The Untold ref review: Arsenal – Everson « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx, the onside referee

Is it a good sign that all the talk is about the ref after the game? Most of the time not. But let us just try and find out if we reached new heights or lows in our ref review.

Ref today was Lee Mason, for the first time we had him this season in the Emirates.

OTHER/CARD: First foul. Wilshere gives a barge against Arteta who drops to the floor as if he was dead. No lecture immediately the first yellow card comes out against Wilshere. 1/1 and 0/1 (Mason thinking: lets make sure he cant do anything anymore in this game and it affected Jack in the way he was playing)

OTHER/CARD/OTHER: Cesc steps on the back of the boot from Arteta. Arteta has lost his shoe and he is allowed all the time in the world before the game can restart. It took actually 1min30 seconds. The ref gave advantage to Everton but he could have given a foul. And even a card. But I think he didn’t want to overdo it that much. But letting Arteta wasting that much time without really doing anything about it is a bit too much ref. 1/1, 0/1 and 0/1

OTHER/CARD: Disting comes in with a flying tackle and catches Sagna who can jump out of the way. A correct call and a correct booking. 1/1 and 1/1

OTHER/OTHER/OTHER : 3 consecutive fouls on Walcott and when he is past the last tackle the ref stops game and comes back to the earlier fouls. If the fouling repeats itself you don’t have to come back to the first fouls you just give the last foul. Or you give the first foul or you give the last foul but you don’t come back to the first foul when there are other fouls made. 0/1, 1/1 and 0/1

No other Everton players near to Saha, the ball is played in his direction. The linesman should only look at one

OTHER/GOAL/OTHER: Saha is offside  when the ball is played to him and gains advantage from his position. PERIOD. That’s it. Nothing more to be said about it. As you expect me to tell you some more I will give you 2 possible drawings from the laws of the games made for refs who cannot read and they both can apply to yesterdays situation and both are offside according to the laws of the games. And oh my God that linesman is having a Fifa badge!!!!!

One possible explanation

Another explanation but they all have one thing in common: it is offside!

Those who are saying it was a back pass from Koscielny know nothing about football. Koscielny was trying throwing himself in the line of the ball that is something completely different from giving a pass.  This was so totally wrong 0/1, 0/1 and 0/1

OTHER/OTHER Foul on Saha given after changing his mind of giving advantage around 3 or 4 times. The call is correct but if you want to make yourself look like a stupid ref; this is how to do it by changing your mind and doing it so openly . 1/1 and 0/1

OTHER/CARD :Foul on Fabregas who starts a counter and is brought down. Foul given but no card?  1/1 and 0/1

OTHER/CARD : Walcott wants to start a run for a break after a corner and no foul is give!!!!! The Everton player clearly stuck out his arm to prevent Walcott to run after the ball. Arsenal lose possession and the chance for a counter. He only had Neville to beat further up field. This was cynical and deliberate.  0/1 and 0/1

OTHER: Foul on Van Persie who still manages to play the ball to Walcott who is judged offside. Our ref doesn’t come back to the foul as he should do but gives the offside. 0/1

OTHER/CARD: Rosicky makes a foul on Fellaini and the ref gives it. Fellaini pretends to be broken in two and the ref is happy to give a yellow card to Rosicky. Replay shows Rosicky did make a foul but it wasn’t that bad to give a card. 1/1 and 0/1

OTHER: Saha barges Djourou when he is hanging in the air to head a ball away. The ref sees nothing wrong and as a result Djourou falls heavy on his shoulder. It was a deliberate barge on a defender. Which you should always give. Oh well what do you expect by now… 0/1

Half time. Time for the refs  to celebrate their mistakes.

Start of the second half and the ref is counting if all the Everton players are in the field: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 okay we are all here.

