Nottingham Forest's conspiracy claims are an embarrassment - every Premier League club is having to deal with rotten referees as standards hit a new low

This unbelievable statement was forged in the fires of righteous condemnation sparked by a trio of extraordinary refereeing decisions at Goodison Park that all involved Ashley Young. The first came in the 24th minute, when Young lazily swung his 38-year-old leg in the direction of Gio Reyna. The United States star unsurprisingly darted in before the former Manchester United man and soon hit the deck. It certainly looked like a penalty, but VAR Attwell confirmed Taylor's on-field decision after a brief check.

Not long after Idrissa Gueye opened the scoring for Everton, there was an even more controversial incident. Morgan Gibbs-White floated a ball to the back post, spotting the run of Callum Hudson-Odoi. The winger took a nicetouch, but the ball's trajectory was blocked by Young's arm. Despite the defender's arm being away from his body, once again both the referee and VAR refused to award a spot-kick.

Bad news comes in threes, and Forest's misery was compounded in the second half when Young again got himself in a spot of bother. This time the defender clattered into Hudson-Odoi from behind, though Forest would find themselves frustrated again. Everton would then put the game beyond all doubt through Dwight McNeil.

To make matters worse, Sunday's farce was only the latest instance of Forest being on the wrong side of refereeing controversy this season too. All the way back in August, the Trees were denied of a famous point at Old Trafford when Marcus Rashford went down under minimal contact from Danilo in the penalty box, with Bruno Fernandes converting the resultant penalty.

Then, in December, Willy Boly was handed a second yellow 23 minutes into Forest's Premier League clash with Bournemouth. It was, to put it mildly, a rather baffling decision, with the centre-back cleanly winning the ball. And there's no doubt that playing with 10 men for so long contributed to the Cherries' scoring a sickening 94th-minute winner at the City Ground.

Nuno Espirito Santo was seething after the game, saying: "Our fans deserve better decisions. They come here to see football and suddenly they see something which really changes the game. The frustration is huge. All of us are upset."

Nuno was similarly befuddled after his side's clash with Brentford the following month. In that one, Ivan Toney controversially moved the position of a first-half free-kick, providing the England striker just enough room to curl home a low effort.

"Everyone in the room will have seen the ball displacement and the law is clear. Every goal must be checked. Every situation must be checked, when it leads to a goal," Nuno said at full-time, with Forest later lodging a complaint to the Premier League about the decision to allow the goal to stand.

Taiwo Awoniyi likely should have won a penalty against Newcastle in February too, with Martin Dubravka clipping the centre-forward's heels as his raced through to score. Scoring the resulting spot-kick would have earned Forest a precious point.

Then, in March, there was the Liverpool controversy, with the Reds being given possession back following a collision in the box despite their visitors having the ball when play was stopped. Jurgen Klopp's side would score their winner shortly after wrongly regaining possession.

With this additional context, Forest's fury in the wake of the Everton game makes far more sense. But is their righteous anger justified?

Yes, the sheer volume of refereeing decisions that have gone against them is pretty staggering. However, by veering into conspiracy-theory territory with their dig at Attwell's apparent Luton allegiances, they have surely gone too far. A statement simply saying they were unhappy with the decisions and planned to raise this with PGMOL would have been more palatable, though no less pointless in the grand scheme of things.

But by veering into extremes - questioning the integrity of an official - it makes one wonder if it was an attempt at deflection. For all of their refereeing misfortune, Forest have performed well below par this campaign. Even with their four-point deduction added back on, they would still be just barely hovering above the drop zone.

This is despite eye-watering investment in the first team since their promotion in 2022, with Forest reportedly possessing the 11th-highest wage bill in the entire Premier League.

Evangelos Marinakis is hardly the perfect owner, either. His spending may have got Forest up, but it has also earned them a points deduction and left manager Nuno with an imbalanced squad. He's also made the controversial decision to hike up season-ticket prices by an average of 24 percent recently. Of course, these facts will now be lost in the news cycle, with the focus squarely on the fallout from the statement.

It's not like Forest are the only team to be affected by questionable officiating either. Take Gary O'Neil's Wolves, for example, who have had plenty of VAR and referee woe this year. Back in August, PGMOL apologised to the Wanderers boss following their officials' failure to award a spot-kick against Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana for a clear foul on Sasa Kalajdzic. This set the tone for O'Neil's challenging relationship with the refereeing governing body, with further incidents coming in matches against Luton and Newcastle last year.

Most recently, Max Kilman saw a perfectly-good headed equaliser against West Ham ruled out for offside following a protracted VAR check. After the game, O'Neil said: "My view, David Moyes’ view, [Lukasz] Fabianski’s view is that it was a scandalous decision. Terrible. Horrendous. I don’t understand it. I can’t think of an explanation, it was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever witnessed. I wasn’t calm enough to receive [an explanation], but he hasn’t really got one."

Yet, despite these maddening decisions, high-profile player exits and financial issues of their own, Wolves have managed to comfortably position themselves away from the relegation spots this season - unlike Forest.

And, more widely, while the two clubs are extreme examples, pretty much every Premier League side has had big, season-altering decisions go against them this term.

Therefore, even if Forest's claims of outright bias are unhelpful and unnecessary, it's clear Premier League refereeing needs to drastically improve - and fast. Officiating is an extremely hard job and it's unreasonable to expect perfection, or even the much-uttered 'consistency', as they'll always be a degree of subjectivity, even with technology involved. Saying that, it's reasonable to expect a reduction in the amount of baffling refereeing errors being made - these officials are earning as much as £150,000 per year in some cases, after all.

It's not just about the referees getting more decisions correct, though. It's likely that the volume of errors has increased this season due to the pressure-cooker environment officials are being forced to work in. Forest's statement took this up to another level, but players, managers and fans' inability to accept the concept of human error means that the stress those in the VAR booth are under only increases with each passing week. It's hardly ideal conditions for improving on-field decision-making, either.

Making the atmosphere around referees less toxic is easier said than done, however. And those in the profession have not helped themselves at times. The optics of Michael Oliver and two other officials receiving a pay day from the United Arab Emirates - whose government essentially owns Manchester City - at the beginning of the season were absolutely horrendous, while the various rent-a-gob ex-officials who provide analysis into incorrect decision for various media outlets only amplify the negative noise. Mark Clattenburg drawing a salary from Forest as 'consultant analyst' is hardly showing solidarity with his under-fire former colleagues, either.

It's a thoroughly depressing state of affairs with no easy fix, but solutions desperately need to be found to preserve the Premier League's status as the best division in the world.