player will face any further action from the Football Association following the case of mistaken identity, but referee Marriner concedes his error has been difficult to take.
“It knocks you for six to be honest,” he is quoted as saying by The Telegraph. “There’s a lot of talk out there that referees make decisions, go home and don’t care about it but that’s so far from the truth.
“You’re continuously playing the incident over in your mind. You think about how you could’ve arrived at the right decision and ‘what could I have done differently?’
“You draw from all these other different sorts of aspects to try and find the reason why you’ve made a mistake but equally the best thing you can do is try to park it and move on because this incident happened in the 15th minute of the game. Afterwards I analysed it to death.”
Marriner will officiate Newcastle United’s trip to Southampton on Saturday after the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) opted not to drop him from the refereeing rota.
And the 43-year-old claims he has taken confidence from the support of his peers.
“I made a high-profile mistake last weekend but it’s like a player who misses a penalty or goalkeeper who fails to make an easy save, you want to get back out there the week after to put those demons right,” he added.
“I’m delighted by the (PGMOL) decision, it shows what my bosses think of me as a referee and hopefully I won’t let them down and I’ll be able go out on Saturday and perform at my usual high standard.
“I’ve met all my colleagues this week so I’ve received a little bit of banter from them which has been good-natured. I’ve been down in the dumps and it’s made me smile and hopefully I’ve got my mojo back.”
