The Untold referee index: Arsenal – Bolton Legbreakers « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does
by Walter Broeckx, the ref from Belgium, the Worldwide man
Our Second home game brought us not only the visit of Bolton but also ref Stuart Atwell, the youngest ref in the EPL.
CARDS: tackle Davies from behind on Rosciky. Ref gives advantage which goes to nothing. But with a tackle on a defensive player so close on the own penalty area you should never give advantage. Should have been a foul and a yellow card against Davies. After playing the advantage you can book the player the first time the ball goes out. But it took exactly 2 minutes before play had to be stopped because…. Davies commits his next dirty foul and he finally gets his well deserved yellow card for another strong tackle on Wilshere this time. That was 2 bookable offences in 2 minutes. Davies, not a dirty player? My ass. 1/2
PENALTY: tackle on Arshavin, replay suggest the defender got a bit off the ball, but I had the impression the defender first caught the leg of Arshavin. Could/should have been a penalty. But I will give the ref no penalty for this as it is difficult to give a penalty when you see the defender touching the ball somewhat. It is a bit of a psychological barrier. 1/1
OTHER: Ref has a word before the corner: good work. 1/1
GOAL: From the corner we score. No offside from Cesc at first. Koscielny is behind the ball so certainly not offside when Cesc plays the ball in. Cesc is on the goal line when to the ball goes in but he doesn’t intervene with the play so a not punishable offside position. Correct goal good work from the ref and the assistant. 1/1
CARDS: Yellow card Gibbs correct late challenge. 1/1
CARDS: Muamba tackle from behind no yellow card ??? Should have been yellow. 0/1
PENALTY: Possible foul on Chamakh in the penalty area? Looked more a slip to me. Correct decision. 1/1
GOAL: Goal Bolton: no remarks correct decision. 1/1
Second half:
CARDS: foul Steinson on Wilshere yellow card. Bringing down a player at full speed not a clever thing to do. Mostly a yellow card. Not a vicious foul but a yellow card offence. 1/1
OTHER: Cahill makes a foul on Chamakh no foul given. He pulled him off the ball. Bolton get a chance from this. 0/1
GOAL: Second goal Arsenal: AA to Cesc, no offside, excellent cross and good header from Chamakh and 2-1. 1/1
CARDS: Davies goes in on Koscielny. Davies was very late and he gave the impression that he wanted to have a go at him. But maybe I am biased. Ref gives nothing. Should/could have been another yellow card. Davies should have been off by now. Even Graham Poll would have realised that. 0/1
CARDS: Eboue gets a yellow card for ….. asking a yellow card? If he did asked for a card with a gesture then this is a correct decision. You don’t ask for yellow cards. 1/1
OTHER: It looked like Song committed a foul on Lee, outside the penalty area. 0/1
CARDS: Red card Cahill. Cahill could never have played the ball from that position as the ball was in front of Chamakh. Cahill goes in jumps in from behind with two feet in the player. If you look at it from the playing field angle you can see that Cahill is jumping with both feet from the ground. So it was not a sliding tackle (which the MOTD pundits later compared it with). One world cup ago Fifa decided to ban such tackles. They did at the time. But those rules always disappear from the memory of the supporters and the refs. 5 years ago no one would have said anything about it. Is it because he is a young ref that he still remembers the rules? I would be delighted if those tackles would never be seen anymore. If Chamakh would have been on the ground with his legs they could have been broken. The tackle reminded me off the Shawcross tackle against Adebayor a few seasons back when Adebayor was more unlucky as he got caught on his standing ankle and was stretchered off. 1/1
CARDS/OTHERS: tackle on Diaby over the ball from Robinson and on his standing leg. This was a possible leg breaking tackle. This was a dangerous tackle. He came in with his foot over the ball and got him on the leg. And yes he did get a bit of the ball somewhere down the process with something, but the way he came in with his leg at full stretch is always dangerous. Diaby was a bit lucky that his foot wasn’t completely stuck in the grass otherwise we would have seen another Arsenal player losing another season. And we would have witnessed again the scenes from legs hanging off. Please God no more if possible. I really had enough of it. Oh and the ref even didn’t give a foul. 0/1 and 0/1
Above a picture from the tackle on Diaby as shown on Arseblog.
OTHER: Back pass not given. Ref thought it was not a deliberate one. I can understand this but he intended to play the ball back but maybe not to his keeper. But still a bit doubtful but it is up to the ref to make a decision and to give his interpretation on a deliberate one or not. I spare the ref for this time. 1/1
GOAL: Arsenal third goal correct nothing to report apart from the fact that Song finished like a world class striker. 1/1
GOAL: Fourth Arsenal goal: no offside, correct decision and what a cool finish from Vela. And how lovely to finish of the OLES with a brilliant pass and finish. 1/1
PENALTY: Tackle from Muamba on Eboue. If the ref doesn’t give a penalty than it has to be a corner. Muamba either touched the ball or he got the player. If he didn’t touch the ball than it is a penalty. If he played the ball it was a corner. Poor decision anyhow. 0/1
PENALTY: Arshavin goes down, there was contact but I can understand not giving a penalty for this. So I give him this decision as a good one. 1/1
So a lot of decisions and these are the final points I get:
- Goals 5/5
- Cards: 5/10
- Penalties: 3/ 4
- Other: 2/4
Total decisions: 15/22 (68% in total)
A somewhat confused Tony Attwood on the game: Robinson, Taylor, Shawcross, Smith – the criminals in the EPL
Bill the Dog attends the match as a guest of 02: 02 and Untold together: Wenger is a cheat!!!