The Untold ref review : Arsenal – Liverpool « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Walter Broeckx, the Untold ref with a watch.
We had ref Marriner yesterday and well he had a rather good game. That is IF we forget the last 5 minutes of Fergie time and if we forget some decisions earlier in the game. Just take a look if you still can stand it.
| Min | Type | Text | C/NC | Pts | weight | on |
| 4 | OTHER | Foul on RVP | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | PENALTY | As the free kick floats in and Diaby heads just wide, Djourou is being held by Skretel with both his hands on his shirt so he cannot get to the ball. A clear penalty | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 | PENALTY | Penalty shout from Liverpool as a Liverpool player clatters against Djourou. But the Liverpool player throw himself against Djourou to make contact and besides that the Liverpool player took the ball away from Djourou with his arm and it should have been a handball against Liverpool which was the first foul in this incident | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 6 | OTHER | Foul from Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Foul from Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | OTHER | Foul on Clichy advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | OTHER | Foul on Walcott given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | PENALTY | After Koscielny hit the cross bar the ball comes to Walcott who shoots. The ball hits the arm of Kuyt. Kuyt spreads himself to make him as wide as possible. This is a deliberate move with the arms and should have been a penalty for Arsenal. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 17 | OTHER | Foul on Eboue given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | OTHER | Foul from RVP | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny given by assistant | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | GOAL | Van Persie scores but he is offside. The goal is disallowed and this is correct | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 27 | OTHER | Foul from Djourou | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 28 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Caroll | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Stong tackle on Nasri going through the man | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | CARD | The ref gives a card against Flanagan for this | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 32 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Foul on Eboue given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | CARD | Skretel gets booked for his late tackle | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 35 | OTHER | Cesc is being tripped without the ball in sight just outside the penalty area. Should have been a foul and a yellow card against Mereiles. | NC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | CARD | Mereiles should have been booked | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 41 | OTHER | foul on Diaby advantage given. A bit risky but correct | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | 2 MINUTES EXTRA TIME. The ref stops after 2:05 seconds when the ball is halfway the Liverpool half | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Foul from Diaby | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 55 | OTHER | clash of heads betwen Carragher and Flanagan. The ref stops play immediatly | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Foul from Liverpool | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Tackle from behind on Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | CARD | Shelvey gets a well deserved card for a needless challenge when the ball was already going out | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 84 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | Foul from Song given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | OTHER | Foul from Clichy | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 89 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 93 | PENALTY | Push in the back of Van Persie in the penalty area. Sounds familiar or not yet? | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 94 | OTHER | Foul on Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 97 | PENALTY | Spearing clips the right leg of Cesc and the ref finaly gives Arsenal a penalty | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 97 | GOAL | Van Persie scores and nothing wrong with the goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 99 | OTHER | Liverpool kick off and try to shoot from distance. Szczesny has the ball in his hands and kicks it out at 98:10 on the game clock. The 8 minutes injury time are over. The ref can blow the end of the game as it was only Liverpool who had been wasting time during the game. When the extra time is up, you don’t give the time wasting team another chance to get something from the game. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 99 | OTHER | The ball is around the same area as where it was when the ref made an end to the first half but still he lets the game continue. Game clock 98:30. There is no real threat to the goal. Why doesn’t he blow the end of the game? Only he knows. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 99 | OTHER | Foul just outside the penalty area game clock 98:40. It is a foul and it is outside so the call itself is correct but why are we still playing? | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 100 | CARD | Eboue gets a yellow card for an argument with Lucas | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 100 | CARD | Lucas gets the same card | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 101 | PENALTY | The ball comes off the wall and Eboue clatters in the back of Lucas who goes down. The ref gives a penalty. The ball was not in reach or in control for Lucas and when he stops his run he commits an obstruction on Eboue. So it should have been the other way round. And if the ref considers this a push in the back then why hasn’t he given it in the 93the minute when Van Persie was pushed in the back at the other end? | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 103 | GOAL | Kuyt scores and with the kick itself was nothing wrong. The ref could not cancel this | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 103 | OTHER | The ref blows the end of the game after the penalty. He should have stopped the game 5 minutes earlier | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 36 | 51 | 69 | |||
| % | 76,60% | 73,91% | ||||
| CARDS | 5 | 6 | 83,33% | |||
| PENALTY | 2 | 6 | 33,33% | |||
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100,00% | |||
| OTHER | 4 | 8 | 50,00% | |||
| TOTAL | 13 | 22 | 59,09% |
So it is interesting to see that on the overall score he had a rather good score. This comes from him calling a lot of fouls correct.
But when we look at the important decisions his score goes down a lot. It all had to do with the penalties. Arsenal should have had 3 penalties.
The blatant holding and grabbing foul on Djourou in the 4th minute should have been a penalty. It was clear to see how Skretel almost pulled Djourou his shirt up to his shoulders.
LOOK HERE FOR THE IMAGES Djourou being held
At first sight I thought the penalty call for handball against Kuyt was not a penalty. But in the replays it is clear to see that Kuyt is spreading his arms to block an attempt on goal. So it is him moving his arms away from his body. I know the ball came from close range but if Kuyt would have held his hands close to his body the ball would have gone on goal. Not saying it would be a goal for sure but it was a penalty. If you jump in front of the ball with your arms spread you are doing a foul. This was the way a (handball) keeper spreads himself and as Kuys is no keeper he cannot do it like that.
Let us come to Fergie-time or extra extra time. It was clear to see for everyone that there was only one team trying to waste time: Liverpool. Now if Liverpool would have scored before the 98th minute we would have no argument. Then it would be bad luck. But when a team that has done the time wasting is behind at the end of the extra time then as a ref you should stop the game when the time is up.
Time wasting is against the rules. Refs should give yellow cards for time wasting. Refs should give extra time for time wasting. This extra time is in fact given to make the time up that the goodwill team has lost during the game. At no point in the game has Arsenal tried to waste time. So why on earth did the ref let the game carry on after the end of the extra time?
By doing this he has given a very wrong signal because he has rewarded a team that has done all it could to waste time. And for me as a ref this is the most disgusting part in fact. That he gives a penalty for the collision between Eboue and Lucas, if he thought it was a foul then he can give it. This is a split second decision you have to make as a ref. And you can make mistakes.
But to let the game continue after the 8 minutes extra time, THAT is a real bad and well over thought decision. He knew the time was up and still did not blow his whistle. Why? Only he knows. And as we are in England: the truth will never be heard. In Holland they would have put him in front of the camera and asked him why he did this and then he had to answer this in public.
The happiest man in the crowd will have been the person who has given his name to this extra time.