The laws of the game do not state that the referee should take into account the time of an incident or that the game is a local derby.
They do however say that the game is refereed based on the opinion of the referee in the decisions he makes.
This is exactly what Mike Dean did. He applied the law perfectly for 90 minutes and whilst leaving the field of play.
Lee Cattermoles first minute lunge on Cheik Toite could have easily been a red card. But thankfully for the sake of the game referee Mike Dean gave Cattermole a stern talking to and rightly issued the yellow card.
The next 30 minutes saw five cards issued and a penalty correctly awarded for a blatant shirt pull by Mike Williamson.
However it would be a great help to the game if more referees were bold enough to give more penalties for blatant infringements inside the penalty area. Although admittedly not all of them are quite as obvious as today's.
Dean had no option but to show the red card to Stephane Sessegnon for swinging his arm although contact was quite minimal. The reaction from the Newcastle man was highly embarrassing and hopefully he will be quite disappointed when he sees a replay.
Mike Dean also awarded Newcastle a clear penalty for a foul on Shola Ameobi which will be one of the easiest decisions he makes this season.
The sending off of Lee Cattermole was also spot-on. He followed the officials almost the whole length of the pitch debating numerous decisions and I shall leave it to the lip-readers to work out what he said just before he was given the red card.
A strong and physical game which you would expect from the two teams, although along with their managers lost their heads at times. However referee Mike Dean kept his for the whole 90 minutes and produced a fantastic display and reminded many that there is still a very high standard of refereeing in the Premier League.
Even Match of the Day gave him 9.5/10!
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