Untold Ref Review: Sunderland 1 – 2 Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football. Have your name in the book as an official sponsor. Updated information here
Today’s referee is Neil Swarbrick – How did he do in his maiden match for Arsenal?
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Neil Swarbrick (2012-02-11) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 4 | OTHER | Campbell | Vermaelen | C | A bit late tackle | 1 |
| 9 | OFFSIDE | Van Persie | NC | Looked level when ball was played | 1 | |
| 12 | OFFSIDE | Van Persie | C | Assumed correct | 1 | |
| 14 | OFFSIDE | Larsson | NC | Pass to an offside Larsson was blocked ? linesman missed it. Sunderland got a corner | 1 | |
| 15 | OTHER | Rosicky | McClean | C | Ran into him | 1 |
| 15 | OFFSIDE | McClean | C | 1 | ||
| 17 | OTHER | Sagna | McClean | C | A bit reckless in the challenge | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | Richardson | Sagna | C | A bit reckless/late | 1 |
| 18 | YELLOW | Richardson | C | cautioned | 2 | |
| 22 | OTHER | Koscielny | Sessegnon | NC | Kos held his ground, didn’t look a foul ? lino called it | 1 |
| 29 | PENALTY | C | Turner won ball fairly off RVP ? good no call | 3 | ||
| 34 | OTHER | Gardner | Walcott | C | Trip | 1 |
| 38 | PENALTY | C | Mertesacker handles unintentionally ? good no call | 3 | ||
| 40 | OTHER | Turner | Van Persie | C | Fouled from behind | 1 |
| 43 | OTHER | McClean | C | High kick | 1 | |
| 43 | OTHER | Sunderland | Arteta | NC | Pesky fouls, misplaced pass ? not given | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Campbell | Van Persie | C | Clearly charges into RVP | 1 |
| 44 | YELLOW | Campbell | C | Kicks ball away and compains ? some nerve | 2 | |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 47 | OTHER | Gardner | Van Persie | C | Trip | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | AOC | Bardsley | C | Little tug/trip | 1 |
| 51 | OTHER | Arteta | Gardner | C | Trip | 1 |
| 58 | OTHER | Sunderland | Arteta | C | Trip ? advantage played | 1 |
| 61 | OFFSIDE | Campbell | C | Tried to deviate shot while in offside position | 1 | |
| 63 | OTHER | Campbell | Szczesny | NC | Frazier kicked Szczesny’s arm as he tried to gather ball ? Sunderland wrongly awarded corner | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Van Persie | Gardner | C | Used raised arm to hold off Gardner | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Campbell | Koscielny | NC | Push on defender ? not given | 1 |
| 70 | GOAL | C | McClean ? goal okay | 3 | ||
| 75 | GOAL | C | Ramsey ? Goal okay | 3 | ||
| 76 | OTHER | Sessegnon | Arteta | C | Pulled down | 1 |
| 77 | OTHER | Vermaelen | Campbell | C | Tripped just outside pen area | 1 |
| 77 | YELLOW | Rosicky | C | I think this was for kicking ball away | 2 | |
| 86 | OTHER | Arteta | Colback | C | Trip | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | Ji | NC | Handball ? not given and Sunderland get a scoring chance from it | 1 | |
| 91 | GOAL | C | Henry ? goal okay | 3 | ||
| 95 | OTHER | Sessegnon | Arteta | C | Trip | 1 |
| 95 | YELLOW | Sessegnon | NC | Stamped foot over Arteta, grazed his leg ? ref/lino missed it | 2 |
Neil Swarbrick is a relatively new ref for the match, so many of us didn’t really know what to expect from him. On the day, he made some mistakes but he seemed to get most of the bigger decisions correct.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Neil Swarbrick (2012-02-11) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| OFFSIDE | 2 | 4 | 50.00 |
| OTHER | 8 | 10 | 80.00 |
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 18 | 77.78 |
| WEIGHTED | 20 | 24 | 83.33 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 9 | 12 | 75.00 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 18 | 77.78 |
| WEIGHTED | 21 | 26 | 80.77 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 5 | 60.00 |
| OTHER | 17 | 22 | 77.27 |
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 3 | 4 | 75.00 |
| TOTAL | 28 | 36 | 77.78 |
| WEIGHTED | 41 | 50 | 82.00 |
In the first half, I counted 4 mistakes out of 18, which is respectable, but what is surprising is that 3 of those errors were made by the linesmen including 2 offside decisions.
