The Untold refs go to far away places: Howard Webb at Old Trafford « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
A co-production by Johnny and Walter Broeckx
This time we went to Old Trafford to have a look at how Howard Webb did the Utd-Chelsea game.
I must say that I intended to do the review myself. Johnny did it and as I just couldn’t find the time this week and could only make it up to half time. But I felt we couldn’t wait much longer otherwise we would come very late. I planned to use the model for next season but this time is a precious thing sometimes. But I would like to thank Johnny for doing the hard work. I only did the easy bits. The words before and after.
Lets move on to the facts.
| Min | Type | Decision | C/NC | points | weight | on |
| 1 | GOAL | Tight call but Chicharito is onside. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | OTHER | foul by giggs on malouda – not given | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | OTHER | foul against Luis – Chicharito threw himself in front of Luis – perhaps a judgment call, but I’d say not correct. | nc | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OTHER | Foul by Park | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OTHER | Foul by Valencia on Cole – blatant obstruction not given | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Foul on Rooney – not given | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Foul by Drogba | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Foul by Mikel | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Goal kick given to Chelsea – should’ve been corner | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | OTHER | Foul by Ivanovic | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | CARD | Ivanovic arrives late – yellow card | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 14 | OTHER | Foul by Cole forces a touch off of a United player and throw in to Chelsea – foul not given against chelsea | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Rooney fouled Kalou – throw in given instead | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | Foul by fabio on drogba – not given | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Foul by Ivanovic – obstruction | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | GOAL | Nothing wrong with the goal except for that maybe the goalscorer Vidic should have been sitting out this match for his intentional handball against Arsenal the previous week. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 29 | OTHER | foul by O’Shea | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Foul on Kalou | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Foul by Manchester | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Foul by fabio | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Offside by chicharito – assumed correct | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Foul by Rooney on Luis | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 38 | CARD | Rooney flied in wildy – a red card wouldn’t be out of the question here, but a yellow card is acceptable | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 40 | OTHER | Foul by Ivanovic – accidentally steps on Rooney’s boot | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 40 | CARD | No card – Rooney has been watching too much Barcelona – wants Ivanovic sent off – Webb is right not to do so. | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 42 | OTHER | Foul by Essien | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 42 | CARD | Essien pulls back Park by the collar after losing possession. Webb is entitled to give a card though he didn’t book Fabio who has twice pushed and shoved players trying to go past him (Webb didn’t call one of those). This call was obviously to appease Rooney for the previous foul – perhaps harsh but correct. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Manchester wrongly awarded a corner kick – the ball hadn’t fully crossed the line | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45+2 | OTHER | Foul for Valencia jumping in Terry’s general direction | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45+3 | OTHER | Foul by Fabio | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Foul by Park – not given – Webb gives chelsea a throw in when Ivanovic clearly kicked the ball out of play after being shoved by Park. Everybody is confused with Webb. | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Foul by Cole – lunges in | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Foul by Park | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | CARD | Park trips up Lampard from behind to kill promising attack – he should have been booked for it | nc | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 53 | PENALTY | Lampard slides in with his arm raised and blocks the ball with a swinging motion – this was fairly close range and perhaps it wasn’t as intentional as Vidic’s handball the previous week, but it was a penalty and should have been given. | nc | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 54 | OTHER | Throw in wrongly given to United | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 55 | OTHER | Offside by drogba – assumed correct | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Foul by Valencia | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 58 | OTHER | Foul by Evans on Drogba | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | PENALTY | Terry sticks out his leg and Valencia goes down somewhat easily. I would lean towards this being a penalty. With United up 2-0, Webb ignores it though. | nc | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 65 | OTHER | Foul by Fabio | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Handball by drogba | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 