Arsenal fan puts together ridiculous thread on why referee 'favoured' Newcastle United

One Arsenal fan has come up with the most ridiculous theory ever as to why referee Andrew Madley 'favoured' Newcastle United in Tuesday's 0-0 draw.

It was a frustrating night all round for both teams, as they looked to cement their surprisingly good positions in the Premier League.

Neither side could create the chance that would have earned them all three points to strengthen their bid for the league title, in Arsenal's instance, or to finish in the top four, for Newcastle.

It was the Gunners who were left more annoyed, especially their manager Mikel Arteta, as they desperately appealed for two potential penalties.

First Arteta was in a rage as he felt Dan Burn pulled down centre back Gabriel in the box, as cross came towards the centre back, who clearly felt it deserved to be a penalty.

Late in injury time, of which there probably wasn't enough added on, there were more claims for a spot kick, as Granit Xhaka's cross hit Jacob Murphy's arm.

Madley was unmoved and VAR didn't overturn either decision, but it's the ref who has been targeted by one fan of the Premier League leaders.

In his quite ridiculous thread, the social media user accused the official of bias due to his former job, his birthplace and because of his brother.

Madley's former job in the RAF apparently makes him a Newcastle sympathiser. Image: Twitter

After working out from Linkedin that the official used to work in the Royal Air Force, the thread magically links that to meaning he's has an affinity to Newcastle.

At this point you'd already be forgiven for thinking that the reasons for Madley's apparent bias are clutching at straws, but it only gets worse.

Next up is the fact the 39-year-old was born in Yorkshire, "Andy Madley himself was born and raised in Yorkshire which historically has only had one Premier League club to its name, Leeds United," the thread reads.

"Given that we've now established Madley was a Leeds fan as a child," the fan says, despite the fact we've not established this at all, "we can also understand the dislike he would have developed for Arsenal FC as growing up in the 80s the two clubs would have competed heavily for silverware. The stage is thus set."

Madley was born in Huddersfield rather than Leeds, so there's a good chance he doesn't have any affinity to Jesse Marsch's team.

Arsenal fans rush to remonstrate with Madley. Image: Alamy

The final reason that Tuesday night's referee allegedly favoured Eddie Howe's side comes down to his brother, and fellow referee, Bobby Madley.

Bobby was sacked as a Premier League referee back in 2018, for a video in which he 'mocked' a disabled person, before returning to England's top tier late last year.

"North London has one of the highest rates of disability in the UK," the thread makes a point of saying, "making it likely this was where the video originated from and thus some bitterness from his brother's side towards Arsenal isn't out of the equation."

There's a great many incidents of fans, and even managers, blaming a ref's bias on their team failing to win a match, but this might be our favourite ever.