Robin Van Persie appeared to be level with the last defender when he was flagged for offside in the 9th minute. It was a tough call to make and in all fairness, Van Persie squandered the chance, shooting somewhat tamely at the keeper.
A more serious offside error occurred on the other side of the pitch in the 14th minute when Sessegnon tried to pass the ball to Larsson who was in an offside position. The pass was blocked and play should have been stopped for offsides, but play continued and Frazier Campbell was able to get a shot off which was deflected out for a Sunderland corner.
There were a couple of penalty shouts as well in the first half. In the 29th minute, Robin went down in the area, but replays showed that Turner had won the ball fairly.
A stronger penalty shout came from the Sunderland fans when Per Mertesacker tried to chest down a cross into the penalty area only to have the ball bounce back up hitting his arm. This appeared to be unintentional and thus the referee was right in not awarding a spot kick. Moreover there wasn’t a Sunderland player within 10 yards of Mertesacker so Arsenal really didn’t gain an advantage by it either.
In the 2nd half, Craig Gardner nearly opened the scoring with a hard shot that Szczesny could only parry to his side. When the Arsenal keeper tried to gather the ball, Frazier Campbell kicked his arm and the ball spilled out for a corner kick though Arsenal should have had a free kick for the foul on Szczesny.
Sunderland did open the scoring a little later when Per Mertesacker went down after taking a bad step and James McClean ran onto the ball and shot past Szczesny. The pitch was in a miserable state and losing the big German and conceding the opener was a tad unfair to Arsenal to say the least.
But Arsenal would strike back with a wonderful strike by substitute, Aaron Ramsey, hitting both posts before finally making its way into the net.
Then right at the end of regulation, Referee Neil Swarbrick missed a handball by Sunderland’s Korean striker, Ji. Sunderland had a chance to score but could only muster a shot off target.
Sunderland would regret that miss because Arsenal legend and fan favourite, Thierry Henry, would score the winner a minute later from an Andre Arshavin cross.
There was one more incident nearly 5 minutes into injury time when Mikel Arteta was tripped. While Arteta was on the ground, Sessegnon stepped over him and his boot came down hard grazing Arteta’s leg. This was perhaps unintentional though it was reckless and deserving of a yellow card.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Neil Swarbrick (2012-02-11) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Sunderland | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 4 | 28.57 | 10 | 71.43 | 14 |
| Correct For Weighted | 6 | 30.00 | 14 | 70.00 | 20 |
| Incorrect Against | 0 | 0.00 | 4 | 100.00 | 4 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 0 | 0.00 | 4 | 100.00 | 4 |
| Fouls Commited | 9 | 75.00 | 3 | 25.00 | 12 |
| Fouls Penalised | 7 | 77.78 | 3 | 100.00 | 10 |
| Period 2 | Sunderland | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 7 | 50.00 | 7 | 50.00 | 14 |
| Correct For Weighted | 10 | 47.62 | 11 | 52.38 | 21 |
| Incorrect Against | 0 | 0.00 | 4 | 100.00 | 4 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 0 | 0.00 | 5 | 100.00 | 5 |
| Fouls Commited | 8 | 61.54 | 5 | 38.46 | 13 |
| Fouls Penalised | 5 | 62.50 | 5 | 100.00 | 10 |
| Totals | Sunderland | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 11 | 39.29 | 17 | 60.71 | 28 |
| Correct For Weighted | 16 | 39.02 | 25 | 60.98 | 41 |
| Incorrect Against | 0 | 0.00 | 8 | 100.00 | 8 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 0 | 0.00 | 9 | 100.00 | 9 |
| Fouls Commited | 17 | 68.00 | 8 | 32.00 | 25 |
| Fouls Penalised | 12 | 70.59 | 8 | 100.00 | 20 |
Swarbrick finished the day with a score of 77.78% and while he did get most of the major decisions correct, there were several wrong decisions which led to scoring chances for Sunderland. Fortunately for Arsenal, Sunderland were unable to take advantage of them.