Untold Ref Review: Arsenal 1 – 0 Manchester City « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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Today’s referee is Martin Atkinson – The top game of the weekend, was the ref up to it?
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Martin Atkinson (2012-04-08) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 2 | OTHER | Nasri | Song | C | Pull | 1 |
| 2 | OTHER | Yaya | Rosicky | C | Blatant pull | 1 |
| 2 | YELLOW | Yaya | C | No chance of playing the ball at all just a cynical pull that prevents Arsenal to start an attack. One could argue but is the ref warning the players he means business? | 2 | |
| 3 | OFFSIDE | ManC | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 5 | OFFSIDE | ManC | C | Balotelli kicks the ball in to the stands. | 1 | |
| 5 | YELLOW | Balotelli | NC | Not even a word from the ref? Could and should even have been a yellow card | 2 | |
| 6 | OTHER | RVP | Lescott | C | Little push in the back | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Song | Yaya | C | Trip | 1 |
| 10 | YELLOW | Song | NC | Another cynical foul, stopping a possible counter for City, should have been booked | 2 | |
| 11 | OTHER | Balotelli | Song | C | Push | 1 |
| 14 | PENALTY | Kompany | RVP | NC | Kompany runs in the back of Van Persie and bundles him over. Ref gives a corner. Kompany had only eye for RVP and did not go for the ball | 3 |
| 17 | OTHER | Nasri | Vermaelen | C | Ran in to him when he wanted to head the ball away | 1 |
| 19 | OTHER | Song | Aguero | C | He was looking for the foul and at the end the foul from Song came, trip | 1 |
| 20 | OTHER | Balotelli | Song | NC | Balotelli pushes the ball too hard and then catches Song on the knee. Ref gives nothing. | 1 |
| 20 | RED | Balotelli | NC | Studs showing, stretched leg hit him on the knee. My match reporter was disgusted when he saw the images. So was I for the fact that the ref gave nothing. Rosicky had a chat with the ref and I swear he was laughing at the time? The ref, not Rosicky. | 3 | |
| 24 | OTHER | Pizarro | Song | C | A few pushes before and then the ref gives a foul | 1 |
| 27 | OFFSIDE | ManC | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 29 | OFFSIDE | ManC | C | Correct | 1 | |
| 29 | OTHER | Aguero | Arteta | C | clipped his heel | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Sagna | Clichy | C | Trip | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Balotelli | Sagna | NC | Balotelli comes in again studs showing, again the ref gives nothing | 1 |
| 32 | YELLOW | Balotelli | NC | No comment | 2 | |
| 34 | OTHER | Barry | Gibbs | C | Could not see if Barry made contact with the ball so go with the ref | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Balotelli | Sagna | C | Came late | 1 |
| 38 | YELLOW | Balotelli | C | Again studs showing how on earth is he still on the field | 2 | |
| 39 | OTHER | RVP | Lescott | C | a bit of wrestling, assumed correct | 1 |
| 41 | OFFSIDE | Ars | C | Correct | 1 | |
| 43 | OTHER | Walcott | C | handball assumed correct | 1 | |
| 47 | OFFSIDE | ManC | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 47 | OTHER | Benayoun | Barry | C | Trip | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Balotelli | C | Handball | 1 | |
| 48 | OFFSIDE | ars | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 48 | OTHER | Sagna | Balotelli | C | push in the back advantage given that leads to nothing after a while | 1 |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 46 | OTHER | Benayoun | C | handball | 1 | |
| 47 | OTHER | Barry | Song | NC | Played the ball with one foot, catched the ankle of Song with the other. Look at the second leg ref | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Nasri | Arteta | C | Push in the back | 1 |
| 51 | OTHER | Aguero | Koscielny | C | Pulled him back | 1 |
| 54 | OFFSIDE | Ars | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 56 | OTHER | Milner | Rosicky | C | Trip | 1 |
| 56 | YELLOW | Milner | C | a scissor tackle, wrapped his legs around the ankle of the Arsenal player. Dangerous tackle | 2 | |
| 58 | OTHER | Santos | Balotelli | C | little pull | 1 |
| 58 | YELLOW | Santos | C | I think the card was given for his reaction after the foul when he went to confront Balotelli a bit. | 2 | |
| 60 | OFFSIDE | ManC | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 63 | OTHER | Rosicky | Clichy | NC | Nice dive | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Arteta | Barry | C | Assistang gave something, assuemed correct. No replay | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Koscielny | Barry | C | Caught him on the ankle, came late | 1 |
| 67 | YELLOW | Koscielny | C | Came late on the ankle, correct card | 2 | |
| 70 | OFFSIDE | Ars | C | just but offside | 1 | |
| 70 | GOAL | Arsenal | C | correctly disallowed for offside | 3 | |
| 74 | OTHER | Balotteli | Arteta | NC | held him nothing given | 1 |
| 78 | OTHER | Rosicky | Man, | C | Pull but advantage given as City can break | 1 |
| 78 | OTHER | Milner | Santos | C | Trip | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Ramsey | Balotelli | C | push, this time no yellow so I guess the reason for Santos was his own reaction after his similar foul | 1 |
| 87 | GOAL | Arsenal | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 89 | OTHER | Balotteli | Sagna | C | Typical strikers tackle on a defender | 1 |
| 89 | RED | Balotteli | C | Finally I would say. About 70 minutes too late | 3 | |
| 92 | OTHER | Barry | Rosicky | C | Push in the back | 1 |
| 94 | OTHER | Koscielny | Tevez | C | Trip | 1 |
| 95 | OTHER | Zabaleta | Santos | C | Dives in with both feet on the ground, dangerous but ref gives advantage because Arsenal can counter (Ramsey miss) | 1 |
| 95 | YELLOW | Zabaleta | C | Ref gives the yellow card for the rash tackle at the start of the counter. Ending on a high one could say | 2 |
What can you say about this? I thought the ref started excellent. Given an early yellow for the first cynical foul in the game. It should have set the tone for the rest of the game. Unfortunately for the ref he stopped there for a long while.
