The untolf ref review : Arsenal – Birmingham « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Walter Broeckx, the ref with the hardest job in the Arsenal World
If we can forget all the shit that happened in the last minute we can still try to see how ref Dean did his game. And what his contribution was. And I must say that I noticed a few of the things that I said he would do.
| Min | Type | Text | C/NC | pts | weight | on |
| 1 | OTHER | Nasri tries to run to a ball but is blocked and no foul is given. You could see the Birmingham defender checking his and Nasri his run to block him. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | CARD | As this could lead to a goal scoring opportunity it should have been a yellow card | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | OTHER | Offside given against Birmingham this was not correct | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | PENALTY | Szczesny brings the striker down and so it should have been a penalty. And a yellow card. Not a red card because when a players rounds the keeper and goes to the outside this is a yellow and not a red. If he goes inside and takes the direct route to goal it is a red card | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 3 | OTHER | Offside given against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | OTHER | Foul on wilshere not given advantage | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Arshavin tries to control a ball and gets a push in the back. No foul given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Arshavin because of the push and the missed control commits a foul which is given; Should give the first foul ref. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | Offside given against Birmingham | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie not given advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | Two fouls holding and kicking on Arshavin nothing given. Dean has something against our Russian player | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 26 | OTHER | Offside against Birmingham | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 27 | OTHER | Foul on wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 28 | GOAL | Zigic places himself in front of Szczesny but as the corner is taken he steps away from the keeper. So no foul on the keeper even for me. A correct goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 29 | OTHER | Dangerous play on Rosicky not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | CARD | coming in with a high foot studs showing at knee height should be booked | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 30 | OTHER | Foul from Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Foul from Rosicky | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 34 | PENALTY | Gardner plays the ball to Zigic who is alone on goal but misses. Birmingham claim a penalty but they seem to miss the detail that the foul was outside the penalty area | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 35 | OTHER | Foul against Birmingham advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Foul from Koscilny given. First tackle Koscielny played the ball second played nothing. Boywer himself cam flying in rather wild. Birmingham got the call from Dean. Can be given like that, | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 36 | CARD | Koscielny gets a card. A nice little play acting from Bowyer and a soft yellow card. His foot was not higher than the ball, his sliding tackle was not frontal to the opponent | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 38 | GOAL | Nothing wrong with the Arsenal goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 41 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky not given advantage | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky given, third foul within a minute | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 42 | CARD | Larson doesn’t agree with the correct call and shows this very loud an clear and gets booked | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 45+ | OTHER | Carr kicks the ball out and goes back to defend and looks astonished as het gets the throw | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky not given advantage | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 49 | OTHER | Handball Carr but not seen and given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul given against Arshavin | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul given against Clichy | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | CARD | Again a soft yellow card for a small obstruction | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 55 | OTHER | Offside against Birmingham | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 56 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 56 | OTHER | Nasri then commits a foul which is given. Should punish the first foul. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Offside against Birmingham | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Nasri commits a foul advantage given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 62 | OTHER | Foul given against Arsenal for a very small foul on a defender. So after all those years Dean shows that he knows this rule but unfortunately just against Arsenal yet. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 65 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | foul against Van Persie near to our own penaltyarea not given. Like I said he still only give those fouls against us on defending players | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 70 | OTHER | Foul on Bendtner given signalled by the assistant | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 71 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 77 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | CARD | this time the ref gives no card against the birminghamplayer just a lecture. Compare this with the way he treated Clichy | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 80 | OTHER | Foul on Djourou not given advantage played | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 85 | OTHER | Foul against Rosicky given, really dont know for what? | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 86 | OTHER | foul against chamakh not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 88 | OTHER | Foul against clichy given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 89 | GOAL | How much that I would have liked it but I cannot find anything against the rules | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 89 | CARD | Koscielny is still down on the floor as the Birmingham mob passes him by. Ferguson punches him on the head. Needless, not a very great act of sportsmanship and bad behaviour and most of all should get him send off | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 90 | OTHER | Foul from Nasri | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90+ | OTHER | Birmingham take about one minute to make a substition and the game back going. No real added time for this. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 90+ | OTHER | Two footed tackle on Clichy ref gives nothing even Larsonn apologises to Clichy. Dean gives nothing | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 91+ | CARD | This was worthy of a yellow card | NC | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 92+ | OTHER | Foul on Djourou again nothing given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 94+ | CARD | Ferguson (red card remember) kicks the ball away and gets a yellow card | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 35 | 44 | 83 | |||
| % | 54,69% | 53,01% | ||||
| CARDS | 3 | 9 | 33,33% | |||
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50,00% | |||
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100,00% | |||
| OTHER | 4 | 9 | 44,44% | |||
| TOTAL | 11 | 23 | 47,83% |
It will be brushed under the carpet but once again I have seen the same blatant flaws in the game of ref Dean. Fouls on Arsenal defenders are easily neglected. On the other hand they are not.
Dean is doing a personal crusade against Arshavin. After seeing all the games when both were involved this is crystal clear. The Russian gets no calls from Dean. Not even the most blatant ones.
Dean didn’t see the punch against the head from Koscielny after the Birmingham goal. He was to busy running around in joy I think and forgot that as a ref you must keep an eye on the celebrating players to see they do nothing wrong. Dean clearly didn’t check them and missed this.
In extra time he let a two footed tackle on Clichy go that even for Larsson was embarrassing as he showed to Clichy. You could see him apologising to Clichy. As a result Birmingham kept a long spell of possession deep in our half. After a substitution that took ages in extra time and kicking the ball away he gave almost no extra extra time. In the first half he did this by letting play go on for more than one minute after the 4 minutes had been gone.
When we talk about the bias index one should keep in mind that the best way to show/hide your bias is to not give fouls to a certain team. I have counted 12 fouls that Dean did not give during this game which should have been given for Arsenal. And this number does not include the times when he played the advantage which was about 5 or 6 times. Not that there was any real advantage, it was more that we kept possession of the ball.
And if you can stand the sight of it you must check the final whistle. I have never seen a ref jumping with both hands in the air when he blows the final whistle. Dean is the first I have seen doing this in my whole career of following football which goes some 40 years now. Some refs raise both hands at the end of the game but I never see them doing it while jumping in the air. I think he really was a very happy man at the final whistle. Job done. Once again.