OTHER/CARD: Two footed tackle on Walcott. The ref gives the foul and  a yellow card. He couldn’t let this one go. Or is he trying to make up a bit? 1/1 and 1/1

OTHER/CARD: Van Persie brought down foul given but without the foul Van Persie would have had a chance to shoot on goal from the penalty area. This looked a promising move from me and should have resulted in a booking. 1/1 and 0/1

OTHER/CARD: Cesc brought down without any chance of playing the ball and from behind. Correct decision and correct card. 1/1 and 1/1 Oh my god, did I really had to write this down.

OTHER/CARD/OTHER: Van Persie comes in strong against Areta. It is a fouln no question. Arteta pretends to be injured and the replays shows that he hardly was touched. Van Persie has enough of his time wasting and pull him off the floor. Strangely Arteta suddenly is healed and has no injury what so ever. An attentive ref would have seen this and would have booked not only Van Persie but also Arteta for his un sportive behaviour. But he only gives Van Persie a yellow card, which is correct. Oh, booking Arteta would have been his second. You can understand why the ref didn’t do it I think. 1/1, 1/1 and 0/1

OTHER: Diaby is fouled but gets past his man and beats the second man and has some space. The refs stops play. You cant give advantage to Arsenal too much. 0/1

GOAL/CARD: What a lovely goal from the little Russian after another great ball from Cesc. Nothing against the laws of the game this time. During the replays keeper Howard got a booking it seems. Don’t know why but a booking against an Everton man should be correct with this ref. 1/1 and 1/1

OTHER/CARD: Walcott is tripped from behind no chance of playing the ball. Correct decision for the foul and the yellow card 1/1 and 1/1

The ref puts the wall on the required distance finally and it needs a superb save to keep it out of the goal.

GOOAAAALLLLL: Koscielny brings justice to the world with his goal. Nothing against the rules again with this goal and with our goals. 1/1

OTHER/CARD: Fellaini gives a late kick on the ankle of Walcott after the ball has gone. Nothing seen by the ref. A foul and a yellow card should have been the verdict… if it would have been Wilshere remember. 0/1 and 0/1

OTHER: Walcott down again but Everton play on and also the ref sees no reason to stop play. Walcott is being urged to leave the field as quick as can be. Compare this with the 1m30s Arteta got when his shoe was off. 0/1

OTHER: Szczesny shows that in the final minutes we also can do some time wasting. The ref blows his whistle and tells him to speed it up.. The ref blew his whistle within 20 seconds after the foul and it took our keeper less than 30 seconds.  He said nothing all game when Howard did the same. So do it on both sides or do nothing ref  0/1

The end of the game. What can we say of the ref in numbers? Lets start counting:

CARDS: 6/13

PENALTY: 0/0

GOAL:  2/3

OTHER: 12/26

Total score: 20/42 (47%)

Additional “winning” numbers for the ref:

Fouls not given for Arsenal 16

Fouls not given for Everton 4

Fouls not given for Arsenal because advantage signalled 2

Fouls not given for Everton because advantage signalled 1

Foul given not correct against Arsenal 1

Fouls correct given (apart from the one I talked about above) both teams 7

It is amazing to see that he even got some decisions right. Take away our two valid goals and he ends with just 42%. He was piss poor yesterday but this is like saying that rain is wet for those who have seen the game.

And if I include those last numbers in to the final report without given weight as I intend to do from next season on the score is around 46%. If I should give weight to some decision this number would sink below the 40% mark.

He was biased, he was trying to tilt the game in favour of Everton or he is not competent. I think based on the numbers that Dogface gave us it is clear that he is on the Everton side of things.

A Fifa linesman who makes such a mistake is totally out of order if you ask me. I will be on the line myself this Sunday and believe me I will not screw up like he did and I don’t have a fifa badge. This are basic rules you should know as a ref and certainly as a linesman. What was he thinking when not raising his flag when Saha was offside? Or was he just following some discreet given orders?

I will be keeping an eye on this in the next months but if this is the way it is going to be for the rest of the season we will have to beat not only the other teams but also the refs. Not a pleasant prospect in fact.

Score above 80 is good, score between 60 and 79 is low to acceptable. Any score below 60 is bad and scores below 50 should lead to a ref being put back to lower divisions.