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

By Ref Reviewer 03

For the game Arsenal – Sunderland we had for the second time in 8 games in the PL ref Howard Webb in charge.

Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	points	weight
1	GOAL			C	Van Persie  -goal okay	1	3
3	OTHER	Vaughan	Gervinho	NC	Shove – not given	0	0
3	OTHER	Koscielny	Sessegnon	NC	Webb called for a trip but it looked like Koscielny won the ball fairly	0	0
8	OTHER	Richardson	Walcott	C	Obstructed Walcott so he couldn’t complete the give and go	1	1
10	OTHER	Sessegnon	Jenkinson	NC	Pushed Jenkins so he could not get to the ball after Jenkins had blocked the ball. Sunderland got a corner kick as a result.	0	0
12	PENALTY	Mignolet	Gervinho	NC	After Van Persie’s shot came of the post and across the goal, Mignolet pushed Gervinho so he couldn’t tap the ball in.	0	0
12	RED	Mignolet		NC	The Keeper denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity and should have walked	0	0
13	OTHER	Colback	Koscielny	C	Obstruction	1	1
13	OFFSIDE	Gervinho		C		1	1
15	OTHER	Elmohamady	Song	C	Shove	1	1
16	OFFSIDE	Sessegnon		C		1	1
18	OTHER	O’Shea	Rosicky	NC	Fouled Rosicky and dispossed him – not given	0	0
19	OTHER	Turner	Gervinho	C	Contact may have been very minimal but he was showing studs – correct call	1	1
20	OTHER	Richardson	Rosicky	NC	Came in with a raised boot and caught Rosicky on his foot – not given	0	0
20	YELLOW	Richardson	NC	Should have been booked for dangerous play	0	0
21	OTHER	Larsson	Arteta	C	Shove
21	YELLOW	Colback		NC	Kicked the ball away so Arsenal couldn’t counter – should have been booked	0	0
26	OFFSIDE	Gibbs		C	Close call – assumed correct	1	1
27	OTHER	Szczesny		C	Sunderland argued for a deliberate pass back to the keeper, this call could have gone either way depending on the ref’s discretion	1	1
27	OTHER	Larsson	Song	NC	Wrestled to ground – not given	0	0
27	OTHER	Gibbs	Elmohamady	NC	Tugged on his arm – not given	0	0
28	OTHER	Van Persie	Cattermole	C	Trip	1	1
29	OTHER	Arteta		C	Handball	1	1
30	GOAL			C	Larsson – goal okay	1	3
34	OTHER	Larsson	Jenkinson	NC	Shoved Jenkinson – not given. Sunderland almost scored from this foul with Szcesney making a brilliant save	0	0
36	OTHER	Brown	Van Persie	C	Slid in on Van Persie from behind	1	1
36	YELLOW	Brown		NC	He could have seriously hurt Van Persie – should have been booked	0	0
37	OTHER	Cattermole	Song	C	Knocked Song over – no advantage so foul given correctly	1	1
38	OTHER	Jenkinson	Brown	NC	Brown was fouled as he tried to clear, Arsenal quickly won a throw-in in Sunderland’s half	0	0
39	OTHER	Turner	Gervinho	NC	Shoved Gervinho in the head – assume ref played advantage but there wasn’t much of one	0	0
39	OTHER	Cattermole	Rosicky	C	Trip	1	1
40	OTHER	Song	Sessegnon	C	Shove	1	1
44	OTHER	Mertesacker	Colback	C	Foul	1	1
45+2	OTHER	Colback	Rosicky	C	Holding – advantage correctly played	1	1
45+2		Sessegnon		C		1	1
	Half time					19	23
			CORRECT		54,29%	51,11%
	YELLOW				0	3	0,00
	RED				0	1	0,00
	PENALTY			0	1	0,00
	GOAL				2	2	100,00
	OTHER				0	3	0,00
					2	10	20,00
	OFFSIDE				4	4	100,00
	Second half
46	OTHER	Richardson	Van Persie	C	Trip	1	1
49	OTHER			NC	Turner blocked Van Persie’s attempted cross out for a corner but Webb awarded a goal kick to Sunderland	0	0
52	OTHER	Vaughan	Rosicky	C	Tripped Rosicky with a sliding tackle from behind	1	1
52	YELLOW	Vaughan		C	Killed the dangerous counter attack with the foul – booked	1	2
54	OTHER	Mertesacker	Sessegnon	C	Bumped into him	1	1
55	OTHER	Larsson	Van Persie	C	Intentionally pulled him back to stop promising attack	1	1
