Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches.

Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have it.    All the earlier ref reviews plus analyses of the errors made by refs, and articles relating to our campaign to have the body which organises referees activities reformed, plus an analysis of the background to this campaign, can be found on:

• Untold Ref Reviews …
• Untold Corruption …

Although this is a site built for Arsenal supporters we welcome comments from fans of other teams, although we tend not to publish comments which are simply abusive or which are completely off topic.

Today’s referee is Chris Foy

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Chris Foy (2012-04-28)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
3	OTHER	Whitehead	Song	C	Frontal tackle	1
3	YELLOW	Whitehead		C	After seeing the incident a few times I came to the conclusion that it was a frontal tackle, studs showing but the knee was a little bit bent and his foot was over the floor. So I will agree with the yellow card from the ref	2
4	OTHER	Song	Pennant	NC	Pennant misread the ball and then went down when Song ran away with the ball	1
5	OFFSIDE	Stoke		C	correct	1
5	OTHER	Gibbs	Pennant	NC	push not given	1
6	OFFSIDE	Stoke		C	assumed correct	1
7	OTHER	Whelan?	Gervinho	NC	push not given	1
10	GOAL	Stoke		C	correct	3
14	OFFSIDE	Stoke		C	correct	1
15	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct	3
20	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		NC	Not given	1
20	OTHER	Walker	Song	C	Holding	1
21	OTHER	Shawcross	RVP	NC	Jumped in the back, not given	1
26	OFFSIDE	Stoke		C	correct	1
29	OTHER	Song	Crouch	C	little nudge	1
35	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	assumed correct	1
38	OTHER	Benayoun	Crouch	C	well this will be one of the first times I have seen a player punished for someone jumping in his back	1
39	OFFSIDE	Stoke		C	assumed correct	1
41	OTHER	Whelan?	Rosicky	NC	push not given	1
41	OTHER	Vermaelen	Crouch	NC	from the not given foul results in a free kick to Stoke for the faintest of touches in the back	1
43	OTHER	RVP	Shotton	C	assumed correct	1
44	OTHER			NC	Corner given to Stoke, came of Stoke player	1
44	OTHER	Pennant	Szczesny	NC	Pennant places himself in front of the keeper and interferes with the keeper when he tries to come for the ball, is a foul ref	1
44	OTHER	Ramsey	Etherington	C	a little bit of pulling going on between the two	1
46	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	correct	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
58	OFFSIDE	Stoke		C	assumed correct	1
60	OTHER	Stoke	Rosicky	NC	trip not given	1
62	OTHER	Benayoun	Pennant	C	trip	1
62	YELLOW	Benayoun		C	Deliberate trip, players was gone	2
67	OTHER	Song	Etherington	C	Trip	1
67	YELLOW	Song		NC	a bit harsh, first foul, no real danger,	2
71	OTHER	Whelan	Vermaelen	C	trip	1
72	PENALTY	Shawcross		C	appeal for handball but was outside the penalty area, but should have been a free kick as his hands were outside his body	3
75	PENALTY	Whelan	Benayoun	C	I can understand a supporter calling for a penalty but as a ref reviewer I cannot find conclusive evidence that there was a deliberate foul on Benayoun. So have to agree with the ref	3
76	OTHER	Sagna	Pennant	C	push	1
80	OTHER	Wilson	Rosicky	C	Trip	1
81	OTHER	Diaby	Jerome	C	High foot	1
83	OTHER	Huth	Benayoun	C	trip	1
86	OTHER	Shawcross	Santos	C	push	1
88	OTHER	Jerome	Song	C	push	1
89	OTHER	Upson	RVP	C	trip	1
91	OTHER	Crouch	Szczesny	NC	Crouch is holding his arm on the shoulder of the keeper so he cannot go for the ball	1
92	OTHER	Stoke?	Santos	NC	push not given	1
92	OTHER	Whitehead	Song	NC	Dangerous tackle	1
92	YELLOW	Whitehead		NC	Dangerous frontal tackle, should be a yellow card	2
92	RED	Whitehead		NC	should have been off for 2 yellow cards	3
93	OTHER	Koscielny	Whitehead	NC	went down as if he was shot in the back and then took the ball in his hands, ref falls for it	1

