Real Madrid suffered their second defeat of the La Liga campaign today as Atletico Madrid beat them 2-1 in the first Madrid derby of the season . With this loss, the Merengues are already six points behind the league leaders FC Barcelona, with only seven games played in the league so far.

As has been the case for most of their away games, Los Blancos again left a lot to be desired with their performance. However, one can reasonably argue that the referee, Ortiz Arias, also played a significant part in altering the course of the match in favor of the hosts.

While there were several other minor contentious refereeing decisions as well, three decisions stood out in particular during this game, and all three of them went against Real Madrid. First, Cuti Romero tackled and stomped on Jude Bellingham’s leg, and the referee awarded the Englishman with a yellow card before consulting VAR and showing the card to Romero, even though it could easily have been a red for the Argentine.

Only a few seconds later, Kang-In Lee went into a challenge on Federico Valverde with his studs up, but this time, the referee did not even show a yellow card. Then, a few minutes into the second half, Arias awarded Atletico a penalty and showed Dean Huijsen a yellow card for a foul inside the box, but this card was converted into a red after another VAR intervention.

These decisions, especially the last one, clearly turned the game in favor of the hosts. Naturally, Jose Mourinho was not too pleased with the referee’s performance, and as MARCA has noted, took some direct jabs at the field and VAR official and the refereeing committee:

“Yes, we could have saved ourselves the press conference because the story of the match is right here. Those are two clear red cards. We had a lot of difficulties afterwards with one player fewer, and all I can do is hug my players, who produced a first half full of class and personality. The ones who should be happy, besides Atlético, are the Refereeing Committee.

Everything has been very strange. A week earlier, we already knew who the referee was, when normally it is announced 24 hours beforehand. Then the referee is 41 years old and is not an international referee, so he will not be a great referee. Then the poor man couldn’t cope with the pressure.

And then there was Mr Trujillo, who was the VAR and called him over for the first red card, and I think not for the second, and who has a rich and tremendous history with Madrid. Just last year: Osasuna, Real, Girona… Poor referee, who has only officiated small matches, and the VAR official, who has a great history with Madrid. There is no pressure in Las Rozas. Or is there? Congratulations to the Committee.”