55	YELLOW	Larsson		C	Unsporting behaviour – yellow very much deserved	1	2
56	OTHER	Elmohamady	Song	C	Shove	1	1
56	PENALTY		C	Walcott wanted a penalty for handball, but Richardson was only three feet away, and ball hit stomach – right not to give it.	1	3
56	OTHER	Song	Sessegnon	C	Stepped on his boot and tripped him up from behind	1	1
56	YELLOW	Song		C	Perhaps a little harsh considering it was only Song’s 2nd foul and there were 3 other defenders covering, but Webb had just booked 2 Sunderland players for similar offenses.	1	2
58	OTHER	Cattermole	Song	C	Foul – advantage played	1	1
58	OTHER	O’Shea	Rosicky	C	Trip – broke up promising attack	1	1
58	YELLOW	O’Shea		NC	Not a whole lot different than what Song was booked for – where is the consistency?	0	0
60	OTHER	Cattermole	Song	C	Song was first fouled by Sessegnon, then by Colback, and then by Cattermole.  It took 3 fouls before Webb blew the whistle.	1	1
61	OTHER	Brown	Walcott	C	Took out Walcott late and hard as he was going past into the area	1	1
61	RED	Brown		NC	This looked an intentional and somewhat dangerous tackle to stop a goalscoring chance.  It should have been red not yellow. Also note that Brown should have been booked in the 1st half for a bad tackle on Van Persie.	0	0
62	OTHER			NC	Webb allowed a wall of considerably less than 10 yards	0	0
63	OTHER	Koscielny	Sessegnon	C	Koscielny looked to have the better position as Sessegnon ran across and got tripped up, but I’ll give the linesman the benefit of the doubt	1	1
63	YELLOW	Koscielny		NC	It’s debatable whether Koscielny even fouled him – definitely not a yellow.	0	0
71	OFFSIDE	Turner		C		1	1
73	OTHER	Sessegnon	Song	C	Shove	1	1
77	OTHER	Benayoun	Cattermole	NC	Benayoun was tackled unfairly from behind, Benayoun then fouled back by holding, but ref should have given the first foul	0	0
82	OTHER	Brown	Van Persie	C	Trip	1	1
83	GOAL			C	Van Persie – goal okay. Note that the wall was set up properly 10 yards back	1	3
83	YELLOW	Van Persie		C	Players are not allowed to remove their jerseys in celebrating a goal	1	2
84	OFFSIDE	Ji Dong-Won	C		1	1
87	PENALTY	Turner		NC	Intentionally handled the ball in the area to stop a goalscoring chance.	0	0
87	RED	Turner		NC	Should have been sent off.	0	0
88	PENALTY		C	Colback wanted a penalty but hard to tell if Theo’s challenge was normal or if he made enough contact to justify Colback falling down like he did. The ref may have also thought Theo had won the ball. The ref’s judgment was perhaps influenced by not awarding Arsenal a penalty a minute or two earlier. I marked this correct, but the decision might have gone the other way.	1	3
90	OTHER			NC	Added time of 5 minutes is too much.  3 or 4 minutes would have been right	0	0
90+1	OTHER	Richardson	Benayoun	C	Trip	1	1
90+2	OTHER	Song		C	Handball	1	1
90+3	OFFSIDE	Elmohamady	C		1	1
90+4	OTHER	Turner	Van Persie	NC	Holding – not given	0	0
90+5	OTHER	Song	Gardner	C	Trip	1	1
			2nd half score
	TOTAL					26	35
	%		CORRECT		72,22%	64,81%
	YELLOW				4	6	66,67
	RED				0	2	0,00
	PENALTY			2	3	66,67
	GOAL				1	1	100,00
	OTHER				4	5	80,00
					11	17	64,71
	OFFSIDE				3	3	100,00
			TOTAL SCORE
	TOTAL					45	58
	%		CORRECT		63,38%	58,59%
	YELLOW				4	9	44,44
	RED				0	3
	PENALTY			2	4
	GOAL				3	3	100,00
	OTHER				4	8	50,00
					13	27	48,15
	OFFSIDE				7	7	100,00
	Correct calls	For Arsenal	30	66,67%
			For Sunderland	15	33,33%
			Total correct calls	45
	Wrong calls	Against Arsenal	23	92,00%
			Against Sunderland	2	8,00%
			Total		25

