The Untold ref review: Arsenal – Wolves « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

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Victory Through Harmony

By Walter Broeckx

Chris Foy was the ref today.  Let’s get it on.

OTHER/OTHER/GOAL: Wilshere is being tripped but manages to get the ball that rolls to Cesc who then scores. But before Cesc scored the ref had blown his whistle. This is one of those situations as a ref that you can kick yourself after having blown the whistle. But once you have blown nothing can be done. If he will look back now he will think that he should have waited for another split second. But he didn’t.  So how should I rate this: First of all there was a foul on Wilshere. 1/1 And to be honest I first thought that the ball was not going to an Arsenal player at first. So I can understand the ref blowing the whistle. 1/1 And then he had to cancel the goal.  1/1.

GOAL: Great pass from Cesc, and even better finish from Van Persie.  Nothing wrong with that. 1/1

OTHER/CARD: Clichy escapes one dangerous tackle as the ref let play continue. The second is a bit too much and the player kicks both ball and man. Definite foul and a lecture is his part. A lecture should be the last warning before a card comes out. We keep it in mind and give him the points for now and in consideration that this was the real tackle over the border  line. 1/1 and 1/1

OTHER/CARD: Two footed frontal tackle on Arshavin. The ref let play continue without giving the advantage signal. The thing that I try to understand is why he let play continue. This is a tackle that should be kept away from the football field. Always give the foul unless you see a clear scoring chance coming from it and always a card. In this case a yellow as the tackle was on the floor.  He gave nothing. 0/1 and 0/1

PENALTY: Djourou goes in with a challenge against a Wolves player. He didn’t get the ball and got the man.  This was a penalty.  A very lucky escape. I think the ref got fooled by the fact that Djourou was so strong in his tackles in the game that he couldn’t even imagine that he made a foul.  0/1

OTHER/CARD/CARD: Walcott races the length of the pitch and Zubar brings him down and gets a well deserved yellow card.  That should have been his second. If he would have been yellow carded he wouldn’t have risked this and Theo could have had a promising run. So a foul and the yellow card is correct. 1/1 and 1/1. But I have to take a point away from the ref as this should have been a second yellow. 0/1

PENALTY:  Arshavin goes between two players.  The first player tries to grab his shirt the second comes in from behind and catches right foot from Arshavin. Again this was a penalty for me. Is this a ref who doesn’t like to give penalties? 0/1

Half time

OTHER/CARD/CARD: Zubar comes in with a late kick and catches Van Persie on his knee. The ref gave no foul, gave no advantage signal. He just did nothing. This was a clear foul and this also was another yellow card offence from Zubar once again. He should have been off the pitch in the first half and yet again Foy does nothing and gives no second yellow card.  DO WE HAVE TO SEE A LEG BROKEN REF?  0/1, 01/ and 0/1

GOAL: I hear the pundits were at it again over there? The ball was played in the path of Walcott. Van Persie was in an offside position but didn’t take part in the game. So he cannot be punished. Walcott sprints forward and Van Persie follows him and stays behind the ball. And dear pundits: you have to be in front of the ball to be in a offside position. On the moment that Walcott gives the ball the linesman has to see if on that moment Van Persie is onside or not. And if he is onside on the moment of the pass from Walcott it doesn’t matter if he was offside before. So a very good decision from the linesman. The only decision he could make.  1/1

OTHER/CARD:  Ebanks-Blake is committing three fouls in a row on Walcott before he can bring him down. The ref gives the foul but when you keep doing fouls to stop a player and don’t let him go you should be booked. 1/1 and 0/1

OTHER: A corner comes in from Wolves and the ball goes in the air from Djourou. Szczesny is being pushed in his own goal but still can manage to put the ball over the crossbar. This is a foul on the keeper ref. And while I am at it also the fact that Wolves are building a wall around our keeper is illegal. 0/1

And then the game runs out and nothing really happens as both teams are satisfied. Arsenal with the 3 points, Wolves with just a 2-0 defeat.

So let us see what happens if I add all the one’s.

CARDS: 2/7

PENALTY: 0/2

GOAL:  3/3

OTHER: 5/8

Total score: 10/20 (50%)

Sometimes you feel a bit sad when you look at the final score and today this is happening to me.  Because for the rest he got most of the fouls correct.  After a while I even stopped counting the not given fouls. As apart from the one I talked about in this review there hardly have been fouls he didn’t give correctly.

He tried to play the advantage when possible and was unlucky in the first minutes when he didn’t. But I will not blame him for this. Such things happen when you are a ref.

I do have a question if there is someone out there who can tell me how many penalties ref Foy is giving in a season. I think he will have a low number. Somehow I feel that he only wants to give penalties when he is 200% sure. If he is consistent in this, then fine. Today he was consistent in not giving them but I think both were fouls and should have been given.

I do think that he was a bit lucky with his not giving some cards. I think Zubar was the only player on the pitch who really should have been sent off. He made too many bookable fouls in this game.  If the ref would have been consistent in giving the cards he would have won a lot of points and saved some players from some dangerous kicks.

A strange coincidence is that in the last game we had Foy I also had the same remarks about his final score.  I really think it is down to being more consistent in giving his cards. But I can only give the score like I wrote it down.

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