All referees, whether at parks level or in the Barclays Premiership, attract criticism. It is the nature of the beast, the inevitable byproduct of the job. In that respect, Phil Dowd is no different from his predecessors or peers. Damnation lurks around every corner.

Run-ins with managers are nothing new for Dowd, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent and joined the Football League list of referees in 1997. He is in his sixth season in the elite Premiership group.

The nine yellow cards Dowd showed at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday may have appeared excessive, but he surpassed that tally when he officiated the match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield in March last year. He issued ten yellows, as well as two reds, in a frenzied Merseyside derby.

Steven Gerrard was sent off by Dowd for a second booking, having received his first yellow card moments earlier, and Andy van der Meyde, the Everton substitute, was sent off only five minutes after coming on.

Apart from his “previous” with Paul Jewell, the Wigan manager, before the row at the Emirates, Dowd has incurred the wrath of Mark Hughes, the Blackburn Rovers manager, this season. Hughes was furious after the 1-1 draw between Blackburn and Tottenham Hotspur at Ewood Park in November, during which Dowd had sent off Tugay Kerimoglu, the Blackburn midfield player.

Tugay was controversially ruled to have conceded a penalty when he brought down Hossam Ghaly in the penalty area and, after consultation with an assistant, Dowd compounded his contentious decision by sending off the Turk. He later failed to spot a handball in the Tottenham area by Mido, the North London team’s Egypt striker.

“These are big decisions that have a direct effect on the game,” Hughes said. “People tell me that, over the course of a season, these things even themselves out, but I’m starting to believe that it’s not the case. It’s really difficult to take.”

Dowd, 46, has handed out 50 yellow and two red cards in 17 Premiership matches this season and awarded only one penalty. Last May, he was the fourth official at the FA Cup Final between Liverpool and West Ham United at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

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