Untold Ref Review: Liverpool 1 – 2 Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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Today’s referee is Mark Halsey – From what we have gathered in the comment section of our RefWatch a lot of people felt Halsey was not that good. Let us find out in our review.
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Mark Halsey (2012-03-03) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 2 | OFFSIDE | Downing | C | Assumed correct | 1 | |
| 4 | OFFSIDE | Suarez | C | 1 | ||
| 7 | OFFSIDE | Kuyt | C | 1 | ||
| 7 | OTHER | Arteta | Adam | NC | Blocked Adam’s leg as he followed through, not given | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Gibbs | Suarez | C | Foul | 1 |
| 13 | OTHER | Adam | Song | C | Foul | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Gibbs | Suarez | C | Push | 1 |
| 17 | OTHER | RVP | Spearing | C | Foul, advantage played | 1 |
| 18 | PENALTY | Szczesny | Suarez | NC | The ball has been played out for all intents and purposes, and Suarez throws himself theatrically down under almost no contact | 3 |
| 18 | YELLOW | Suarez | NC | Suarez should have been booked for simulation and feigning injury | 2 | |
| 20 | OTHER | Suarez | Szczesny | C | Backed into him | 1 |
| 22 | OTHER | Spearing | Gibbs | NC | Push/Pull, not given | 1 |
| 23 | GOAL | C | Koscielny, own-goal, okay | 3 | ||
| 27 | OTHER | Skrtel | Walcott | NC | Lunged in and tripped Theo, both ref and assistant miss it | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Adam | Rosicky | NC | Ran into the back of him, not given | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Spearing | Walcott | NC | Pushed and pulled, not given | 1 |
| 31 | GOAL | C | RVP, goal okay | 1 | ||
| 35 | OTHER | Rosicky | Spearing | C | Challenged the ball recklessly, studs showing | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Suarez | Arteta | C | Trip | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Spearing | Rosicky | NC | Lunged in, caught Rosicky in the leg with studs, not given | 1 |
| 36 | YELLOW | Spearing | NC | Should have got a yellow at the very least | 2 | |
| 39 | OTHER | Song | Downing | C | Trip | 1 |
| 42 | OTHER | Enrique | Walcott | C | Push | 1 |
| 42 | OTHER | Kuyt | Arteta | NC | Trip, not given | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Carragher | RVP | NC | Fouled him going up for header, not given | 1 |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 46 | OTHER | Spearing | Benyahoun | NC | Ran into Benyahoun as he cleared, not given | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Henderson | Arteta | NC | Forced his way trying to get to Song, shoulder caught Arteta’s face | 1 |
| 47 | YELLOW | Henderson | NC | Should have been booked for dangerous play | 2 | |
| 47 | OTHER | Adam | Song | C | Trip | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Walcott | C | Handball ? advantage played | 1 | |
| 57 | OTHER | Koscielny | Suarez | C | Trip | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Diaby | Adam | C | Caught Adam a bit late, advantage played | 1 |
| 63 | OTHER | Vermaelen | Suarez | C | Tackle from behind | 1 |
| 63 | YELLOW | Vermaelen | C | A bit reckless ? booked | 2 | |
| 65 | OTHER | Adam | Benyahoun | C | Trip from behind, killed attack | 1 |
| 65 | YELLOW | Adam | NC | Ref showing inconsistency, doesn’t book Adam | 2 | |
| 68 | OTHER | Song | Downing | C | Foul | 1 |
| 71 | OFFSIDE | Kuyt | C | 1 | ||
| 72 | OTHER | Song | Adam | C | Slight trip | 1 |
| 73 | OTHER | Suarez | Diaby | C | Pulled him back | 1 |
| 75 | OFFSIDE | Walcott | C | Assumed correct ? advantage played | 1 | |
| 75 | OTHER | RVP | Spearing | NC | Got ball but also player, not given. | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Kuyt | Gibbs | C | Slid in late on Gibbs | 1 |
| 77 | OTHER | Suarez | Koscielny | NC | Shove in area, not given, Downing shoots off target | 1 |
| 79 | OTHER | Koscielny | Suarez | C | Slight trip | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | RVP | Kelly | NC | Slid in, won ball, but caught Kelly with trailing leg, ref gives throw to Liverpool | 1 |
| 80 | YELLOW | RVP | NC | Dangerous tackle, should have been booked | 2 | |
| 83 | OTHER | Henderson | Gervinho | C | Shove | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | AOC | Adam | NC | Mistimed tackle, not given | 1 |
| 86 | OFFSIDE | Kuyt | C | Assumed correct | 1 | |
| 87 | OTHER | NC | Ball appeared to last touch Sagna, throw wrongly given to Arsenal | 1 | ||
| 87 | OFFSIDE | Suarez | C | Advantage played | 1 | |
| 89 | OFFSIDE | Kuyt | C | Looked half a step offside | 1 | |
| 89 | YELLOW | Kuyt | NC | Kuyt spewed abuse at the linesman, not booked. Halsey needed to stand up for his assistant and punish Kuyt. | 2 | |
| 91 | OTHER | Suarez | Vermaelen | NC | Fouled defender, not given | 1 |
| 91 | OTHER | Kelly | Gibbs | C | Held him back | 1 |
| 91 | YELLOW | Kelly | NC | Kuyt and Henderson had both been verbally warned about dissent, now Kelly does it too | 2 | |
| 92 | OFFSIDE | RVP | C | RVP, very close to offside but hard to tell without a straight angle | 1 | |
| 92 | GOAL | C | goal okay | 3 | ||
| 94 | OTHER | Kelly | Gervinho | NC | Grabbed and pulled arm, not given | 1 |
| 95 | OFFSIDE | Walcott | C | 1 |
Mark Halsey was the ref and controversy struck early when Suarez went down quite theatrically under almost no contact by Szczesny. Suarez feigned injury as if he had been seriously injured and Halsey bought it and gave Liverpool an undeserved penalty. Fortunately for Arsenal, Szczesny was in excellent form on the day and made a fantastic double save of Dirk Kuyt’s penalty shot and follow up.
