West Ham United earned a point away against Aston Villa on Monday night, despite seeing Arthur Masuaku sent off by Mike Dean after 67 minutes, as per WhoScored.
The Hammers fought well to prevent the opposition scoring, with the game under the lights at Villa Park ending 0-0.
West Ham’s official Twitter account put out a post marking the result:
We hold on to earn a point!#AVLWHU #COYI pic.twitter.com/xQGCkk57Ce
— West Ham United (@WestHam) September 16, 2019
While there were some who debated about the level of performance in the comments, there were plenty who had their thoughts on one man: the referee.
A variety of his decisions received scrutiny from the Hammers faithful, including Masuaku’s second yellow and Ryan Fredericks’ penalty shout being turned down.
According to WhoScored, in 296 Premier League games, Dean has handed out a total of 1,099 yellow cards and 57 reds, while he was found to be the second-most ‘card happy’ referee in the Premier League last season by The Mirror.
A selection of Twitter reaction to the post can be seen below:
Was always gonna be only one winner tonight pic.twitter.com/FeeJg0UlsR
— San Pellegrini ™ (@WestHamCF) September 16, 2019
Don’t be excited about that, joke. Mike Dean is a useless excuse of a referee
— Jacob (@JacobC2018) September 16, 2019
We didn’t drop two. Mike Dean claimed two for himself.
— QTips (@quentinct) September 16, 2019
Best league in the world – with the worst officials
— James Apples (@JamesApples2) September 16, 2019
Eh ? By the ref yeah ?
— Paolo (@ellingford_paul) September 16, 2019
— Ryan WT (@RyanThomsonKOL) September 16, 2019
Mike Dean cost us that game.
— Jamie (@jamiewhusteele) September 16, 2019