Vincent Kompany’s comments on Luis Diaz offside have now come back to bite him

Burnley manager Vincent Kompany is in the news due to his strong comments about the officiating in Chelsea 2-2 Burnley on Saturday, but it is remarkable how he has changed his tune.

At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were awarded an incredibly soft penalty after Burnley‘s Lorenz Assignon raised his arm when challenging Mykhailo Mudryk for the ball.

Assignon was then shown a second yellow card as a result of the incident, prompting his dismissal as well as the manager’s, as Kompany couldn’t help but vent his frustration on the sidelines.

After the match, the former Man City captain said: “I’m not shying away from it and I’ve said it to the referees themselves, refereeing hasn’t been good enough this season.”

He then added: “I came into this country and I think I said it as well at the beginning of last season that English refereeing was the best in the world, always.

“The reason being I felt common sense was always trying to be applied. You make a mistake and we all have a laugh about it and usually the traditional view is that it all evens itself out over the course of a season.

“This year, I haven’t felt like this. Where we are in the league doesn’t really matter for me, it’s not in that conversation.

“It’s just when I draw back to my years of experience, either sharing the pitch with the officials and now talking to them, there’s a lack of consistency and there’s probably a little reflection needed to make sure we improve the standards in our Game.”

If you compare this to how he responded to Luis Diaz‘s valid goal at Liverpool being disallowed due to, in effect, an admin error, the contrast is stark.

Back in October, he said: “Mistakes are human. I like the fact there’s transparency and that people come forward, own their mistakes, that we get access to the footage.

“There might be a trend here where we get the young referees who need to learn Premier League Game time or we get the guys who are just coming back and easing their way in but I’m sure with time and better results that can change.

“For him personally, we all make mistakes.”

It is worth noting that the referee being criticised by Kompany in Burnley‘s Game was Darren England, the same official who was the VAR for Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool, when the Belgian felt more forgiving.

You can draw your own conclusions as to why the ex-Man City player has shown such differing opinions on the standard of officiating.