Untold Ref Review: Swansea City 1 – 0 Manchester City « 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:
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Today’s referee is Lee Mason –
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Lee Mason (2012-03-11) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 1 | OTHER | Taylor | Yaya | C | Trip | 1 |
| 6 | PENALTY | Hart | Routledge | C | “Not really contact, but Hart threw himself in the path of the striker who had to jump out of the way to avoid contact and so could not round the keeper and put the ball in the net” | 3 |
| 6 | YELLOW | Hart | NC | “Should have been a yellow card for stoppijng a promising attack, player was going away from goal so certainly not a red card. Ref gave nothing” | 2 | |
| 9 | OTHER | Silva | C | Handball | 1 | |
| 10 | OTHER | Barry | Sinclair | C | Trip | 1 |
| 10 | YELLOW | Silva | NC | “Kicks the ball away in anger, should have been a yellow” | 2 | |
| 13 | OTHER | Caulker | Barry | C | push | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Barry | Graham | C | Trip | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | De Jongh | Routledge | C | Trip | 1 |
| 18 | YELLOW | De Jongh | C | “Made sure he tripped him as he was going at full speed, correct card” | 2 | |
| 21 | OTHER | Williams | Balotelli | NC | Push in the back not given | 1 |
| 22 | OTHER | ? | Clichy | NC | Not given trip | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | Caulker | Yaya | C | Little pull | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Silva | Routledge | C | Trip | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | ? | Balotelli | NC | not given push in the back | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Silva | ? | NC | “Leaned on the Swansea player, not given” | 1 |
| 35 | OTHER | Savic | Routledge | C | Ran in the back | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Sigurdson | Barry | C | Trip | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Ballotelli | Rangel | C | Trip | 1 |
| 39 | OTHER | Clichy | Routledge | NC | Clichy slipped and fell to the ground but made no attempt to trip routledge | 1 |
| 40 | OTHER | ? | Balotelli | NC | “Came late knocked him on his foot, not given” | 1 |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 46 | OTHER | Rangel | Silva | NC | push not given | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Rangel | Balotelli | C | obstruction | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Balotelli | Caulker | NC | Caulker fauled the Italian striker and not the other way round by leaning all over him coming from the back | 1 |
| 55 | OFFSIDE | Swansea | C | correct | 1 | |
| 55 | OTHER | Routledge | Clichy | C | pull given by the assistant ref | 1 |
| 60 | PENALTY | Alen | Balotelli | C | “Big shout for a penalty for MC.Defender clips the foot of Balotelli slightly, a foul but the defender was outside the penalty area so if something given should been a foul outside” | 3 |
| 60 | OTHER | Alen | Balotelli | NC | like said should have been a free kick just outside the area | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Yaya | Sinclair | C | Trip | 1 |
| 60 | YELLOW | Yaya | NC | “Trips him deliberate, then shouts at the ref fot the not given foul on Balotelli. Clear decent and should be yellow card” | 2 | |
| 61 | OFFSIDE | Swansea | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 63 | OTHER | Richards | Sinclair | C | Trip | 1 |
| 73 | OTHER | Nasri | Sinclair | C | Trip | 1 |
| 74 | OTHER | Graham | Yaya | C | Came in a bit late | 1 |
| 74 | RED | Yaya | NC | Kicked at Graham when the ball was 10 meters away. Should have been a red card. Ref gives nothing | 3 | |
| 76 | OTHER | Balotelli | Sigurdson | C | late kick on the ankle | 1 |
| 76 | YELLOW | Balotelli | C | “deliberate and late kick, correct decision” | 2 | |
| 80 | OTHER | Caulker | Silva | C | trip | 1 |
| 81 | OTHER | Nasri | Allen | C | trip | 1 |
| 83 | GOAL | Swansea | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 89 | OFFSIDE | MC | C | Richards was just offside | 1 | |
| 89 | GOAL | MC | C | the goal is correctly cancelled | 3 | |
| 94 | OTHER | Rangel | Balotelli | C | Holding | 1 |
Well it all started with an early penalty that was correctly given but the ref kept the yellow card in his pocket. It wasn’t a red card as the striker was dribbling away from goal. Hart stopped the penalty.
Silva also got away with a yellow card when he kicked the ball away when the game was stopped. A bit weak from the ref on both occasions.
Manchester City also had a big shout for a penalty. The only thing is that it is not where the player falls down that matters but where the foul was made is the place that matters. Allen touched the right foot of Balotelli about half a meter outside the penalty area. But because Balotelli going forward he fell in the area. It was a foul but not a penalty. The ref gave nothing. And that was wrong.
A bit later Graham made a little foul on Yaya Toure. Then Yaya Toure kicked at Graham when the ball was some 10 meters away. This should have been a red card. No excuse to let a kick without the ball go. Alas, this is the second time I have seen Yaya Toure do it in a game (other was Chelsea against Mata) and getting away with it from the ref and most of all the FA and the EPL did nothing later on.
Balotelli showing his frustration with a late kick on the ankle and getting deserved yellow card summed up a frustrating day for Manchester City.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Lee Mason (2012-03-11) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| OTHER | 11 | 17 | 64.71 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 3 | 33.33 |
| TOTAL | 13 | 21 | 61.90 |
| WEIGHTED | 16 | 26 | 61.54 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 10 | 13 | 76.92 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| RED | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| TOTAL | 17 | 22 | 77.27 |
| WEIGHTED | 24 | 32 | 75.00 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 21 | 30 | 70.00 |
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| RED | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 2 | 5 | 40.00 |
| TOTAL | 30 | 43 | 69.77 |
| WEIGHTED | 40 | 58 | 68.97 |
The score is not good enough because of too many wrong decisions.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Lee Mason (2012-03-11) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Swansea City | % | Manchester City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 9 | 69.23 | 4 | 30.77 | 13 |
| Correct For Weighted | 12 | 75.00 | 4 | 25.00 | 16 |
| Incorrect Against | 3 | 37.50 | 5 | 62.50 | 8 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 5 | 50.00 | 5 | 50.00 | 10 |
| Fouls Commited | 8 | 47.06 | 9 | 52.94 | 17 |
| Fouls Penalised | 4 | 50.00 | 8 | 88.89 | 12 |
| Period 2 | Swansea City | % | Manchester City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 10 | 58.82 | 7 | 41.18 | 17 |
| Correct For Weighted | 17 | 70.83 | 7 | 29.17 | 24 |
| Incorrect Against | 2 | 40.00 | 3 | 60.00 | 5 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 5 | 62.50 | 3 | 37.50 | 8 |
| Fouls Commited | 10 | 62.50 | 6 | 37.50 | 16 |
| Fouls Penalised | 7 | 70.00 | 6 | 100.00 | 13 |
| Totals | Swansea City | % | Manchester City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 19 | 63.33 | 11 | 36.67 | 30 |
| Correct For Weighted | 29 | 72.50 | 11 | 27.50 | 40 |
| Incorrect Against | 5 | 38.46 | 8 | 61.54 | 13 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 10 | 55.56 | 8 | 44.44 | 18 |
| Fouls Commited | 18 | 54.55 | 15 | 45.45 | 33 |
| Fouls Penalised | 11 | 61.11 | 14 | 93.33 | 25 |
The majority of the wrong calls favoured Swansea. But not with a big margin. One could say the normal home and away bias played its part.
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