Untold Ref Review: Everton 1 – 0 Tottenham Hotspur « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches.
Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have it. All the earlier ref reviews plus analyses of the errors made by refs, and articles relating to our campaign to have the body which organises referees activities reformed, plus an analysis of the background to this campaign, can be found on:
Although this is a site built for Arsenal supporters we welcome comments from fans of other teams, although we tend not to publish comments which are simply abusive or which are completely off topic.
Today’s referee is Mark Halsey –
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Mark Halsey (2012-03-10) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 6 | OTHER | Osman | Modric | C | Trip | 1 |
| 9 | OTHER | Heitinga | Adebayor | NC | Kick on the ankle not given | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Sandro | Osman? | NC | Late trip, advantage given that goes away because the Everton player is offside, should come back to the foul | 1 |
| 10 | OFFSIDE | Everton | NC | should have given the first foul | 1 | |
| 11 | OTHER | Defoe | Heitinga | C | assumed correct | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Cahill | Ekoto | C | assumed correct | 1 |
| 18 | PENALTY | Heitinga | Defoe | NC | Heitinga clearly went in from behind on Defoe just after he took his shot and the ball in play. Should have been a penalty for Tottenham | 3 |
| 19 | OTHER | Ekoto | Drenthe | C | assumed correct | 1 |
| 20 | OTHER | Sandro | Cahill | C | push in the back | 1 |
| 22 | GOAL | Everton | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 27 | OTHER | Jelavic | Sandro | C | Trip | 1 |
| 28 | OTHER | Cahill | Parker | C | Pull | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Fellaini | Defoe | NC | Pull not given | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Jelavic | C | Handball advantage given | 1 | |
| 32 | OTHER | Osman | Defoe | C | Little trip off the ball, advantage given | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Sandro | Coleman | C | came in the back | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Drenthe | C | handball | 1 | |
| 40 | OTHER | Cahill | Parker | C | Trip | 1 |
| 41 | OTHER | Heitinga | Defoe | C | push in the back | 1 |
| 42 | OTHER | Ekoto | Drenthe | C | push, advantage given as a counter is on | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Walker | Baines | NC | push not given | 1 |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 49 | OTHER | Adebayor | Heitinga | C | Push | 1 |
| 54 | OTHER | Modric | Drenthe | NC | Frontal tackle not given, Drenthe has to jump up to avoid the impact | 1 |
| 55 | YELLOW | Modric | NC | should be a booking, dangerous tackle | 2 | |
| 58 | OFFSIDE | Everton | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 59 | OTHER | Defoe | Heitinga | NC | Defoe holds Heitinga off with his arm and wins a corner | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Ekoto | Drenthe | C | trip | 1 |
| 60 | YELLOW | Ekoto | C | stopped a promising attack | 2 | |
| 61 | OTHER | Defoe | Heitinga | C | pulled him down with the ball not near | 1 |
| 61 | YELLOW | Defoe | C | you sometimes wonder what gets in to some players mind, correct | 2 | |
| 63 | OTHER | Coleman | Sandro | C | trip | 1 |
| 66 | OFFSIDE | Tottenham | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 67 | OTHER | Cahill | King | C | bumping in to King who was in the air | 1 |
| 71 | OFFSIDE | Everton | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 73 | OTHER | Felaini | VDVaart | NC | push not given | 1 |
| 74 | OFFSIDE | Everton | C | advantage given | 1 | |
| 74 | OTHER | Neville | Parker | C | trip | 1 |
| 76 | OFFSIDE | Defoe | C | correct | 1 | |
| 76 | GOAL | Tottenham | C | goal is correctly disallowed for offside from Defoe | 3 | |
| 77 | OTHER | Rodwell | Defoe | C | trip | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Heitinga | Defoe | C | trip | 1 |
| 80 | YELLOW | Heitinga | C | stopped a promising attack | 2 | |
| 83 | OTHER | Felaini | VDVaart | NC | came in late, not given | 1 |
| 83 | OTHER | Saha | Baines | C | trip | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | Kaboul | Cahill | C | trip | 1 |
| 85 | OTHER | Straqualursi | Walker | NC | came in late, not given | 1 |
| 85 | YELLOW | Straqualursi | NC | stupid and useless challenge on the achilles, should be cautioned | 2 | |
| 85 | YELLOW | Walker | NC | Little reaction from Walker should have been cautioned, but more a foul from the ref this one | 2 | |
| 88 | OTHER | Kaboul | Heitinga | C | assumed correct | 1 |
| 89 | OTHER | King | Stracqualursi | C | holding | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | Coleman | Bale | C | could have been a bit of a dive, but no conclusive evidence it was not one | 1 |
| 92 | PENALTY | Baines | C | Appeal for handball but the ball came of his own leg and then against the arm that was close to his body | 3 | |
| 94 | YELLOW | Howard | C | time wasting, more of this please | 2 | |
| 95 | OTHER | Straqualursi | Walker | C | holding | 2 |
You sometimes have a feeling: was this good or not that good at the end of a game. And then you go and check the numbers and you just keep on sitting with a double feeling. Too many missed fouls by the ref. That is a first conclusion. And most of all the mistakes were made on the big decisions.
