Betting.Betfair

Only last week Arsène Wenger was speaking about the importance of holding on to a winning position. "A draw in this league punishes you," he said, before Arsenal's fortuitous 2-1 win against Everton. Not four days later his side threw away a four-goal lead at Newcastle which resulted in draw that was backed at 490.00 on Betfair.

The temptation here is to criticise Arsenal's supine rearguard for crumbling under the pressure once again. After all, the Gunners' back-line is widely accepted as their Achilles heel and the fact that they became the first side in the history of the Premier League to lose a four-goal lead would appear to support this conviction.

However, every performance should be judged on its own merit and on this occasion the main reason Arsenal - 3.9 to win the leagu - are not two points behind Manchester United 1.93 today is because of a series of abject decisions by the match officials. Firstly, with the visitors 4-0 up, Phil Dowd erroneously disallowed Leon Best's perfectly good goal for Newcastle and then he embarked on the worst series of injustices since Byron Moreno single-handedly knocked Italy out of the 2002 World Cup.

Abou Diaby didn't exactly help his side's cause by getting himself sent off for grabbing Joey Barton by the throat and throwing him to the ground. He just about stopped short of pressing his foot on his neck and waiting for Arsène Wenger to give the thumbs down. Barton knew what he was doing when he followed through recklessly after winning the ball from a player who has already sustained two career-threatening injuries from similar such challenges, but there was no excuse for Diaby's hot-headedness.

Thereafter, Newcastle, a man to the good and cheered on by impressively raucous support, were bound to create a goalscoring chance or two and Best's goal was the product of their endeavour. But quite what Dowd was thinking when awarding two penalties to the hosts remains unknown. The first spot-kick was given after Laurent Koscielny's air-kick between the legs of Best was deemed a foul, despite the defender making no contact with the striker. The second was awarded after Koscielny and Rosicky jumped fairly for a header in the area.

To add insult to injury Dowd booked Wojciek Szczesny after he had been thrown to the floor by Kevin Nolan when trying to get the ball after the first penalty. And as for the last-gasp equaliser, it was a spectacular volley that crowned a gutsy comeback for Newcastle, but if it was a fitting end to a pulsating eight-goal thriller, that was because it was born of yet another howler from the referee.

Again Rosicky was adjudged the culprit. Quite what the Czech Republic midfielder brings to this Arsenal side remains a mystery and perhaps the man in the middle decided to penalise him, like Diaby, for just being a waste of space, but again the 30-year-old was pulled up for trying to win an aerial challenge by jumping in the air with his hands down. The Magpies scored from the resulting free-kick.

It should be highlighted that Arsenal did not just drop two points because of Dowd. Newcastle showed great character to keep at it in what has been a trying week, and Diaby's dismissal is further proof that Wenger's charges are all too prone to ill-discipline. The Frenchman is the sixth Gunners' player to be sent off this season - only Manchester City have a worse record in the top-flight - and two of those red cards were for violent reactions to perceived rash challenges. Indeed, it is always worth backing a red card in an Arsenal match.

However, when in one match you see such alarming inconsistency (Diaby off, Nolan on) and three wrong decisions directly leading to three goals, the finger cannot be pointed at Arsenal's notoriously soft centre. Instead you begin to see why Cesc Fabregas, allegedly, asked the match officials how much they had been paid to throw the Everton match last week after the Merseysiders' offside goal award.

David Moyes took exception to the suggestion that his side had got to the referees. But maybe Fabregas wasn't pointing the finger at Everton. Maybe it was directed at someone else with a vested interest. We all like to think of our game as being above suspicion, that fair play and good sportmanship represent our national game, but with so many millions at stake nowadays we cannot know for sure.

After all, if Chelsea can effectively buy the league title with Abramovich's millions, and Manchester City can try a similar tactic, who is to say that they, or anyone else, can't also buy bad lieutenants who are immune from having to answer for their decisions?

Refereeing mistakes will always be a part of the game and we can only hope that they are honest. In the meantime, Wenger can at least take solace that this time his side hasn't been "punished" for a draw but have instead narrowed the gap on United.

For more football betting articles, go to http://betting.betfair.com/football/