Song should have gotten a yellow for his cynical foul on Yaya Toure. He clearly went for a block of the player without going for the ball. Was the ref letting things slip out of his hands? He sure was the usual average PGMOL ref when not giving a penalty when Kompany barged in the back of Van Persie without going for the ball. Oh well business as usual for Arsenal.
The moment that will stay in our mind was the first madness attack from Balotelli on Song. How on earth could the ref not even give a foul for that. And how on earth could he not give a red card for that. This was bad, bad, bad. Both from Balotelli but also from Atkinson. And when Rosicky came to him when Song got his treatment he laughed whatever Rosicky said away. He then let Balotelli off the hook again when he came again studs showing towards Sagna. I think Balotelli felt he could do it because the ref let the first one go. Finally the ref gave him a yellow when he came in against Sagna with studs showing. By then he should have been off the field for a long while.
I feared the worst for Atkinson and for his score at that time. But I really wonder what happened in the dressing room at the interval. Most of us might not have noticed it because of the tension and the passionate feelings surrounding the criminal assault from Balotelli but it was a different Atkinson that came out in the second half. Was it a clone?
Because he had a wonderful second half. Getting an overall score in the 90% and getting all the major decisions correct. Yes a 100% score in the second half for the important calls. He saved his day in that second half and maybe saved his face as a ref?
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Martin Atkinson (2012-04-08) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| OFFSIDE | 7 | 7 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 17 | 19 | 89.47 |
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| RED | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 2 | 5 | 40.00 |
| TOTAL | 26 | 33 | 78.79 |
| WEIGHTED | 28 | 42 | 66.67 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 14 | 17 | 82.35 |
| RED | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 4 | 4 | 100.00 |
| TOTAL | 24 | 27 | 88.89 |
| WEIGHTED | 34 | 37 | 91.89 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 10 | 10 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 31 | 36 | 86.11 |
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| RED | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| YELLOW | 6 | 9 | 66.67 |
| TOTAL | 50 | 60 | 83.33 |
| WEIGHTED | 62 | 79 | 78.48 |
So it was game of two halves. One shockingly bad and one shockingly good. The goal from Van Persie cancelled for offside was a good decisions. Van Persie was just offside. The assistant got it correct. Just a not to the assistant on this: you were a bit too far ahead in fact so you could have missed it. Luckily the penalty area line made it easy on him.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Martin Atkinson (2012-04-08) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Arsenal | % | Manchester City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 16 | 61.54 | 10 | 38.46 | 26 |
| Correct For Weighted | 18 | 64.29 | 10 | 35.71 | 28 |
| Incorrect Against | 6 | 85.71 | 1 | 14.29 | 7 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 12 | 85.71 | 2 | 14.29 | 14 |
| Fouls Commited | 10 | 37.04 | 17 | 62.96 | 27 |
| Fouls Penalised | 10 | 100.00 | 14 | 82.35 | 24 |
| Period 2 | Arsenal | % | Manchester City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 12 | 50.00 | 12 | 50.00 | 24 |
| Correct For Weighted | 18 | 52.94 | 16 | 47.06 | 34 |
| Incorrect Against | 3 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 3 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 |
| Fouls Commited | 9 | 45.00 | 11 | 55.00 | 20 |
| Fouls Penalised | 9 | 100.00 | 8 | 72.73 | 17 |
| Totals | Arsenal | % | Manchester City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 28 | 56.00 | 22 | 44.00 | 50 |
| Correct For Weighted | 36 | 58.06 | 26 | 41.94 | 62 |
| Incorrect Against | 9 | 90.00 | 1 | 10.00 | 10 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 15 | 88.24 | 2 | 11.76 | 17 |
| Fouls Commited | 19 | 40.43 | 28 | 59.57 | 47 |
| Fouls Penalised | 19 | 100.00 | 22 | 78.57 | 41 |
If we look at the wrong decisions it was in fact only a total of 10 “mistakes” and most of them in the first half. But of those 10 mistakes only one in favour or Arsenal. Business as usual once again. And still no sign of things starting even getting close to evening things out for Arsenal. Come on Mike R. what are you waiting for?
My last word on Atkinson is to please take a look at rash and dangerous challenges. If things would have gone wrong we would have had our annual nightmare injury in this game.
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What a great game of football! How the atmosphere came across on the TV
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