Tony Harrington had a shaky afternoon. He didn't fix Arsenal's win over Everton, and anyone trying to build a conspiracy out of Saturday's result at the Emirates needs to explain why Mikel Arteta spent part of the second half getting booked for screaming at him.
That detail alone should end the argument. David Moyes was livid in the tunnel at half-time about decisions that went against his team in the first 45 minutes, and James Tarkowski felt Everton had been on the wrong end of more than one call. He had a real grievance. But later in the same match, Tarkowski won a free kick off Viktor Gyökeres that Arsenal's bench thought was soft, and Arteta got himself a yellow card for losing it on the touchline. You don't get a referee furious at both managers in the same ninety minutes and then call it a stitch-up for one side.
Harrington's track record is worth noting on its own: he's overseen Everton more than any other referee has, and his card count with them has run hot. Watch that pattern. It doesn't mean he tilted this game. What happened Saturday was simpler than the outrage suggests: an official who struggled to manage flashpoints and left both managers with something to complain about afterward. It was just a bad Saturday for the whistle.
The scoreline should bother Arsenal supporters more than the referee did. If this really was the control-the-ball, create-everything performance it's been described as, with Ezri Konsa poking in a corner for his first goal for the club and Ben White slicing one open for Gabriel's header, winning by only two goals against a side that offered little going forward is the uncomfortable part. Dominance that only yields two goals is dominance with a finishing problem attached, and no amount of complaining about the referee changes that math.
Arsenal are level on points with Manchester City through eight matches, helped along by City dropping points at Aston Villa the same day. They're keeping pace at the top while still searching for enough cutting edge to turn control into separation. Gabriel playing through a knee scare to score on a landmark appearance is the kind of thing that should've been the headline. Instead, half the fanbase spent the week relitigating a referee who annoyed both benches about equally.
Harrington just had an off day. He struggled to manage the game, and that's as far as it goes. It doesn't explain why Arsenal won by only two.
