Beaten Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat has given his side’s Big Blue loss a conspiratorial whiff, suggesting Sydney FC are favoured by A-League referees.
But Graham Arnold, who saw his side go nine points clear at the top of the league with a 3-1 win on Friday, says the Sky Blues might simply have a mental edge over their opposition.
The latest edition of the Big Blue had a similar outcome to those played over the last two years.
Including last year’s grand final, Victory have lost the last six straight.
In four of them, including Friday night when Besart Berisha scored a 58th minute penalty, Victory led.
Two minutes later, Bobo had Sydney FC on level terms and, shortly after, the Brazilian’s spot kick had them ahead.
Muscat said it all came down to moments.
One was Sydney’s equaliser, which was “very easily defendable”.
Another was a high elbow from already-booked Sydney marquee Adrian Mierzejewski on Rhys Williams that went unpunished by referee Jarred Gillett.
“When you’re on top of the table, the big decisions tend to go for you,” Muscat said.
“(He) made contact with the elbow. If it’s not a direct red, surely it’s a yellow card.
“I spoke with Jarred after the game and his explanation was he wasn’t sure if there was any contact.
“It’s just a shame that he didn’t have my angle.”
Muscat said there was nothing unusual about officials favouring top teams, which “probably happened” all over the world.
For his part, Arnold said he assumed the video assistant referee ticked off the decision.
He was more concerned with continuing his long winning run over the Sky Blues’ great rivals.
Arnold suggested his team had a psychological edge over Victory.
“Sometimes you think you have (a mental edge) when you read some of their quotes from their players before you play them,” he said.
“They came out with full intentions. We knew that they were going to come out like that and we knew we had to weather that storm.
“It’ll be one of their worst results for a long long time here at AAMI.
“The Big Blue is a big stage and a big crowd. To come here and win 3-1 is an outstanding result.”
Making things worse for Victory and the rest of the league, Arnold also foreshadowed adding two players before the transfer window closes.
It remains to be seen whether either is a specialist player for the forthcoming Asian Champions League campaign, outside of the league’s salary cap.
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