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

By Walter Broeckx, the ref

Another great result from the Gooners at St. James Park with a comfortable 4-0 win against the home side. So let us take a look at ref. Marinner who was the ref on the day.

A warning before you start reading: In Belgium we had to see the game on a very bad stream on the internet and could have missed a few things. We missed the 2-0 and only could see it in the replay. And also I must say that even the images from arsenalTVonline doesn’t seem to work properly on the computer I am sitting on for the moment. So if you don’t mind I will give it as I have seen it for the moment but will come back to it later when I see it again and in case I have missed something.

I will start with the first half hour and the things that happened at my home when I was watching the game with my sons (one also a ref).

OTHER: In the first quarter we (2 refs) said on several occasions that the ref didn’t punish some dangerous frontal tackles. This happened on a few occasions. Just before the half hour mark we (again the 2 refs) had been shouting at  our PC screen (and through that at the ref) that he should take action and stop those tackles and pay attention.

I had just said that this could end badly for one of the players and Eastmond then came in hard and hit a Newcastle player. This could have gone totally wrong in the first half at that time and it is just down to luck that no one was carried off with a serious injury. I really felt the need to mention this and to deduct from his points total. 0/1

PENALTY: A Newcastle defender comes in with an outstretched leg to kick the ball, misses it and then blocks the ball with his arm away from his body. I think this should have been a penalty. His arms were not in line with this body, you must keep your hands close to your body in the penalty area. 0/1

GOAL: Well I have seen some strange goals in my life but his certainly was one of the most bizarre own goals I have seen. Almost a one-two between the keeper and the defender. But it all was very much within the rules. 1/1

CARD: Yellow card against Smith for a tackle from behind on Walcott right after the start of the second half. Has the ref woken up during the interval? Correct decision. 1/1

GOAL: (picture will be uploaded later on! I hope!) Walcott is in my opinion offside when he races on to a long ball and scores with a nice chip past the keeper. I have a nice picture but as I am not on my home computer I cannot show it for now but believe me if the lines on the field are right it looked as if Walcott was offside.

I know that the right back at the other side of the field could have been level but on the images I have seen I have the feeling Walcott was just a bit further up field. And the linesman was in a really, really bad position when the ball was played on from Djourou.

So although a lot was made of the incident with Bendtner in fact it should have been nothing to talk about if the linesman would have been on the same line with the last defender. He was meters away from it. Mind you I cannot draw those fancy computer lines on my computer so I judged my opinion on the lines visible in the grass.

So the talking point: was Bendtner in a punishable offside position and should the goal have been disallowed?  This is somewhat irrelevant for me but I will try to answer it as if Theo was not offside as given by the assistant. To be honest my first impression was that it should have been disallowed. My first impression, on the dodgy stream, was that Bendtner didn’t go for the ball but he brought the defender down that was trying to chase Walcott. By bringing the defender down he was interfering with play and so the goal should have been disallowed.

BUT this was my first impression at a moment when the connection stopped for a few seconds and then went on seconds after that. Later on they gave another replay from behind a goal and more in line with what the ref saw and then I saw that Bendtner did not reached for the defender but it was the Newcastle defender that pulled Bendtner with his arm and both went down after the Newcastle defender dragged himself down in fact. So the goal should not have been disallowed for the Bendtner incident in my opinion. But for me Walcott was offside so should have been cancelled 0/1

CARD: Sagna gets booked when he brings down a Newcastle player on the edge of the penalty area. A deserved yellow card is his part. 1/1

GOAL: What a strike from our Dane to make it 3-0. Nothing wrong with that goal. 1/1

GOAL: Theo is back! And how! What a cool finish once again. Nothing wrong with that goal. 1/1

OTHER/CARD: Newcastle has brought on a person whose name I will not say aloud or write it down as I always have to wash my mouth and hands with soap after saying his name to clean my mouth and hands. But I will call him J.B. He goes in over hard in the back of Eastmond and I cannot read minds but even on my bad stream I could see that he only wanted to do one thing: hurt a player. Eastmond needs treatment and the ref let play continue.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! A foul and a card was the only correct thing. 0/1 and 0/1

OTHER/CARD/CARD: That same person J.B. is looking for another victim and he has a go at Cesc. This time the ref sees it gives a foul and a yellow card. But this should have been his second card. This is a perfect example of the fact that as a ref you must know your players on the field and when you see Barton come in against Eastmond you must punish him with a card to stop him. This should have been the second yellow card for Barton. So for spotting the foul I  give the ref 1/1 and also 1/1 for the yellow card but a 0/1 as it should have been his second and thus a red card.

So what is the final score for the ref:

Goals 3/4

Cards: 3/5

Penalties: 0/1

Other: 1/3

This leaves us with a total score : 7/13 (54%)

So despite us winning with a big score line I really was not happy with the ref and the way he handled the game.

He allowed a few possible dangerous tackles in the first half which could have caused a serious injury. Players were flying in too much and were allowed to do this. I think the Gibbs injury could be down to the fact that some players felt that they could go in as hard as they liked it. I’m not going to blame the ref totally as it looked just a bad collision on my (bad) stream but Eastmond could have caused a serious injury later in the first half. This was all down to the ref not stopping frontal tackles.

And then I come to the most despicable person I know that still is allowed on a football field in the EPL. J.B (I really cannot speak his name without feeling sick) is a disgrace for  football in  England and a disgrace for a club like Newcastle. And to think that I like Newcastle as they always play a song of one of my all time favourite bands (Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits) before the game. Every time I see J.B. coming on the pitch against us I know he will kick as much as he can. And every time I hope that the refs stop him but this is almost never the case.

That J.B is not a football player. He is some kind of criminal mind, a serial kicker, with only one intent: to hurt as much opponents as possible. And the refs and the FA just let him on the field again and again and again. How on earth the ref let him get away with his brutal challenge from behind on Eastmond is beyond me. And then he just runs on the field to give a kick at Cesc. Cesc who was very unhappy about it and rightfully so. A total disgrace is this J.B. and I only can hope that he doesn’t make any more casualties in football.

Sorry for this rant but I really cannot stand the sight of J.B on a football field anymore.

Editorial footnote. There’s a sponsored link below. It’s not to do with the article or with Walter’s problems with his computer in viewing the game, but if you take a look you will help contribute a little something towards the costs of running Untold. And you could find it interesting.