The Untold ref review: Arsenal – Wigan « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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Victory Through Harmony
By Walter Broeckx, the surprised ref
Today we had a débutante in the Emirates for Arsenal as Dog Face announced in his inimitable column yesterday. Was ref Kevin Friend still my friend after the game? Let us start our search.
OTHER: Song gives an inch perfect ball to Cesc who is level with the last defender. The assistant gives offside. Wrong decision. 0/1
OTHER: A clear foul on Nzogbia by Song around the Arsenal penalty area. The ref gives nothing. This was a foul and should have been given. 0/1
OTHER/CARD: Foul on Fabregas just outside the penalty area. The ref gives the foul but keeps the card in his pocket. He does calls the Wigan player over but when you give the foul you should give the yellow card also. 1/1 and 0/1
OTHER: Walcott commits a foul on a defender. The assistant signals it immediately as the ref is far away from the scene. Good work from the assistant and this is what he is being paid for. If you remember my ranting at the assistant in the Leeds game who did nothing when Arshavin was fouled you’ll know what I mean. This is how it should be done. 1/1
OTHER: Foul on the Wigan keeper. The ref gives nothing. Lucky it didn’t come to a goal as this would be against the laws. 0/1
OTHER/CARD: Caldwell comes in and puts his foot on the foot of Fabregas. The ref gives the foul but again keeps the card in his pocket. This is somewhat week from the ref as he does nothing to protect the players. 1/1 and 0/1 And who is this eccentric co-commentator on Arsenal.com as he clearly is as blind as mole as he was saying that Fabregas went down too easily. Even the Dutch commentator who I had when I saw the live game had seen it.
GOAL: Lovely ball from Song to Van Persie who is not offside. Great finish from the man from Rotterdam. 1/1 He even seemed to apologise in the direction of the few Wigan fans! No need to Robin. (Walter, maybe he had been watching the living art show in which the stewards represent the sea and the meandering Wigan fans represent the land – as reported in my column in the last article. If so, he was apologising for disrupting the art – and I think one should always do that. Tony)
OTHER/CARD: Some rotational fouling from the Wigan players on Cesc. The ref gives a few of the fouls but keeps the cards in his pocket. 1/1 and 0/1
OTHER: Fabregas is judged offside as he tries to head the ball over the keeper. Correct decision this one. 1/1
OTHER: Cesc wins the ball with a tackle from behind. But with his second foot he catches the Wigan player. Should have been a foul. 0/1
OTHER: Walcott judged offside and this was correct as he was marginally offside. 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Foul on Fabregas given but yet again no card comes out of the ref his pocket. It was clear to see for everyone who wanted to see (and this does not include the Arsenal.com commentator) that the Wigan players were practicing the rotation fouling tactics against Cesc. 1/1 and 0/1
In we go for half time. The ref has not given 4 clear fouls on Arsenal players and 2 on Wigan players. (Wigan player on Cesc, Song on Nzogbia, Wigan player on Cesc, Wigan player on RVP (in one move), clear foul on Cesc, foul on Wigan player).
OTHER: Song commits a foul but the ref plays the advantage. Good from the ref. 1/1
OTHER: Nasri gets a kick on his Achilles but the ref does nothing. 0/1
PENALTY: Djourou is being held with both arms after a corner. It was a foul and if it would have been an attacker who keeps his defender like that most refs would have given a foul. But to be fair to the ref he couldn’t see it as Koscielny and another Wigan player were between him and the foul on Djourou. But it was a penalty so have to take a point off the ref. 0/1
GOAL: Lovely pass from Cesc to Van Persie who scores a great goal. Nothing wrong with that finish. 1/1 Even Beckham seems to like it. And for once I agree with the co-commentator: why did we have to see Beckham more in the picture than we have seen Van Persie in the picture?
OTHER/CARD: Cesc comes in late on a Wigan defender. And I think Fabregas wanted to give something back from all the kicking he got so far. He should have had a yellow card for this. But then again no yellow cards so far so the ref was consistent with himself but this was poor refereeing I think. 1/1 and 0/1
OTHER/CARD: Once again the co-commentator on arsenal.com proves that he knows nothing of the laws of the games. He cannot understand that the ref gives a yellow card for a frontal tackle with an outstretched leg against Sagna. Please Arsenal take that microphone away from him. He thinks it was a good challenge as he didn’t touch the player. Well, Mr. Robson this was DANGEROUS and only because Sagna saw the tackle coming and jumped out of the way no contact was made! If I jump to you with my foot in the direction of your face and don’t touch you because you can jump out of the way would you also think this would be a nice gesture from my part? So the ref was absolutely spot on and please hold your breath when it comes to refereeing as it is clear to me after listening to you after one game that you never have been a ref. And if you are or have been a ref I never would have wanted to be a player on your pitch as I know I would get no protection from you. 1/1 and 1/1
PENALTY/CARD: Foul on Fabregas who was passed the last man. Penalty and a red card. Correct decisions. 1/1 and 1/1.
GOAL: Finally Van Persie gets his hat-trick. Walcott played a very big part in this by shielding the ball and allowing VanPersie to have a shot with his right foot. As the ball was in his reach he was allowed to shield it. So nothing against the laws. 1/1
And then the game finishes and we can look at the final score of the ref.
CARDS: 2/7
PENALTY: 1/2
GOAL: 3/3
OTHER: 10 /15
Total score: 16/27 (59 %)
I think the ref had a difficult first half. And he let go too many fouls. Also fouls that Arsenal made and which he didn’t punish. He also kept his cards in his pockets too long to my liking. The rotational fouling on Cesc warranted a booking in the first half. But then again as he let go too many fouls he was not doing it like he should be doing it.
But to be fair to the ref in the second half he did a much better job and was much more in control of the game. He ran the game, rather than continuing as in the first half when the game was ran by the players. Was he a bit nervous in the first half? I don’t know but the good thing is that he was capable of lifting his game in the second half a bit. Not enough to get a satisfaction final score but enough to keep him at around 60%.
As it was his first game at the Emirates I can forgive him a bit and I liked the fact that in the second half he did produce the cards when needed for the dangerous tackle (that is what it is called Mr. Robson) on Sagna and the penalty and the red card.
So I will be having an eye on this ref in the future when we see him and I will be able to compare his game with this one. If he punishes in the early stages of the game the little niggling fouls that he let go too much he will have a more fluent game after a few minutes in which you have to give a lot of fouls. But once the players know that you will let them get away with it, they will stop those fouls and the game will become faster from itself.
And talking about pundits…I must say that I was very disappointed with the bullsh*t the Arsenal co-commentator was producing at times. Maybe he knows a few things about football and tactics, but I do know that he doesn’t know much about the laws of the game and how a ref should look upon the laws of the game. But I must say I was a bit shocked at times with the rubbish he was saying.
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Speaking of the laws of the game – do you know how the offside law came into being, and how one Arsenal player became the person who exemplified how to use the new law? The full story is on the Arsenal History site