The Untold ref review : Stoke – Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
The Untold ref review : Stoke – Arsenal
By Walter Broeckx, the Untold ref
So today we had Mike Halsey. Let us check his numbers.
| Min | Type | Decision | correct | points | weight | on |
| 1 | OTHER | Push on Ramsey no foul given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Stoke not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | OTHER | Foul on Ramsey not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | OTHER | Gibbs then commits a copy foul and is given; Should give the first foul | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | OTHER | Foul on Jones ref signals advantage | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | OFFSIDE | When the cross from Stoke comes in the player going for the ball is offside. The assistant gives no signal. Pennant shoots wide | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Jones commits a foul on Ramsey. Nothing given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Wilshere then dives in and brings a Stoke player down in the same split second. Now the ref gives a foul. Why don’t he give the first foul? TV focusses on the foul from Wilshere but you can see the first tackle from Jones from behind on Ramsey if you are fast. Always give the first foul ref | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | OTHER | The ref who has been running around the centre circle runs and not for the first time too close to the action. He intercepts Van Persie and Arsenal almost lose the ball | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | Foul on Pennant given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 24 | OTHER | Late challenge on Sagna not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 26 | OTHER | Corner for Arsenal not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 27 | GOAL | From the resulting free kick Stoke score | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 34 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Foul from Van Persie given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Foul from Djourou not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | The ball goes out for a throw to Stoke just at the end of the technical area. Unlike minutes before when Sagna was told to go back this time Delap can walk some 10 meters further upfield to throw the ball direct to goal. If you are strict to one team you should be strict to both teams ref | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 39 | OTHER | Push on Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 40 | GOAL | It is not against the rule to score by hitting a defenders leg | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 42 | OTHER | 41:25 on the clock. The first foul blown against Stoke! Well he couldn’t let that one go | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Corner given for Stoke, not correct | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Song his shirt is torn apart by Huth. The ref gives no foul | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 48 | CARD | Huth then sticks out an arm to the face of Song who reacts with a push with his elbow. Huth pretends for a second to have been hit. Again a result of the ref not punishing the first foul. Both players could have been given at least a yellow card for their fight. The replay focuses again on the foul from the Arsenal player but ignores the first hand going out from Huth. Both players should be sent off for throwing hands to the faces of other players | NC | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul on Chamakh not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 56 | OTHER | Foul on Sagna not given. The defender sticks out his arm to prevent Sagna going past him. Nothing given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Foul from Van Persie given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 58 | OTHER | The Stoke keeper is holding the ball 16 seconds before kicking it upfield. The maximum time is 6 seconds to hold it in his hands | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 59 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Stoke given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Foul from Bendtner on Pennant given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 60 | CARD | Card against Bendtner and this is correct | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 62 | PENALTY | Stoke appeal or better said the crowd but Jones just backs in on Sagna and then goes down without Sagna doing anything | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 63 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Foul against Koscielny given by assistant | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | OFFSIDE | Offside given against Stoke | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 68 | OTHER | Foul from Pennant given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | OTHER | Foul from Chamakh given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | CARD | Wilshere gets a yellow card. He was lucky to have his foot on the floor when he tackles or he should have goten a red one. | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 69 | CARD | Pennant reacts very wild to the tackle and alsot gets a yellow card | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 69 | CARD | Wilkinson who after the first tackle came in with a flying tackle on Wilshere gets nothing. He also should have been booked. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 76 | OTHER | Foul on Szczesny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Foul on Bendnter not given ref signals advantage | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 81 | GOAL | Nothing against the rules with the Arsenal goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 82 | GOAL | Apart from poor defending nothing against the rules with this goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 86 | OTHER | Rosicky is being held and misses his pass. The ref gives nothing? | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 86 | OTHER | Foul on Walcott given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 91 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 93 | OTHER | Foul given against Bendtner | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 28 | 40 | 72 | |||
| % | 51,85% | 55,56% | ||||
| CARDS | 3 | 6 | 50,00 | |||
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||
| GOAL | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||
| OTHER | 3 | 9 | 33,33 | |||
| 11 | 20 | 55,00 | ||||
| Wrong calls | Arsenal | 21 | 80,77% | |||
| Stoke | 5 | 19,23% | ||||
| Total | 26 |
Well it is fair to say that Arsenal was not the only ones having a bit of an off day.
Let me put it gently it seemed as if the ref had a bit of a problem with following the game. He therefore always took the mid circle road as we call it over here. He didn’t run his diagonal line like he should have done. He came a few times too close to the action even stopped Van Persie on one occasion because of bad placement. I know it should be tough at 49 years old to do games in the EPL. In most other countries they haven’t such old refs anymore. Sorry but it was a bit visible. Maybe too many games in too short a space of time?
Another thing that struck me during this game was when a clever guy showed a statistic after almost 40 minutes played. It said at that time that Stoke had committed no fouls. Nothing, zero, nada, nul. I thought by myself: this cannot be. So when I did my review I looked and I found out that it was a correct statistic at the time. The ref had not given any foul against Stoke. And I must say on that moment in my ref review I had already 6 fouls from Stoke in my report.
Now experienced refs know that not giving fouls to both teams is the best way to try to disturb the balance a bit. I think nobody will have noticed it (unless the other refs over here) but when I see such a thing it raises some suspicion. Now it could be that because of his bad physical condition he could not see all those fouls. But surely not all of them could have been missed. If it was meant to be to tip the balance a bit I must say he did a great job. If it was by accident he should do something about his standards in calling fouls or his physical shape.
But to be fair to the ref: the important decisions is where he didn’t make mistakes. Just the average middle of the field fouls was where he showed some strange decisions or non decisions. Let us say not the best of referee performances I have seen this season but most of us will not have noticed because of the frustration about our own game.
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