Thursday, November 11th, 2010 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does
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By our referee in residence, Walter Broeckx.
A visit to Wolverhampton on a cold November night. And the ref was Mark Halsey. The first time this season we had him as a ref.
I must say that when I sometimes say things in words on this site I find it sometimes difficult to just show what I mean. And today I have got some fine examples of what I mean with the advantage rule. But later more on this. Let us just start the game:
GOAL in the First minute and nothing was wrong with that. 1/1.
OTHER : foul on Clichy but the ref signals an advantage. But the ball goes out after the advantage so no real advantage is visible in the first seconds and the ref stops the game and comes back to the first foul. This is something I have said in recent weeks as a minus point for some refs, but here it was very well done by the ref. 1/1
OTHER: another perfect example on how to play the advantage rule as a ref after a foul on Arshavin. The ball was played to Chamakh who was offside but he didn’t run after the ball. So the ref was entitled to come back to the foul against Arshavin who was giving the pass to Chamakh. Clever play from Chamakh and great vision from the ref. 1/1
OTHER:. The ref gives advantage to Wolves after a foul from Rosicky wide left. Wolverhampton keep the ball in the middle of the field where a totally unmarked Wolverhampton player is playing the ball to the right but he misplaces his pass when he was totally unmarked. The ref this time does not have to come back to the initial foul. He should have done it if the Wolves players had been under pressure from Arsenal, and as a result misplaced his pass. But now he just screwed up himself and the ref can stay with his advantage. Another good playing of the advantage rule and a good interpretation. 1/1
Fabianski dives to a header that goes over. The ball is back in play within 20 seconds. So no time wasting here from Arsenal.
OTHER: Another good advantage played by the ref in favour of Wolverhampton which makes Fabianski produce a good safe. 1/1
OTHER: a foul on Sagna in our own penalty box and the ref let the game continue. This was a wrong decision as you must always give a foul in such case and never give advantage in such a position to a defender. Because there is no advantage for a defender in this case. So a first miss from the ref after 37 minutes. 0/1
OTHER: The ref misses a frontal tackle on Cesc in the last seconds and gives a throw to Wolves. 0/1
Half time report : the ref has done excellently until the 37th minute and then become a bit sloppy.
OTHER: the ref misses a few clear fouls on for Wolves, one on Wilshere and one one Sagna. This can go wrong. Just read on.
OTHER/CARD: Henry comes in with a frontal tackle against Arshavin who can jump up just in time. But Henry plants his studs on the shin of Arshavin. The ref gives no foul and no card. This was a possible leg breaking challenge and I can only advise some pundits AND refs to focus more on these tackles. Just look at the picture from this tackle and wonder together with me why this wasn’t shown on MOTD? If Arshavin couldn’t have jumped out he could have been the next on the list filled with names like Diaby, Eduardo, Ramsey. 0/1 and 0/1
How on earth could Hansen have missed this one and the ref?
CARD: Denilson who has just come on the field doesn’t go back the distance required and gets a yellow card. A bit of a stupid thing but one could say a professional act to prevent a free kick to be taken quickly. But a yellow card should be given if you don’t take the distance when the ref says. 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Song gets the ball away in the centre circle and Hunt comes in on his foot and lands on his ankle. Again the ref didn’t see foul and no card was given. This reminded me a bit of the Essien red card handed out yesterday. But I don’t think Hunt had a bad intention as he immediately wanted to stop the game. So I give him credit for his reaction. But it was a foul and a yellow card and both missed by the ref. 0/1 and 0/1
The ball has been played by Song and Hun steps on his ankle.
OTHER/CARD: Stearman booked for a foul on Arshavin when he was trying to start a counter attack. Coming from the side but slightly late as Arshavin pushes the ball away. Correct decision. 1/1 and 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Yellow card for Cesc for coming late when he tried to block a long clearance. No matter what the MOTD pundits tell you this was a foul and a yellow card. Ref had it right this time. If you ask me for a picture, just look at MOTD or in the newspapers. They will have had their fun with this. 1/1 and 1/1
GOAL: Chamakh brings the contest to an end when he is played in by Cesc and goes alone on goal well onside. He makes no mistake with the outside of his foot. Very much within the rules. 1/1
So let us take a look at this in total and then I can give the following points
CARDS: 3/5
PENALTY: no
GOAL: 2/2
OTHER: 6/11
Total score: 11/18 (61%)
I must admit that after half an hour I had praised the ref on numerous occasions for the way he was doing his game. But then he started to lose the game a bit. Was he getting tired? A possible explanation when you read what he has gone through the last years (see the Ref Preview article for this game). Because after that he started missing things he didn’t miss in the first half hour. So I know he can do it, I know he can see the fouls. He just couldn’t keep the tempo up for the whole game. And I think it was a pity because he was having a real great first half hour.
The only thing he did miss during the game was the dangerous frontal tackling and that is something I didn’t like at all.
And a final note on the extra 4 minutes. He gave 2 minutes for the substitutions and another 2 minutes for injury time and time wasting. I thought this was a correct decision but just compare this to the 4 minutes Mr. Dean had given last Sunday. This just shows that something should be done about it and make rules about it that are clear for everyone.
Injury update after the mid week games
The match preview- what we were thinking before it kicked off
The referee preview: here’s a ref to whom we all send good wishes
Life, the Universe, and Arsenal’s past as described in Making the Arsenal It’s not like anything you have read before.