Enraged by Andy Robertson? Furious at player behaviour? A major cause is VAR

It is always vital not to bend too far with the weather, to dodge the squalls and thunderclaps; and above all to be wary of the worst and most deathly storm of all, the confected media storm.

Does the Premier League really have a problem with “player behaviour”? It has been tempting given the heat, the chat, the clipped-up punditry faces prophesying the decline of all that is fine and noble, like Evelyn Waugh bemoaning the death of the carpeted bathroom, to file the current rage about rage alongside all the other things that have seemed, very briefly, to signal the coming of the rapture.

Spitting was a thing for a while. Entire decades were spent worrying about sex scandals (ie people having sex); about the consumer habits of wealthy young men; about Raheem Sterling’s mum’s kitchen sink. The narrative is usually the same. Footballers are dangerous avatars of moral laxity. They need to be controlled or, frankly, the lid’s coming off this thing and we’re going to have to send in the 70s policemen with batons and helmets.

The current concerns have come to a head with the entirely unacceptable, but still oddly relatable, elbow towards the face of Andrew Robertson thrown by assistant referee Constantine Hatzidakis. Elsewhere Aleksandar Mitrovic has been given an exemplary ban for threatening behaviour towardsChris Kavanagh. Various teams – Newcastle, Arsenal, Manchester United, some others – have been accused of tactically haranguing officials.

Players are not being booked or sent off any more than in any other season. But the vibe is bad. The energy is dark. There is a sense of something building. And this really does seem like more than the usual tornado in a teacup.

First, because to be an amateur official now is to expose