The last thing in football you want is a ref that lets things go at Stoke.  So when ref Foy gave a yellow card for Whitehead in the first minutes for a tackle on Song it gave a signal to Stoke that he would not allow that. I know some have called for a red card but after reviewing the incident I can see a few points why the ref did not give a red card. Whitehead stayed on the ground with this foot and his leg was not fully stretched so the impact was somehow reduced.

But he let a lot of things go after that. Pushing and shoving, at times inventing fouls like when Crouch jumped in to the back of Benayoun and the ref gave a foul against Benayoun who clearly could not understand it. Well I couldn’t understand it either.

In the second half the players played a rather fair game. The first real foul was punished with a yellow card against Benayoun and I have no complaints.  The yellow card against Song was very soft.

Certainly when you compare this with the late tackle in the extra time on Song from Whitehead. Again a late tackle and the ref gave advantage which can be given not that there was much on. But then when the ball was out of play he should have booked Whitehead and give him a yellow card and that would have been his second.

Let us move on to the penalties. And I like to remind you of the fact that we ref reviewers only over rule the ref when we are 100% certain of him making a mistake and we have video evidence of this. About the Benayoun incident.  I also had the impression a penalty could have been given. Can you imagine this situation with Young in the place of Benayoun on Old Trafford? I think the ball would have been on the spot before the player touching the ground.  Now as I didn’t find an angle in which I could say for 100% that there was a deliberate foul I have to agree with the ref.

The shout for penalty for handball from Shawcross was a bit easier as Shawcross was just outside the penalty area so it could not be a penalty.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-04-28)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	7	8	87.50
OTHER	6	14	42.86
YELLOW	1	1	100.00
TOTAL	16	25	64.00
WEIGHTED	21	30	70.00
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	10	15	66.67
PENALTY	2	2	100.00
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	1	3	33.33
TOTAL	14	22	63.64
WEIGHTED	19	31	61.29
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	8	9	88.89
OTHER	16	29	55.17
PENALTY	2	2	100.00
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	2	4	50.00
TOTAL	30	47	63.83
WEIGHTED	40	61	65.57

Despite all this points given to the ref, he still managed to get a low score.

Foy is not a ref who is out there to kill us with some big decisions going against us in general. But he is very soft in some parts of keeping a game within the rules.

BIAS SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-04-28)
Period 1	Stoke City	%	Arsenal	%	Total
Correct For	6	40.00	9	60.00	15
Correct For Weighted	8	40.00	12	60.00	20
Incorrect Against	2	20.00	8	80.00	10
Incorrect Against Weighted	2	20.00	8	80.00	10
Fouls Commited	12	63.16	7	36.84	19
Fouls Penalised	8	66.67	5	71.43	13
Period 2	Stoke City	%	Arsenal	%	Total
Correct For	7	50.00	7	50.00	14
Correct For Weighted	12	63.16	7	36.84	19
Incorrect Against	0	0.00	8	100.00	8
Incorrect Against Weighted	0	0.00	12	100.00	12
Fouls Commited	12	75.00	4	25.00	16
Fouls Penalised	7	58.33	4	100.00	11
Totals	Stoke City	%	Arsenal	%	Total
Correct For	13	44.83	16	55.17	29
Correct For Weighted	20	51.28	19	48.72	39
Incorrect Against	2	11.11	16	88.89	18
Incorrect Against Weighted	2	9.09	20	90.91	22
Fouls Commited	24	68.57	11	31.43	35
Fouls Penalised	15	62.50	9	81.82	24

And if you look at the wrong calls it is again very much against Arsenal. But most of all for the little fouls somewhere in the middle of the field.

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