The Untold ref review: Blackpool – Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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By Walter Broeckx, the ref who tells it how he sees it
So we had ref Mason this week at Blackpool. Did he have a good game? Let us try to find out.
| Min | Type | Decision | correct | points | weight | On |
| 4 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackpool | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Foul from Diaby advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | OTHER | Foul on Cesc | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | PENALTY | Blackpool shout for a penalty but it looked to me Koscielny touched the ball and not the player who went down very easy | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 17 | OTHER | Foul on Diaby | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | GOAL | Goal for Arsenal. Van Persie was behind the last defender so on side and Diaby also was well onside. Correct goal. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 21 | GOAL | Goal for Arsenal and Eboue is the scorer and also nothing wrong with this goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 25 | OTHER | Wilshere goes down after a clash of heads. The ref stops play immediatly. As there was not a foul the games restarts with a dropped ball. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 27 | OTHER | Foul from Cesc, advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Wilshere gets a clear push in the back and goes down. The ref gives no foul | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Wilshere clamps the ball down between his legs and makes the bal unplayable. This is a foul and normally the ref should give a free kick for Blackpool. He restarts the game with a dropped ball. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 31 | PENALTY | Blackpool shout for another penalty. The ball hit the arm of Squilacci but his arm was in front of his chest. This is never a handball or a penalty. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 31 | OTHER | The ref judges Eboue makes a foul but it was clear that he kicked the ball and not the player who went down easily | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Offside given against Cesc who could go on goal on his own. According to the lines on the field he was level with the last defender. The first miss of the assistant in this game. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 41 | GOAL | Goal disallowed for offside. Van Persie was indeed offside when the bal was headed in his direction | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 41 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Foul given against Diaby | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul given against Diaby | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | CARD | Diaby is unhappy about this decision and kicks the ball away in frustration and gets a yellow card. Fully deserved | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 45 | PENALTY | Van Persie goes down but the ref let play continue. No replays were given so I can only accept that the ref had it right. But the Blackpool defender looked to use his arms and pushing Van Persie in the back. | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul on Eboue given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | PENALTY | Blackpool claim a penalty for handball from Diaby. This was a ridiculous call. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 48 | OTHER | Foul given against Wilshere | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 48 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackpool | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 49 | OTHER | Foul given against Eboue. I didn’t see much wrong with this | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 52 | OTHER | Attempt from Blackpool to counter. Wilshere makes a foul. Ref gives advantage | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 52 | GOAL | The ball is then played to a Blackpool striker who is brought down by Lehmann but as the ball rolls to another striker the ref waits and when the ball goes in he gives the goal. Great refereeing on this occasion | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 52 | CARD | Wilshere gets his yellow card for his tackle | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul on Diaby | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | PENALTY | Koscielny brings a player down who gave a pass to a teammate. This was a penalty but the ref didn’t give it. We have escaped in this occasion. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 54 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 56 | OTHER | Fouls on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 58 | OTHER | Foul from Eboue | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 61 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackpool | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | OTHER | Foul against Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Again foul on Wilshere and a flying challenge | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | CARD | Card given for this foul | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 64 | OTHER | Foul against Cesc | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 67 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | OTHER | Foul on Walcott | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | CARD | Another wild tackle and another yellow card | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 74 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 75 | OTHER | Foul from Eboue advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | GOAL | If the laws stinks or not I will leave aside but nothing wrong with this goal. Van Persie was offside when the ball was played outside to Walcott who was on his own half so could not be offside. When Walcott gives the ball to Van Persie he is behind the ball and not offside. Correct goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 77 | OTHER | A Blackpool player clamps the ball between his legs. This is a foul because you make the ball unplayable and you bring yourself in danger of being kicked. The ref gives another dropped ball. Should have been a foul for Arsenal | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 79 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 80 | PENALTY | Foul on Cesc by a Blackpool defender who just runs in his back and pushes him. A foul on the line of the penalty area, this was a penalty. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 81 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackpool | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 85 | OTHER | Foul on Diaby not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 87 | OTHER | Fou on Cesc | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 88 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 91 | OTHER | Foul on Walcott given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 43 | 64 | 82 | |||
| % | 75,44% | 78,05% | ||||
| CARDS | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | |||
| PENALTY | 3 | 5 | 60,00 | |||
| GOAL | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||
| OTHER | 5 | 5 | 100,00 | |||
| 15 | 17 | 88,24 | ||||
| OFFSIDE | 6 | 7 | 85,71 |
All the numbers point at a good game. Some people will not agree with this and I can understand it when they point at one big decision when it was 1-2 for Arsenal.
Yes Koscielny made a foul but the ref didn’t give the penalty. And this is a moment I will include in my year review on the lucky decisions for Arsenal. Don’t worry. But I can assure you that on the side where the going against our decisions there are far more things I can point at. But nevertheless we have been lucky this time. No doubt about it.
As one swallow doesn’t mean spring is here I will be holding my breath if this was a one off or are we going to get back some decisions that were absolutely against us so that it can even out at the end? Then we are awaiting happy times.
Why this change in tune? I don’t know and I cannot make any conclusions yet. Some people even tell me I cannot do this after more than 40 games in this season so how can you expect me to make a conclusion on one decision?
Would we have won the game if he would have given the penalty? It would have been back to 2-2 and after that the Blackpool storm died down just like after some 15 minutes in the first half when they started furiously but then had to cope with the rest of the game. In the second half they also ran out of steam after a while. But I will not deny we have been lucky when he didn’t give the penalty to Blackpool.
But apart from that big decision (and I even will not go in to the fact that we also should have got a penalty) he had a rather good game. Some strange decisions like with the dropped balls but overall I was satisfied with the way he did the game. But I must say that even I was surprised that his total scores were that high for this game.
Was Herbert Chapman any better than Arsene Wenger