Arsenal took on Sunderland at the Emirates with Howard Webb and crew officiating.  Webb is definitely not a favourite amongst Arsenal fans and today’s match will do nothing to improve that even if Arsenal did come away with all three points.  Webb’s score in the first half was a dismal 54.29%, and 63.38% overall.  Wrong calls were numerous and almost exclusively in favour of Sunderland with 23 of the 25 incorrect decisions going against Arsenal.

Van Persie opened the scoring in the first minute and nearly doubled the lead just over 10 minutes later with a chip that hit the far post and rebounded across the goalmouth.  As Gervinho was running past Mignolet to knock in the rebound, the Sunderland keeper pushed Gervinho preventing him from playing the ball cleanly.  This was an intentional foul which denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity and as such, Arsenal should have been awarded a penalty and Mignolet should have been sent off.

Webb reffed this match very loosely and Sunderland got away with a lot of pushing and shoving, and would often resort to fouling when Arsenal quickly threatened in attack.  Amazingly Arsenal had the same number of players booked as did Sunderland – three apiece.

Van Persie’s booking was mandatory for removing his shirt.  Song’s yellow was deserved though a couple of Sunderland players made similar challenges without getting booked.  However Koscielny’s yellow was derisory.  It may be argued that it wasn’t even a foul.

On the other hand, Song made a couple of infractions in injury time and he was perhaps lucky not to have been sent off with a second yellow.

One thing I noticed, not only in this match, but in many matches, is that the referee often lets the defense set up their wall much less than the 10 yards that is specified in the rule book.

For example, in the 62nd minute, Sunderland looked to be only about 5 or 6 yards back from the free kick that Theo Walcott took.  Is it any surprise that when Theo tried to curl his shot around a player so close that he would miss dreadfully?

Now compare this to the free kick from which Robin Van Persie scored the winner in the 82nd minute.  This time Howard Webb had forced the wall to be set up the full 10 yards, and as a result Robin scored his first goal from a free kick since January.

There were also a few penalty shouts in the 2nd half.  Walcott wanted one given in the 56th minute, but that ball hit Richardson in the stomach, not the arm, and from very close range.

The penalty shout everyone seemed to have seen except for Webb and his linesman was the handball by Sunderland in the 87th minute.

Turner fell to ground and Arshavin was about to skip past him when he stuck out his arm and swiped it away – an intentional handball, a penalty and a sending off.  At least it should have been.  Webb looked to his linesman with his arms outstretched seemingly asking if his linesman had seen it, and Sunderland escaped what would have most likely killed off the match.

One or two minutes later Sunderland had a penalty claim of their own when Colback went to ground from a challenge by Walcott.  The contact looked minimal and Colback went down easily, but I have seen penalties given for less.  In the end, Webb decided not to give it, perhaps the fact that he did not give Arsenal a penalty minutes earlier weighed on his decision.