The Untold ref review: Arsenal – Manchester United « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Walter Broeckx, the Untold ref
So we had ref Foy yesterday. For Arsenal the result was great. Will Foy also have a great result? Only one way to find out. Just read on.
| Min | Type | Text | C/NC | pts | weight | on |
| 1 | OTHER | Foul on Nani given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | OTHER | Foul from Ramsey given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given – advantage given. This results in a chance for Arsenal which Walcott misses | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | OFFSIDE | Offside against MU – play continue as Szczesny gets the ball | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Foul on Djourou who is being held just outside the MU penalty area not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | OFFSIDE | Offside against MU | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | OFFSIDE | offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | Foul on Djourou not given – advantage given. There was not really advantage | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 19 | OTHER | Wilshere goes past Vidic at the edge of the penalty area. Vidic throws himself in the path of Jack and brings him down. The ref gives…… nothing????!!! | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 19 | CARD | This was a deliberate foul as Vidic had no chance to play the ball anymore. It was a promising attack. This should have been a yellow card for Vidic | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 19 | OTHER | Foul on Rooney given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | CARD | After having played the ball Evra is unhappy with the close presence of Wilshere and he makes a slapping move to Wilshere’s face. The ref was looking in another direction so could not see it. But even an attempt to slap a player in the face has only one punishment: a red card. You don’t have to hit the player just the movement is enough to get the card. And certainly for a man like Evra who should know better. As a man you don’t hit boys. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 27 | OTHER | Foul from Ramsey not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 28 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 28 | OTHER | Handball from Rooney given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Foul given against Wilshere. This was correct as he was holding the foot of the MU player when he tried to get up | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | OFFSIDE | Offside against MU | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Push from Fabio on RVP not given. Arsenal keep the ball as Fabio heads it out | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 32 | PENALTY | Vidic punches the ball away for the unstorming Van Persie. This was a delibarate handball inside the penalty area. Always a penalty | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 32 | CARD | This should also be punished with at least a yellow card and this should have been his second so it should have been a red card. I know that the ref could have given a straigth red also as this looked like denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity. But hey I am mild for the moment. But he should have been removed off the field now. That is something that cannot be denied. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 34 | OTHER | Foul on Anderson not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 34 | OTHER | Foul given against Anderson | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 40 | OTHER | Foul from Rooney against Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 40 | CARD | Rooney gets a yellow card as this looked a promising attack | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 41 | OTHER | Foul from Song on Nani not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 43 | OTHER | Ref gets in the way for the second time. It can happen once, the second time it means you are not runnig the lines you should run | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul from Clichy given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | The ref gets in the way again when Arsenal try to counterattack. This is a bit ridiculous in fact now. And when the blind assistant walks in he gets a nice pat on the back from Phelan. Yea they are happy with him | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Foul from Ramsey not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Foul from Song not given – advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Foul from Song given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Handball from Nani given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 54 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 54 | OTHER | Foul from Song given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 56 | GOAL | Nothing wrong with the goal. Nothing wrong at all. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 60 | OTHER | Foul from Vidic on Djourou when MU have a corner. Clear push in the back not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 62 | OTHER | Foul given against Song. And I agree with the ref on this. He got man and ball and so it was a foul. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | CARD | The ref books Song and indicates it is because he has made a number of fouls before. Again I agree with the ref on this. | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 65 | OTHER | Foul from Park on Sagna | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 65 | CARD | As it was a tackle with a foot raised against Sagna the ref books Park | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 66 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 70 | OTHER | Foul from RVP given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 71 | OTHER | Offside given against MU | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 73 | OTHER | Foul from Ramsey given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 74 | OTHER | Handball from Ramsey given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Foul from Fabio on Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | CARD | He threw himself to Wilshere in a frontal tackle and didn’t get the ball. Correct to give him a card for this | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 83 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin from Fabio given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 87 | PENALTY | Owen goes down and there is contact with Clichy.For me this was a penalty. I don’t think Owen was offside so the ref refuses to give another penalty in this game | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 89 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 92 | OTHER | Foul from Song not given – advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 93 | OTHER | Tackle from behind on Rooney and foul is given. This was correct. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 38 | 44 | 73 | |||
| % | 65,52% | 60,27% | ||||
| CARDS | 4 | 6 | 66,67% | |||
| PENALTY | 0 | 2 | 0,00% | |||
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100,00% | |||
| OTHER | 4 | 5 | 80,00% | |||
| TOTAL | 9 | 14 | 64,29% | |||
| Wrong calls | Arsenal | 13 | ||||
| MU | 5 | |||||
| Total | 18 |
Let us begin with the first penalty kick. The handball from Vidic. I had the impression that the ref should have seen it. But when the ref couldn’t see it the linesman should have seen it. There was no other player between the assistant and Vidic. Vidic stuck out his arm and made contact with the ball and by this contact the goal scoring chance was gone.
I think the assistant should have signalled it to the ref. He clearly didn’t have the guts to do it.
And I noticed when he went in the dressing room at half time that Phelan gave the assistant an nice pat on his back. A disgusting gesture.
Foy clearly was determined not to give a penalty unless 200% sure. Okay that is a position he can take as a ref. The foul on Owen was also a penalty for me. Owen looked to be onside and Clichy cought him with his foot. Yes Owen was looking for it as he realised the ball was too far to reach. But it doesn’t matter a foul is a foul and when in the penalty area it is a penalty.
So both teams can be unhappy about the penalty decisions from the ref. Another reason for Arsenal to be unhappy was the slapping gesture from Evra against Wilshere. It went unnoticed for everyone apart from your Untold ref, at your service. In our country and it should be the same in any other country according to Fifa you must send a player off when he throws a punch at another player. It doesn’t matter if he hits him or not. Trying to slap another person is violent conduct.
About the rule book about a handball and if a red card should be given it is telling us:
“A player is sent off, however, if he prevents a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball. This punishment arises not from the act of the player deliberately handling the ball but from the unacceptable and unfair intervention that prevented a goal being scored”
So Vidic should have been sent off at least with a second yellow card if not a straight red card if the ref judged that it was denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. This would have meant that Vidic surely would have missed next week against Chelsea but even could have missed the rest of the season. So this bad miss from the refs goes much further than just missing a penalty for Arsenal against United.
To be fair I must say that the ref in the first half had a very poor result. Around 40%. But he did a better job in the second half. One could say about the penalty decisions it evened itself out in this game. But did it really? I mean United playing for an hour with their best defender missing and Arsenal being 1-0 up (if Van Persie would have scored the penalty). It sure would have made the task for United even more difficult and it would have meant that United could be in trouble in the next weeks also.
So maybe the not given penalty decision against Vidic could be the miss of the season from the ref’s point of view.
Untold Arsenal on Twitter is in the top 1% of all Twitter sites for followers @UntoldArsenal
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here
History of Arsenal including the series on the failures of Herbert Chapman
Making the Arsenal – the book of Arsenal death and rebirth