Untold Ref Review: Arsenal 1 – MU 2 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

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By Ref Reviewer 03

Game Arsenal –ManchesterUnited. Ref in charge was Mike Dean. What was his score on the day?

Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	points	weight
2	OTHER	Vermaelen	Valencia	C	Little shove by Vermaelen thoughValenciamight have got away with shirt grabbing just before	1	1
5	OTHER	RVP	Smalling	NC	RVP has as much right to the ball – wrong call	0	0
7	OFFSIDE	Valencia		C	Assumed correct	1	1
9	OTHER	AOC	Evra	C	Slight foul – advantage played	1	1
19	OTHER	Song	Giggs	C	Trip – advantage played	1	1
26	OFFSIDE	Welbeck		C	Assumed correct	1	1
30	OTHER	Vermaelen	Giggs	C	Held his shirt	1	1
34	OFFSIDE	Giggs		C	Advantage played	1	1
37	PENALTY			C	Rooney purposely went to ground after Song briefly grabbed arm	1	3
39	OTHER	Valencia	Vermaelen	C	Foul	1	1
41	OTHER	Song	Rooney	C	Song goes into aerial challenge, arm catches Rooney in face	1	1
41	YELLOW	Song		NC	Gets a word, but should have been booked	0	0
43	OTHER	Ramsey	Giggs	C	Pulled him back	1	1
43	YELLOW	Ramsey		C	Unsporting behavour	1	2
44	OTHER	Rafael	AOC	C	Foul – advantage played	1	1
44	YELLOW	Rafael		C	Similar foul to Ramsey’s, ref is consistent	1	2
44	OFFSIDE	Welbeck		C	Assumed correct	1	1
45	OTHER	Smalling	RVP	NC	Pushed – not given	0	0
45	OTHER	Song	Giggs	C	Slight trip	1	1
46	OTHER			NC	Man U take quick free kick 5 yards from spot of foul, should have been retaken	0	0
46	GOAL			C	Valencia – goal okay	1	3
	Half time					17	23
			CORRECT		80,95%	82,14%
	YELLOW				2	3	66,67
	RED				0	0
	PENALTY				1	1	100,00
	GOAL				1	1	100,00
	OTHER				3	4	75,00
					7	9	77,78
	OFFSIDE				4	4	100,00
	Second half
47	OTHER	RVP	Valencia	C	Trip	1	1
54	OTHER	Song	Welbeck	NC	Trip awarded but Song won ball fairly	0	0
58	PENALTY			C	Evra had arms tight into body, hard shot from close distance – right not to give pen	1	3
60	OTHER	Valencia	Vermaelen	C	Challenged with raised arm	1	1
63	OFFSIDE	Evra		NC	Was level, however shot was saved before whistle	0	0
65	OTHER			NC	Goal kick given to Man U but ball played out byValencia	0	0
65	OTHER	Evra	Walcott	NC	Trip – not given	0	0
66	OTHER	Giggs	Ramsey	NC	Pushed off ball – not given	0	0
67	OTHER			NC	Szczesney was injured from the challenge by Welbeck. Ref should stop play when the keeper is injured	0	0
71	GOAL			C	RVP – goal okay	1	3
72	OTHER	Koscielny	Nani	C	Trip from behind	1	1
72	YELLOW	Koscielny		C	He was out of position and determined to foul Nani – deserved	1	2
77	OTHER	Welbeck	Koscielny	C	Body check	1	1
80	OTHER	Carrick	Ramsey	C	Trip	1	1
81	OTHER	Song	Rooney	C	Trip	1	1
81	GOAL			C	Welbeck – goal okay	1	3
83	OTHER	Ramsey	Rooney	C	Jumped a bit late into Rooney	1	1
85	YELLOW	RVP		NC	Normally it’s okay to caution for dissent, but Rooney did the same thing earlier without getting booked	0	0
86	OTHER	Rosicky	Rooney	C	Trip from behind	1	1
86	YELLOW	Rosicky		C	Deserved	1	2
87	OTHER	Scholes		C	Handball – perhaps lucky not to have been booked for kicking ball away after whistle	1	1
88	OTHER	Koscielny	Welbeck	C	Shove	1	1
90	OTHER	Evra	Walcott	C	Lunged head first into Walcott	1	1
90	YELLOW	Evra		C	Yellow but could easily have been red	1	2
90	OTHER			NC	5 added minutes are shown – should be 8	0	0
92	OTHER	Vermaelen	Park	C	Block	1	1
92	OTHER	Vermaelen	Park	C	Hold	1	1
95	OTHER	Song	Rooney	C	Blocked his run/Took out of play – advantage played	1	1
95	YELLOW	Song		C	Unsporting behavour	1	2
			2nd half score
	TOTAL					21	31
	%		CORRECT		72,41%	77,50%
	YELLOW				4	5	80,00
	RED				0	0
	PENALTY				1	1	100,00
	GOAL				2	2	100,00
	OTHER				3	6	50,00
					10	14	71,43
	OFFSIDE				0	1	0,00
			TOTAL SCORE
	TOTAL					38	54
	%		CORRECT		76,00%	79,41%
	YELLOW				6	8	75,00
	RED				0	0
	PENALTY				2	2	100,00
	GOAL				3	3	100,00
	OTHER				6	10	60,00
					17	23	73,91
	OFFSIDE				4	5	80,00
	NEW		1st half	2nd half	Total		%
	WRONG	NC F ARS 1	0	1	1
		NCF ARS 2	1	0	1
		NCF ARS 3	0	0	0
		Total normal	0	1	1	FA ARS	10,00%
		Total important	1	0	1	FA ARS	50,00%
		General total	1	1	2	FA ARS	16,67%
	WRONG	NC F MU 1	3	6	9
		NC F MU 2	0	1	1
		NC F MU 3	0	0	0
		Total normal	3	6	9	FA MU	90,00%
		Total important	0	1	1	FA MU	50,00%
		General total	3	7	10	FA MU	83,33%
		TOTAL NORMAL WRONG	10
		TOTAL IMPORTANT WRONG	2
		GENERAL TOTAL		12
	CORRECT	CF ARS 1	6	5	11
		CF ARS 2	1	1	2
		CF ARS 3	1	1	2
		Total normal	6	5	11
		Total important	2	2	4
	CORRECT	CF MU 1	7	9	16
		CF MU 2	1	3	4
		CF MU3	1	2	3
		Total normal	7	9	16
		Total Important	2	5	7
		Foul ARS	7	9	16
		FOUL MU	3	7	10
	OLD VERSION
	Correct calls	For Arsenal	15	39,47%
			For Man Utd	23	60,53%
			Total correct calls	38
	Wrong calls	Against Arsenal	10	83,33%
			Against Man Utd	2	16,67%
			Total		12
	Total fouls made by	Arsenal		16	61,54%
			Man Utd	10	38,46%
			Total		26

