The untold ref review: Arsenal – Fulham « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here
By Walter Broeckx, the Untold ref with a sick note
Today we had ref Chris Foy at the Emirates and we just have to see how he did this game.
GOAL: Nothing wrong in the rule book and what a beauty. 1/1
OTHER: Offside given against Chamakh when he does a 1-2 with Wilshere. It was not offside. Just look at the picture. 0/1
OTHER: Offside given against Fulham and at the moment of play Kamara was not offside. 0/1
GOAL: Kamara scores. Seconds earlier Squillaci and Koscielny collided with their heads. So first let us see what the rulebook is telling us.
It is up to the ref to deal with injured players and up to him to decide what to do. But in the rule book you can find that there is an exception to this and these are :
Exceptions to this ruling are to be made only when:
• a goalkeeper is injured
• a goalkeeper and an outfield player have collided and need immediate attention
• players from the same team have collided and need immediate attention
• a severe injury has occurred, e.g. swallowed tongue, concussion, broken leg
So if we take the rulebook strictly ref Foy could have had two reasons to stop play immediately. But the fact that Koscielny at first was trying to play on put the ref on the wrong foot. The ref looked at him and then Koscielny was trying to make an interception. Then the ball when away from Koscielny and the ref then turned his head towards the Fulham player who was having the ball and Koscielny was behind his back but still on his feet.
So I really think that the ref could not know how serious the injury was at that moment in time. I think no one really did as Koscielny tried to play on and thereby mislead the ref and his teammates. So I will give it as a good goal as the ref could not know what exactly was going wrong with Koscieln. 1/1
OTHER: Djourou makes a sliding tackle at the half way line from the side but a Fulham player comes in with his foot stretched and dangerous the ref let play continue. This is the kind of tackle you should always rule out. 0/1
OTHER: Kamara is through on goal and not judged offside. The problem is that the image does not give us a 100% certainty. But I do know that the linesman as you can see on the picture is not at the position he should have been. He is meters closer to the Arsenal goal and therefore has a false angle on the situation. It looks like the assistant was right but he never could have judged it 100% from his position. 1/1
In for half time tea.
CARD: Clichy comes in from behind the ref gives no foul. This was wrong. Should have been a foul and a yellow card. 0/1 and 0/1
OTHER: Dempsey tries to win some time by faking an injury. The ref does not allow treatment (rightly so) but he did win some time as the ball was kicked out by Fulham and then given back by Arsenal. But good work from the ref. 1/1
GOAL: What can you say from a dribble like that. 1/1
CARDS: 0/1
PENALTY: 0/0
GOAL: 3/3
OTHER: 2/5
Total score: 5/9 (55%)
In a way I feel a bit sorry for the ref who had a better game in my opinion than the final result is showing. He was let down by his assistants on a few occasions but this is how it goes when you have assistants. The ref takes the good and the bad from his assistants in his account.
Most of his foul calling was good. He missed a few tackles and if you have a game with not many calls to make it is a big difference in the final result for the ref.
I leave it for that for now as I will get under my sheets and hope that I feel better tomorrow.
Arsenal/Fulham: The most comprehensive pre-match review of the referee ever undertaken