Monday, October 4th, 2010 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does

by Walter Broeckx, the untold ref

When I looked at my TV seconds before the game I saw a to me unknown ref. It turned out to be one of the assistants and when I saw the smiling face of Mike Dean I was thinking  this could be an interesting game for the ref review. Was it? Just find out.

PENALTY: Chelsea shout for a penalty for handball from Koscielny but Mr. Dean wants nothing of it. Correct the ball hit him in his stomach and not his  hand. 1/1

OTHER/GOAL: Song gets tackled from behind with what we call in my country a scissors tackle. When you clamp both your legs around a player and certainly when you coming in from behind it is always a foul. Mike Dean sees nothing and give Chelsea the advantage and from the resulting possession they score the 1-0. A goal that never would have come when the ref had given the first foul. But the ref was some 20 meters away when the first foul was made on Song. Way to far Mr. Dean, couldn’t cope with the speed of the game anymore?  Mr. Dean is the first ref this season who has caused us to concede a goal. 0/1 and 0/1.

OTHER/CARD/OTHER: Sagna tries to clear a ball and Malouda comes in late. Malouda who seconds before had a nice exchange of words with the ref.  Mr. Dean gives no foul. A first miss in this situation. The ball comes back to Sagna who kicks the ball out and Malouda comes in standing with his foot over the ball and studs showing and going down on the leg of Sagna. Again the ref sees no foul. Malouda who knows what he did turns immediately away and plays the innocent party, putting his arms in the air expressing: I know nothing, what happened. Well played Mr. Malouda for me the signal that you did something really dirty.  Mr. Dean in my country when you are standing and coming in on a player like that you can expect a red card, I have seen legs breaking after such attacks.  0/1 and 0/1 and another 0/1.

OTHER/CARD: seconds later Diaby beats Essien when both go for the ball. Essien goes in on the ankle of Diaby and hits him hard. It looks really bad. And what does our beloved Mr. Dean? Nothing at all. No foul seen by him.  Now you might think that from the angle he was looking he couldn’t see it. Well  I really suggest you should look at Wilshere who was not that far away from the refs point of view. Wilshere immediately waves with his hand to signal there could be something terrible wrong with the situation. But I think Mr. Dean his hair was in front of his eyes, was it?.  Foul and a yellow card mr. Dean. 0/1 and 0/1.

OTHER/CARD: Sagna goes in on the ankle from Malouda just after the start of the second half. And again the ref doesn’t see the foul and doesn’t give a card. 0/1 and 0/1.

PENALTY: Chamakh goes down after contact with Cech. I would call it a Rooney penalty for Mr. Dean. Last year he gave it in favour of United against us in almost the same circumstances. Now he doesn’t? What would you have expected from Mr. Dean. So he was wrong now or last year. And as he thinks such foul is a penalty last season then he should give one now. Yes I know Chamakh went down in a nice style but fact remains that Cech touched him from behind. 0/1

CARD: Song is hanging on Drogba for some 20 meters before bringing him down. The ref shows no card? Amazing, amazing, amazing. A short pull can be left without a card. From the moment a player keeps hanging and pulling on his opponent you should always give a yellow card.  0/1

PENALTY: Koscielny brings Drogba down with a scissor tackle. Should have been a penalty. Again mr. Dean sees nothing. 0/1

PENALTY: Chamakh goes down but Ramirez got the ball so no penalty. Correct decision. 1/1

OTHER/OTHER: Foul from Terry on Wilshere, play on says Mr. Dean but then he sees the shirt pull from Drogba and give a foul. 0/1 and 1/1

GOAL: goal from Chelsea disallowed for offside. Great work from the assistant. He was correct. 1/1

CARD: Booking against Ferreira correct decision. 1/1

CARD: Koscielny gets a yellow card. Koscielny was lucky that Squillaci and Clichy were not that far away.  Correct decision. 1/1

GOAL: correct decision. 1/1

And this gives us the following totals:

OTHER: 1/7

PENALTY: 2/4

CARD: 2/7

GOAL: 1/2

TOTAL:            6/20 (30%)

As a ref this was a match where the ref lost it after half an hour. Was he getting tired from the high tempo that both teams played? Because in the first half hour he did very well. I was just thinking of writing this down in my match report. I was even asking myself: is this another ref but as Dean in disguise?  But then he suddenly lost it and he turned in to the Dean we got to know in the last years.

This was not only visible when he let the tackle on Song go but even more when Malouda planted his foot on the leg of Sagna, just before half time. I have seen this many times before and most of the time this ended with a red card. Now the ref did nothing at all. The signal for some kicking on ankles as the players felt he didn’t see it. From a refs point of view the foul from Malouda was the dirtiest.

The Essien on Diaby was more visible (apart for the ref) but this was more a challenge for the ball where Essien came late and was beaten by Diaby in speed.  As a result Sagna clearly paid back after the restart. This was all down to the ref not seeing things and letting everything go. Lucky for Dean the players thought it was enough and stopped kicking each other on the ankles.

The first goal from Chelsea was also a result from him missing a foul on Song. Yes he played the ball but the player was coming from behind going through Song and making contact with both man and ball. This is a foul. Forget the ‘he played the ball” mantra. You can only make such a tackle within the laws when you don’t touch the player. He touched him so it was a foul.

So for the first time I really feel that the ref has had an influence on the final result. And this is something that has happened before when we saw ref Dean on our playing field in the past. He really is one of the worst refs in the EPL and last year I have seen him in an European league game in my country and it was also a very poor performance that day.

But let me just add to this that I don’t think he wanted to favour Chelsea from the start. I really think it is down to incompetence and doing games above his weight. But he is a danger for the players on the field. Now the players stopped by themselves and went on to play football and stopped kicking each others ankles.

But when you get a team that doesn’t think and keeps on kicking because they feel they can do it without punishment,  you will see blood and I don’t think any of us is coming to the stadium or put on our TV to see blood.

PS: For those who think that this negative report was caused because I don’t like losing I just would suggest that you check my report on the ref of the Arsenal – WBA game where I gave excellent points to the ref despite our defeat.

PPS: The assistants yesterday did a great job! They had some difficult decisions to make but made the correct ones.

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