The first half went pretty much without incident until the 37th minute when Wayne Rooney fell to ground after a little tug by Song. Replays show that Rooney was using his arm to hold off Song when the Arsenal midfielder grabbed it briefly. Rooney then dropped to ground and appealed for a penalty. For me this was a 50-50 penalty. There was contact but nothing that would make Rooney fall like that, and thus I feel the ref was right in both not giving the penalty and in not booking Rooney.

A few minutes later Rooney was in the spotlight again as Song went up to dispute a header but arrived late and with his arm raised. It wasn’t particularly violent but I felt it warranted a booking, however Song was fortunate just to get a verbal warning.

Dean was in no mood for antics after that and when Ramsey draped his arms around Giggs and pulled him back, Dean was quick to book Ramsey. Dean did show consistency by booking Rafael Silva for a similar foul a minute later.

In the 44th minute it was interesting to see that Mike Dean made Arsenal retake a kick for an offside offense against Welbeck. I suspect it was because it wasn’t taken from the spot of the infraction.

Now, contrast this with what Man United did two minutes later. Following a slight trip by Song on Giggs, Manchester United took a quick free kick 5 yards from the spot of the foul. They caught Arsenal a bit off guard made a quick attack down the left flank. Arsenal managed to clear the ball but they seemed to be rattled.

Man United took the ball down the pitch again, and again Arsenal cleared, but the third time was a charm for Manchester as Giggs had space to cross the ball perfectly for Valencia on the far post. The goal was scored legitimately and I concur with that.

Overall Mike Dean had a fairly good first half scoring 82%. His performance in the second half wouldn’t be as good.

In the 58th minute, Arsenal had a penalty shout when Ramsey’s shot was blocked by Patrice Evra. The ball hit Evra on the arm but it was a hard shot from close range and Evra’s arms were tight into his body – an example of ball to arm and Dean was right to play on.

Dean raised a few eyebrows in the 67th minute when did not stop play when Arsenal’s goalkeeper was visibly injured after making a save against Welbeck. If a goalkeeper is injured the ref should always stop play to see if he is alright or needs treatment. Arsenal were lucky that United did not muster an attack on goal at that time. Dean did finally allow Szczesny to get treatment, but it was only after Evra’s cross was played out for a corner by Koscielny. Later in the match Dean was also slow to stop play when Theo Walcott knocked himself unconscious when his head hit the ground, though at least this time he did stop play when United paused on the ball at midfield.

Nani also took a knock when Koscielny was out of position upfield and tackled Nani from behind for which he was duly booked. Play was stopped for 3½ minutes while Nani received treatment on the pitch and each team made a substitution. Arsenal fans, and even team captain Robin himself, were shocked when Oxlade-Chamberlain was the one to be replaced after he had put in a stellar performance on his first start in the Premier League.

His replacement was Andre Arshavin and he was easily beaten by Valencia who ended up laying the ball off for Welbeck to score what would be the winning goal in the 81st minute.

From that point on, Manchester took their time on each throw-in, free kick, etc., and when Evra let the ball go past without collecting it for the throw-in, Van Persie ran up to Dean probably to question why he was letting Evra get away with that. Dean immediately pulled a yellow card out of his pocket and booked Van Persie.

Now, refs don’t like it when players start running up to them and telling them how to do their job, but in this case it is a bit different. For one thing, Evra was wasting time and Dean wasn’t doing much about it, and more importantly there was the incident earlier in the half when Mertesacker cleared the ball off the line and Rooney ran up to the ref and was asking for a penalty. So why is Robin booked when Rooney wasn’t earlier for the same offense? As a side note, and I know many of you may find this hard to believe, but Wayne Rooney has not received a single card in the Premiership this season.

So as we approached 90 minutes, how much injury time would we see? Well, if you account for the injuries to Szczesny, Nani, and Walcott, play was stopped for nearly 6 minutes in total for those three injuries. There were also stoppages for bookings to Evra for example who lunged head first into Walcott and came off worse for it. Adding substitutions, time wasting, and time for the ref to have a word for players, there should have been at least 8 minutes added on. The board showed only 5.

Arsenal couldn’t manage to find an equalizing goal in the final minutes, although Song did manage to pick up his 7th card of the season for a block which took Rooney out the play of a Manchester counter-attack.

Dean scored 76% on the day, and wrong calls were in favour of Manchester United 10 to 2.

The loss was a bitter pill for Arsenal fans to take but at least they can take some consolation in the impressive performances by Nico Yennaris and especially Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who seems certain to be an English International standout sooner rather than later.