Arsenal v Wolverhampton: the now famous Untold Ref Preview (as seen on the BBC) « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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Victory Through Harmony
RefWatch – Arsenal v Wolverhampton Wanderers (12/02/2011 15:00)
By DogFace
- Referee: Chris Foy
- Assistant 1: Darren Cann
- Assistant 2: Gary Beswick
- 4th Official: Mick Russell
Good morning stat-fans and welcome to another RefWatch. I’d like to start today by saying thanks to all the Untold readers – I feel that we, as Arsenal fans who frequent this place, have chosen a difficult path by making the effort to look at the problems we face, as a team, in the eye and ignore the myriad minds and voices would otherwise distract our search for truth.
We do not take the path of least resistance and simply say ‘we were crap’ – ok, when we are crap we can say it – we were crap against Ipswich (and I can think of a few economically viable reasons for that performance) but we were not crap against Newcastle – Dowd was crap. Dowd was so crap that the PGMOL dropped him this week and demoted his linesmen to division 2 – yet nobody mentions this?
I tuned into TalkSport the next day in hope to hear that even in that bastion of bullshit the message might have gotten though – but no… Adrian Durham and his retarded sidekick (the one who can’t read) were congratulating Joey Barton on his fine tackle [that looked firm but fair to them] and then happened to mention, in a deeply unconvincing conversational ‘bloke down the pub – just lads talking’ way, that, after this game, the Arsenal fans might be losing faith in the manager – this immediately cut to a slickly produced montage of Geordie and Romford accents proclaiming that Wenger has lost it and should be sacked. The despicable cowardice from these two worm-tongued shits of humanity was such that, through a feat of synaesthesia, I actually felt the stench of faeces and bile begin to fill my nostrils. If this what passes for journalism these days?
Agenda driven broadcasting makes me despair… especially when the agenda of the day is that of the spin doctor and the apologist. Anecdotal ‘evidence’ presented by the media as to what the fans should be thinking is, without fail, pure fucking lies.
On a more positive note BBC Journalist John Sinnott broke the seal on the can of worms that lies at the core of our game, and gave a nod in the direction of the elephant on the pitch by writing a cracking article about the state of refereeing in the EPL League. Well done John – for a scoucer, you got balls son, that’s why I pay my licence fee.
Let’s have a look at Referee:
- Full name: Christopher J Foy
- Date of birth: 1962-11-20 (age 48)
- Place of birth: St Helens, Lancashire, England
- EPL Referee Since: 2001
- EPL Games to date: 170
No DogFace – don’t show them my stats!
What can I say about Chris Foy – well… he’s cracking on a bit, looks older than he is and he’s not as fat as Phil Dowd. But is he better [for us] than Phil Dowd? Let’s find out.
Chris Foy has had 16 games for Arsenal consisting of 14 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss
Arsenal are currently in 1st in Chris Foy’s personal Points Per Game League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, with an average of 2.69 PPG.
In Chris Foy’s personal Handicap Swing League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, Arsenal come 6th with an average positive swing of 0.18.
Arsenal are currently in 3rd in Chris Foy’s personal Booking’s Per Match League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, with an overall average of 0.81 BPM.
In Chris Foy’s personal Fouls Per Booking League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, Arsenal come 6th with an overall average of 11.08 FPB.
They are absolutely cracking stats in anyone’s book – although it should be noted that we have never really over performed massively, if you check the handicap swing we are at +0.18 – which is correct when you consider that most of our games under Foy were at home against teams we were expected to win – but still, an average PPG of 2.69 over 16 games is a good sign.
Chris Foy has had 4 games for Wolverhampton Wanderers consisting of 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss
Wolverhampton Wanderers are currently in 13th in Chris Foy’s personal Points Per Game League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, with an average of 1.25 PPG.
In Chris Foy’s personal Handicap Swing League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, Wolverhampton Wanderers come 14th with an average negative swing of -0.25.
Wolverhampton Wanderers are currently in 8th in Chris Foy’s personal Booking’s Per Match League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, with an overall average of 1.25 BPM.
In Chris Foy’s personal Fouls Per Booking League (for teams with a minimum of 4 matches played), for matches in the EPL, Wolverhampton Wanderers come 13rd with an overall average of 8.00 FPB.
There is not much data for Wolves under Foy – but it looks pretty normal and well in line with their form – a slight underperformance but nothing significant given the number of games.
If we look at Chris Foy’s Handicap swing chart against selected teams in the EPL we can see that, despite the bumper haul of points we have amassed under this referee, we have not smashed the handicap like Chelsea have – in fact, Manchester United seem to do well too, as do City.
So, what can we expect from this referee? Well – I think that, despite Wolves parking the bus, we’ll take all three points and it should be a comfortable win – I doubt that Foy will go out to mug Wolves but with recent matches in the minds of the fan base (and this has clearly been noticed by the PGMOL) – I also doubt that Foy will referee the games to the strengths of Wolverhampton i.e. we may see some protection for the players for both teams in a game that encourages technicality rather than violence and I fully expect Chris Foy to explain this to the captains pre-match and crack down on any dangerous challenges early on.
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