68 | GOAL | Vidic just plays Lampard onside – goal okay | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 70 | OTHER | Foul not given – Valencia fouls Cole while taking the ball off of him, Manchester nearly score from it | nc | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 70 | OTHER | Ramires fouls Giggs | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 71 | OTHER | Foul by valencia on Cole | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Offside by drogba | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 77 | OTHER | Foul by Cole on Fabio – not given | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 79 | PENALTY | Valencia blocks Torres’ goal-bound shot with his arm – Webb disallows it for an earlier but previously uncalled infraction | nc | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 79 | OTHER | Mystery foul – After the ball strikes Valencia’s arm, Webb seems to conveniently find a foul for an infraction against Alex. Replays show Vidic hanging on Drogba a bit and then running to get a head to the ball. Alex had a better position than Vidic and fairly challenged for the ball. I find this call highly suspicious. | nc | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 81 | OTHER | Offside by drogba – assumed correct | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 81 | OTHER | Foul by Lampard | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 83 | CARD | Giggs booked for time wasting | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 84 | OTHER | Foul by Torres | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | OTHER | Foul by Ramires | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 87 | CARD | Ramires booked for tripping Giggs from behind. A bit harsh perhaps, but acceptable | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 89 | OTHER | Handball by Terry | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 89 | CARD | This was intentional – he should have been booked | nc | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 90 | OTHER | Drogba lunged in on Carrick | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | CARD | Drogba’s lunge was flying in, two-footed, studs showing. He got a yellow, but it should have been red. | nc | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 90+3 | OTHER | Offside by chicharito – assumed correct | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90+4 | OTHER | Foul by Cole | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 41 | 53 | 84 | |||
| % | 66,13% | 63,10% | ||||
| CARD | 6 | 9 | 66,67 | |||
| PENALTY | 0 | 3 | 0,00 | |||
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | |||
| OTHER | 8 | 12 | 66,67 | |||
| 17 | 27 | 62,96 | ||||
| Favorable Calls | ||||||
| MU | 12 | 57,14% | ||||
| Chelsea | 9 | 42,86% | ||||
| Total wrong calls | 21 |
It looked as if Webb didn’t want to give any penalty. Like I have said on a few occasions this is a way you can act as a ref that you want to be 200% sure before you give a penalty. And if you apply this for both teams then nobody can blame you for this. A bit unusual for Webb when running around at Old Trafford in fact.
I think it is a bit weak but maybe this is down to the way SAF handled matters before the game. It put Webb in a difficult position. Apart from 1% of the MU fans who live in some kind of denial, fans around the whole football world know that Webb is a little bit pro United when on the field.
SAF words put extra pressure on the ref and I had the feeling he wanted to show that he would not give a doubtful penalty to United this time. Which lead to no penalties given at all. So Webb didn’t give a penalty to Utd when they were 2-0 up. A bad character might ask himself what Webb would have done with the score 0-0 at that time?
The not giving penalty to Chelsea when the score was 2-1 was a bit of the handyman ref type. He only blew after Valencia blocked the shot with his arms and then gave a foul against Chelsea for a push. I only saw one player pushing in there and that was Vidic. The other contact made was more of a result of the push from Vidic. But it diverted the attention of the handball.
His card handling was again a bit on the weak side at times. Typical Webb style I would say. When he can walk away from an important decision he will do it most of the time when the big teams are involved. Just like he did in the world cup he now also turned away from a possible sending off.
Twenty one wrong calls and a slight advantage to Manchester United. I think this showed that he tried to be unbiased and he very much succeeded. A slight advantage in those numbers to the home team is normal and can be put down to the human factor.
One thing is for sure the way the game went was very favourable for Manchester United with the goal scored within the first minute and the second coming a bit later. So there was no need for Webb to do anything special. And yet a rather low total score. Remember in other countries you need at least 70% and he didn’t reached that.
Footnote from Tony
Since Walter prepared this report SAF has been charged with improper conduct by the FA for the comments made about Webb before the game on 8 May. He broke FA Rule E3 when he said, “We are getting the best referee, there is no doubt about that. But (getting a bad decision) is definitely our big fear. We have the players to do it all right. We just hope it’s our turn for a little bit of luck.”
The rule says managers may not speak about a referee in advance of the match being played. SAF has just finished a five-match ban following comments about Martin Atkinson after the defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 1 March. He could get another ban, but, well, this is the FA, so the chances of that are somewhat akin to the chances of a warm sunny day on Pluto.