While Szczesny put in a great performance, the same can’t be said about the ref. He made many wrong decisions on the day with roughly 3 to 1 of them favouring Liverpool.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-03-03) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 9 | 17 | 52.94 |
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 0 | 2 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 25 | 56.00 |
| WEIGHTED | 18 | 33 | 54.55 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 7 | 7 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 13 | 22 | 59.09 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 6 | 16.67 |
| TOTAL | 22 | 36 | 61.11 |
| WEIGHTED | 25 | 44 | 56.82 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 10 | 10 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 22 | 39 | 56.41 |
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 8 | 12.50 |
| TOTAL | 36 | 61 | 59.02 |
| WEIGHTED | 43 | 77 | 55.84 |
Amazingly this match only featured one booking, and this is in spite of Dirk Kuyt running up and spewing a mouthful of abuse at one of the linesmen after he dared flag Kuyt for offside. Halsey must do more to protect his assistants from this kind of dissent. Moreover if you look at the replay, the assistant made the right call (see photo). However Halsey just gave a strict verbal caution to both Kuyt and Henderson for their badgering of the linesman.
Surprisingly two minutes later, Kelly went up to the same linesman protesting his call and he wasn’t booked either. Normally I’d say it’s okay to let players protest a call within reason, but after Kuyt and Henderson were warned, Halsey should not have allowed Kelly to continue where his teammates had left off. Again in this case, they were protesting a good call by the linesman.
Among other instances when players escaped bookings was the studs up challenge by Spearing on Rosicky in the first half. Spearing caught Rosicky’s leg with his studs, but obviously Halsey didn’t see it because he allowed play to go on while Rosicky was crumpled over in a heap only for Liverpool to courteously play the ball out a short bit later. This was a yellow card offense at the very least, but no foul was given.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-03-03) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Liverpool | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 6 | 42.86 | 8 | 57.14 | 14 |
| Correct For Weighted | 8 | 50.00 | 8 | 50.00 | 16 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 9.09 | 10 | 90.91 | 11 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 1 | 6.67 | 14 | 93.33 | 15 |
| Fouls Commited | 11 | 64.71 | 6 | 35.29 | 17 |
| Fouls Penalised | 4 | 36.36 | 5 | 83.33 | 9 |
| Period 2 | Liverpool | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 10 | 47.62 | 11 | 52.38 | 21 |
| Correct For Weighted | 11 | 45.83 | 13 | 54.17 | 24 |
| Incorrect Against | 6 | 40.00 | 9 | 60.00 | 15 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 7 | 35.00 | 13 | 65.00 | 20 |
| Fouls Commited | 11 | 55.00 | 9 | 45.00 | 20 |
| Fouls Penalised | 6 | 54.55 | 6 | 66.67 | 12 |
| Totals | Liverpool | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 16 | 45.71 | 19 | 54.29 | 35 |
| Correct For Weighted | 19 | 47.50 | 21 | 52.50 | 40 |
| Incorrect Against | 7 | 26.92 | 19 | 73.08 | 26 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 8 | 22.86 | 27 | 77.14 | 35 |
| Fouls Commited | 22 | 59.46 | 15 | 40.54 | 37 |
| Fouls Penalised | 10 | 45.45 | 11 | 73.33 | 21 |
In the second half, Mikel Arteta had to be stretchered off after suffering a severe concussion when Jordan Henderson forced his way past Arteta catching him with a shoulder to the face. I don’t believe Henderson intended to hurt Arteta but his action was nonetheless dangerous and deserved a booking.
Van Persie was also lucky to escape a booking. He made a couple of hard tackles during the match, one of which when he slid in and took the ball off of Kelly’s feet, winning the ball but following through on Kelly’s ankle with his trailing leg. The ref merely awarded Liverpool a throw-in, but Kelly was peeved and rightly so.
Overall it was a tough fought win by Arsenal, overcoming a wrongly awarded penalty decision, an own goal, and numerous decisions going against them. But in the end Arsenal wouldn’t be denied thanks to a beautifully timed volley by Robin van Persie bagging all three points in injury time.