Tottenham should have had a penalty when Defoe was tackled from behind after taking a shot on goal. What is the difference between a late tackle from a striker or from a defender? When it would have been the other way around the ref would have given the foul for a late tackle and a yellow card against the striker. Now it was the defender who came in late from behind and the ref gave a goal kick. There is nowhere in the rule book a paragraph that is saying that the rules are different in the penalty area.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-03-10) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| OTHER | 14 | 18 | 77.78 |
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 21 | 71.43 |
| WEIGHTED | 17 | 25 | 68.00 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 5 | 5 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 14 | 19 | 73.68 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 4 | 7 | 57.14 |
| TOTAL | 25 | 33 | 75.76 |
| WEIGHTED | 33 | 44 | 75.00 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 5 | 6 | 83.33 |
| OTHER | 28 | 37 | 75.68 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| YELLOW | 4 | 7 | 57.14 |
| TOTAL | 40 | 54 | 74.07 |
| WEIGHTED | 50 | 69 | 72.46 |
When we look at the fouls in general the score was acceptable. Not great but well just enough. But as said the major decisions were not good enough.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-03-10) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Everton | % | Tottenham Hotspur | % | Total |
| Correct For | 6 | 40.00 | 9 | 60.00 | 15 |
| Correct For Weighted | 8 | 47.06 | 9 | 52.94 | 17 |
| Incorrect Against | 3 | 50.00 | 3 | 50.00 | 6 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 3 | 37.50 | 5 | 62.50 | 8 |
| Fouls Commited | 13 | 65.00 | 7 | 35.00 | 20 |
| Fouls Penalised | 9 | 69.23 | 5 | 71.43 | 14 |
| Period 2 | Everton | % | Tottenham Hotspur | % | Total |
| Correct For | 13 | 52.00 | 12 | 48.00 | 25 |
| Correct For Weighted | 19 | 55.88 | 15 | 44.12 | 34 |
| Incorrect Against | 4 | 50.00 | 4 | 50.00 | 8 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 6 | 54.55 | 5 | 45.45 | 11 |
| Fouls Commited | 13 | 54.17 | 11 | 45.83 | 24 |
| Fouls Penalised | 10 | 76.92 | 9 | 81.82 | 19 |
| Totals | Everton | % | Tottenham Hotspur | % | Total |
| Correct For | 19 | 47.50 | 21 | 52.50 | 40 |
| Correct For Weighted | 27 | 52.94 | 24 | 47.06 | 51 |
| Incorrect Against | 7 | 50.00 | 7 | 50.00 | 14 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 9 | 47.37 | 10 | 52.63 | 19 |
| Fouls Commited | 26 | 59.09 | 18 | 40.91 | 44 |
| Fouls Penalised | 19 | 73.08 | 14 | 77.78 | 33 |
What was good was the fact that he made 14 wrong decisions and that those decisions were even split over both sides. And even when it came to bringing in some weight the decisions were balanced over both teams. So this is good. In a way it doesn’t matter if the ref was good or bad, as long as he was the same for both teams you can say: oh, he will have had a bad day. But too many bad days in a season is not good for the league in general.
But I must confess that even I as an Arsenal supporter while watching this game was wondering: are there some forces who want to bring some kind of gap between the two top teams at that time in the league and Tottenham who was in third at the time?