Andre Marriner simply refereed with zero common sense before Aleksandar Mitrovic's red card but more so afterwards. The man in black started booking everything that moved and it was incredibly difficult for the players, managers and media outlets to understand his reasoning for almost all of them. The ref booked six Newcastle players as well as the red card to Mitrovic and also issued Arsenal's Santi Cazorla with a yellow. Steve McClaren told the BBC after the game:
"I just felt early on there were too many yellows and it was a rod for the referee's back."