The Untold ref review : Arsenal – Sunderland and a world record « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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By Walter Broeckx, the Untold ref on the crime scene
Hello you Gooners in the Emirates. I was there to see how ref Taylor did his job. Er… well no let me rephrase this how he did what he did. So let us see how this ref from Manchester did THE JOB. If you get the difference.
| Min | Type | Text | C/NC | PTS | weight | on |
| 2 | OTHER | Offside against Sunderland | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Foul against Bendtner? | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | OTHER | Foul on Bendtner not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | CARD | As the defender ran in the back of Bendtner the foul should have been given and also a card and this should have been a yellow because the ball was out of reach but a foul without the ball in the neighborhood is still a foul and has to be given. This was my oh dear oh dear moment. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | OTHER | Foul on Denilson | C | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | OTHER | Foul against Arshavin | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | OTHER | Foul against Sagna | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Foul on Djourou not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | OTHER | Foul from Denilson, advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | OTHER | Two footed tackle on Diaby nothing given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Foul from Denilson not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Then he comes back to his decision and gives a foul when he could have given advantage | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 22 | OTHER | Then he lets them take the free kick some 10 metres further up the field | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | Scissor tackle on Denilson foul given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | CARD | Yellow card against Richardson for this | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 25 | OTHER | Foul from Bendtner | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Foul on Clichy not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 34 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 | OTHER | Offside against Sunderland | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Two consecutive fouls on Nasri advantage given, which advantage? | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Foul on Denilson not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 37 | OTHER | Foul on Diaby GIVEN!!!! | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 39 | OTHER | Wild lunge against Nasri – first foul given in favour of Nasir | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 39 | CARD | No Card given? | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 43 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | The refs tells the Sunderland players not to build a wall around the keeper so they keep just one in front of Szczesny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin blocking the keeper on a corner – wow what a ref | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul on Djourou not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | That was an elbow ref Taylor, where are your cards | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 56 | OTHER | Foul from Nasri given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 58 | OTHER | Foul from wilshere given, so I did wonder if the ref knew he could come back on a foul? He knows it but only for Sunderland I think. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | OTHER | Offside from Sunderland | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | OTHER | Late tackle on Denilson | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | CARD | This deserves a yellow card | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 60 | OTHER | Foul from Denilson. I begin to find it very strange that the ref actually does see it when we make a foul and then gives the foul | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 61 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere guess what not given | NC | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Not correct taken the throw from Clichy, well well well…. Come on ref | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 65 | CARD | Wilshere gets a yellow card as he has enough of the ref. So do we Jack but we can make ourself heard, you not. Unless why not twitter? | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 66 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Arshavin is then being fouled as a direct result, always punish the first foul ref | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Foul on Chamakh not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 68 | OTHER | Offside against Chamakh given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 | OTHER | Substitution from Sunderland takes around 50 seconds without the ref doing anything | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 70 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 72 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 73 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 74 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny not given. Oh now the ref has lost it | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Foul on Chamakh not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 80 | PENALTY | Arshavin alone on goal and just when he tries to shoot he gets a push in the back and misses his shot. A clear cut penalty ref! | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 80 | CARD | As the foul was from the last defender and with a goal scoring opportunity it should have been a red car | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 81 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere not given – this is getting boring | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 82 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 82 | CARD | Correct this time from the ref a foul of the ball. Well a bit like Bendtner at the start of the game | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | Nasri commits a foul | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 84 | CARD | Nasri has enough of the ref as we all do but helas he cannot make his opinion clear. But how far can you stretch a player? | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 87 | GOAL | Arshavin goes round the keeper and scored. The linesman is raising his flag. Wrong very wrong. Totally wrong. He was onside | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 88 | OTHER | Foul on Rosicky | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 89 | CARD | Muntari kicks the ball away but gets not card? | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 90 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | Foul against Sunderland | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere GIVEN | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90 | CARD | Correct card from the ref | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 35 | 40 | 91 | ||||
| % | 51,95% | 43,96% | ||||
| CARDS | 5 | 9 | 55,56 | |||
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0,00 | |||
| GOAL | 0 | 1 | 0,00 | |||
| OTHER | 7 | 11 | 63,64 | |||
| TOTAL | 12 | 22 | 54,55 |
When I saw Tony after the game his first question was what I thought of the ref. And I said I thought he was poor or corrupt. But that I had to check the game on my TV to be sure. Well after seeing it again I think he just is both: poor and corrupt.
Let us talk about world records. According to the ref Arsenal made 13 fouls and Sunderland only 10. This is funny because you can check the numbers if you really want but I have counted them for you. In the first half he missed some 15 fouls from Sunderland which he didn’t punish. And in the second half he went on and at the end of the game I counted some 28 (twenty eight) fouls not given for Arsenal. And as you have learned by know and you all know: it is by counting the not given fouls you can see how biased a ref is.
The Sunderland players could do what they want with Nasri, Arshavin and Wilshere. The ref just wouldn’t blow. And I am not saying he should have given all the fouls as you can play the advantage rule. But you must give the advantage sign and he just didn’t do this at the time. But if he would have acted stronger we would have had a better chance of winning the game. Oh, right that wasn’t supposed to happen. My mistake.
So let us move on to the main decisions. As I was sitting in the Clock End I couldn’t judge them at the moment. But right after the game the text messages came in from all over the world. Well from England and Belgium to be precise that we had been robbed a good goal and a penalty. The images were clear and confirmed that the ref not only messed with the ‘small details’ but also was bad on some very big decisions. It made the way home even longer.
So Arshavin was clearly pushed and was clearly onside. But the ref made the wrong calls. Well in fact they were consistent in making the wrong calls. In fact the score from the ref is higher than I expected to be. But I have to follow the rules and so both yellow cards from Nasri and Wilshere are right if you look at the instructions. But I can understand their frustration. They had been kicked, pushed and shoved all afternoon but when they even look at a Sunderland player he gives the fouls.
I think Wenger was right about not saying anything but saying he was disgusted. So am I. And so are a lot of football and Arsenal supporters around the world. People who start questioning if it is all worth paying you money to see such a poor ref deciding the games. More about that in another article.