Sunday, August 14th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
The Untold ref Review : Newcastle – Arsenal
By Ref reviewer 04
Dear fans and also those who are not such fans here it is the First ref review of the season 2011-2012. As you will see the review itself is now done by more than one ref. The words before and after are written by the old and original ref reviewer most of the time. Yes, this is me Walter. The working together of now 3 refs and maybe even more in the future will help us to do more reviews and get an even bigger view on how things stand with the refs in the EPL.
So let us start with the ref review of Newcastle – Arsenal. How did ref Walton do? Well let’s find out and have a detailed look at the events that happened in Newcastle today.
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight | on |
| 5 | OTHER | Song | Ameobi | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | S. Taylor | Sagna | NC | Taylor comes in from behind leading with this elbow and smashes it agains the back of the head of Sagna | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | RED | S. Taylor | Coming in leading with the elbow in the direction of the head of an opponent is worthy of a red card | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 11 | offside | Ameobi | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 12 | offside | Ameobi | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 19 | OTHER | Song | R. Taylor | NC | Foul on a defender should always be penalised | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Song | Ba | NC | Song is being penalised for a foul but it was Ba who leaned in the back of Song and this brought Song down. My match commentator also said when he heard the whistle: foul from Ba on Song. Bizar | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | ?? | Arshavin | NC | Newcastle player comes in with an outstrechted leg at chest hight on Arshavin and kicks the ball away | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Song | Barton | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 26 | offside | Newcastle | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 27 | OTHER | Rosicky | Ameobi | C | Tackle missed | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Song | Ba | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | YELLOW | Song | C | Song is booked and the ref indicates it that it was for consistent fouling. | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 31 | OTHER | Koscielny | Krul | NC | Koscielny attacks the keeper in the air and touches him | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Taylor | Gervinho | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Tiote | Sagna | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 | REF CURIOSITY | Ref overules his assistant. I would have been very unhappy if I was that assistant but it is the right of the ref and he can do this. I could not see who was right and if the ball hit Gervinho in or outside the line. | ||||||
| 42 | OTHER | S. Taylor | Song | C | Holding but the ref signals advantage | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Gibbs | Barton | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45+ | OTHER | Cudicini | Gervinho | C | Holding and breaking up a promising attack | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45+ | YELLOW | Cudicini | C | Breaking up a promising attack is a yellow card | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Half time | 14 | 17 | 24 | |||||
| CORRECT | 70,00% | 70,83% | ||||||
| YELLOW | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 1 | 0,00 | |||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| GOAL | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| OTHER | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | |||||
| TOTAL | SCORE | FIRST | HALF | 4 | 5 | 80,00 | ||
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | |||||
| Second half | ||||||||
| 47 | OTHER | Gibbs | Barton | C | late tackle | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | YELLOW | Gibbs | C | Came in a bit late | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| 49 | OTHER | Cudicini | Arshavin | NC | Late trip | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 49 | OTHER | Ramsey | Gutieres | C | Push from behind | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Ameobi | Sagna | NC | Push in the back not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Ameobi | Sagna | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 52 | OTHER | Rosicky | Gutieres | C | Tackle from behind breaking up promising attack | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 52 | YELLOW | Rosicky | C | Breacking up promising atack is yellow | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 53 | OTHER | Gutierez | Sagna | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | YELLOW | NC | A kick on the knee should be a yellow card | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 54 | OTHER | Ameobi | Gibbs | C | Jumping in the back of Gibbs. With thanks to the assitance for signaling the foul as the ref didn’t see it | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Vermaelen | ? | C | Jumping in the back of the attacker. This time the ref sees it himself | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 58 | OTHER | Ameobi | Koscielny | NC | Ameobi clearly is holding and pushing Koscielny who has beaten him to the ball. Always give the foul on the defender | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | OTHER | Barton | Song | C | Barton holds Song | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | RED | SONG | NC | Song steps on the leg of Barton. Totally unacceptable even when it is Barton. Song is lucky the ref didn’t see it. He couldn’t as the body of Barton was between him and the action | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 61 | OTHER | Taylor | Arshavin | C | Tackle