The refs and QPR, Aston Villa, Stoke, Sunderland and Norwich City « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

Does it help to have the QPR  owner sponsoring the PGMOL?

At the start of the season some voices spoke in concern about the fact that the sponsor of Queens Park Rangers also sponsored the refs organisation PGMOL.

Let us say that this isn’t the ideal situation to have. Could the sponsor put pressure on the organisation in one way or the other? It surely isn’t right. But on the other hand wasn’t it at Bolton that a Queens Park Rangers goal was not given when the ball had clearly passed the line?   So move along, there is nothing to see after all!

Were the refs as mediocre as Aston Villa this season?

Aston Villa had a very bleak season. In fact the only thing that could turn the fans on a bit was a late fight against relegation when suddenly things went from bad to worse.  But it all went well at the very end of the season for the Birmingham based team. But was it because of the refs helping them a bit or was it the other way round? Did they get in trouble because of the refs not giving them the decisions they should get?

Do the refs hate Stoke as much as some Arsenal supporters do?

Well I don’t know but I think things will never come good between some Arsenal supporters and their Stoke counterparts.

I’m not going to go in to detail too much at this point but I think this is the team that a lot of Arsenal supporters don’t like at all after what happened to Ramsey two seasons ago. Kicking players to pieces, their time wasting, throw in tactics, pushing the keeper around for fun. It hasn’t made a lot of friends around the country.

But do the refs join in, in knocking Stoke? Or do they like Stoke in a way? Is it maybe the fact that Stoke represents the old football values of long forgotten days that the refs still have a soft spot for them?

Prepare to be very surprised on this one.

Did Sunderland have the refs against them in the big decisions?

Sunderland had a mixed season. After a while in the season things turned a bit bad and they sacked their manager. In came O’Neil and he turned their season a bit. So their end position in the league was in the middle. How much influence was there from the refs in that finish? Did they have a few lucky moments with the refs?  Or was it just all down to the super class of their centre forward?

Was Norwich an easy victim for the refs?

The first year in the PL back after a few years out can be very tough indeed. How would the team do? They did rather well.

But how did the refs do when they came to Norwich? I do seem to remember one game where they were lucky a bit. Was it against Bolton or was it Blackburn? But I also remember them being a bit unlucky with the refs against Manchester United. Is there any line to be drawn in their campaign and how the refs did?

To find an answer to such questions you can turn to this blog in the next few weeks. Well not the complete answer because for the moment we are not yet able to review all the game (we did 40%). But I think it is fair to say we did a nice job in getting some reviews in of those teams.  We will be showing them in the next days and weeks.

Yes, Untold Arsenal is an Arsenal supporters’ blog but we have started a search to find answers to those questions not just for Arsenal games but for as many games as possible for all teams in the EPL.

We have a small team of referees who review as many games as possible each match day. And as a result we have reviewed 40% of all games in the PL last season.

And our reviewers do this by looking at the games from the first till the last second and review each incident that involves the ref. And we have judged each incident and gave points to the refs.

We now have a database of over 7000 decisions in the PL that we can link to the referees and the teams involved.

So why don’t you take a look in the next days and keep your eyes open to see if your  team has been screwed by the refs or not.