from behin | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 63 | OTHER | ? | Ramsey | NC | Holding Ramsey back nothing given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | ? | Rosicky | NC | Late challenge after the ball is gone. Nothing given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Tiote | Ramsey | C | Brings Ramsey down with a push | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | YELLOW | Tiote | C | Gets a yellow card for breaking up a promising attack | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 67 | OTHER | Ameobi | SAGNA | NC | Foul on defender should always be given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 75 | PENALTY | Tiote | Gervinho | C | Was there contact well no replay gave 100% conclusive evidence. Maybe there was a slight contact but I don’t think it was enough to bring Gervinho down. So the ruling on the field stands as correct. No penalty | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 75 | RED | Barton | NC | While the ball is in play Barton grabs Gervinho by his short and starts pushing and shoving him around. If you attack a player like that there is no other option but to give him a red card | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 75 | RED | Gervinho | C | Gervinho then slaps Barton in the face. No other option but a red card. It doesn’t matter that Barton is making it look worse. | 1 | 3 | 3 | |
| 75 | RED | Newcastle nr. 4 | Vermaelen | NC | The Newcastle nr. 4 pushes Vermaelen in the back. A bit like Diaby did last year against Barton. I agreed with the red card and now also this should have been a red card for the Newcastle nr. 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 75 | RED | S. Taylor | Gervinho | NC | Steven Taylor strikes Gervinho in the face with a flailing arm, and he hit Gervinho a lot harder than Gervinho hit Barton, the difference being that Barton dropped to the ground like a sack of spuds. | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 75 | YELLOW | Szczesny | C | The Arsenal keeper gets a yellow card because he came to the incident. At first he came to drag the players away but then he got involved in the discussions an he should have stayed away, | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 75 | PENALTY | Barton | Gervinho | NC | What a mistake to make. Remember the ball was in play when Barton attacked Gervinho. Gervinho was in the Newcastle penalty area when he was attacked in a violent way. So the ref should punish the first foul and should have given a penalty to Arsenal. In my book this is clairly an arbitration error. He doesn’t seem to know the laws of the game well enough. | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 81 | OTHER | Ramsey | Tiote | NC | Advantage given but there was no advantage | 0 | 1 | |
| 88 | OTHER | Obertan | Frimpong | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 89 | Offside | Van Persie | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 90 | OTHER | Vermaelen | Best | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | YELLOW | Vermaelen | C | Breacking up promising atack is yellow | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 2nd half score | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 19 | 31 | 52 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 57,58% | 59,62% | |||||
| YELLOW | 5 | 6 | 83,33 | |||||
| RED | 1 | 4 | 25,00 | |||||
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50,00 | |||||
| GOAL | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| OTHER | 0 | 5 | 0,00 | |||||
| 7 | 17 | 41,18 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| TOTAL SCORE | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 36 | 48 | 76 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 55,00% | 63,16% | |||||
| YELLOW | 7 | 8 | 87,50 | |||||
| RED | 1 | 5 | 20,00 | |||||
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50,00 | |||||
| GOAL | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| OTHER | 2 | 7 | 28,57 | |||||
| 11 | 22 | 50,00 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||||
| Correct calls | For Arsenal | 15 | 44,12% | |||||
| For Newcastle | 19 | 55,88% | ||||||
| Total correct calls | 34 | |||||||
| Wrong calls | Against Arsenal | 16 | 84,21% | |||||
| Against Newcastle | 3 | 15,79% | ||||||
| Total | 19 |
So this is it and well once again not a really great performance by the ref. A final score of around 50% is not enough for a ref.
And I think the reason is two things. First of all the big difference between the first half who was very good for the ref was because a ref of 51 years old can do a game in the EPL but after one half his performance level can drop because of his age. The more tired you get the more mistakes you make.
And he did make some mistakes. And the worst one was the total mess he made of the penalty decision. When the ball is in play and a player grabs an opponent and attacks him in a violent way you must punish that player with a direct free kick or a penalty. The sending off from Gervinho was okay for me but he had to restart the game with a penalty for Arsenal. It was Barton who attacked Gervinho first and this should have been punished.
In fact that a ref gets tired is down to the fact that the PGMOL for some reason can’t find younger refs to do the job properly. But the fact that the ref clearly did not know the rules and didn’t think of the fact that he should have given a penalty for Barton attacking Gervinho off the ball is something that is beyond me. If he still doesn’t know this rule by now I really wonder how on earth he has managed to get in to the EPL. I hope he feels ashamed of himself now. I would feel ashamed if it had happened to me.
PS: a final excuse for the fact that maybe the layout is not 100% clear for the whole article. But it is 3 in the morning, I’m tired and I just put it on the site like it is. See you in the comment section.