Untold Ref Review: Arsenal – Udinese « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Ref Reviewer 04
The first game in Europe and we got ref Kevin Blom at the Emirates. How was he? Only one way to find out and that is to read further.
Oh and my personal highlight of the game was in minute 11.
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight | on |
| 1 | OTHER | Ekstrand | Chamakh | C | Flying tackle from behind | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | YELLOW | Ekstrand | C | It doesn’t matter if he got a the ball flying tackles like that are dangerous | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 2 | OTHER | Koscielny | Pinzi | C | Block | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | OTHER | Chamakh | ? | NC | Just fell to the floor | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | GOAL | Walcott | C | Ramsey was onside and great finish from Theo | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | OTHER | ? | Rosicky | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Ramsey | Armero | C | Push in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Sagna | Armero | NC | It was Armero who bent down while Sagna was hanging in the air | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | OTHER | Chamakh | Benatia | C | Little trip while crossing | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Gibs | Di Natale | C | No contact with the ball made | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Walcott | Neuton | C | Walcott chasing the defender and tackling from behind | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | YELLOW | Walcott | C | Deliberate foul and several attempts to bring the player down | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 11 | YELLOW | Neuton | C | My favourite moment. Neuton was asking a yellow card for Walcott and the ref gave him also a card. I would love to give double marks for this | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 17 | OTHER | Vermaelen | C | Vermaelen sticks out a toe and Szczesny takes the ball in his hands. No back pass correct decisions | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 18 | OFFSIDE | Walcott | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 24 | OTHER | Neuton | Sagna | NC | Going through the player is always foul | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 24 | OTHER | Ramsey | ? | NC | Little push in the back | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | OFFSIDE | Gervinho | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 30 | OTHER | Chamakh | ? | C | Push in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Gervinho | C | Handball | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 32 | OTHER | Benatia | Chamakh | C | Push in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Song | ? | C | Push in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 34 | OTHER | Chamakh | Benatia | C | Chamakh was holding the longest in this duel | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 35 | OTHER | Pinzi | Song | C | Holding | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Chamakh | C | Handball | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 38 | OTHER | Vermaelen | Di Natale | NC | Didn’t see anything wrong with this | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 43 | OTHER | Benatia | Chamakh | C | Bringing him down | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Gibbs | Isla | C | Wild tackle on the ankle | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | YELLOW | Gibbs | C | Came late and on the ankle | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Half time | 24 | 28 | 33 | |||||
| CORRECT | 82,76% | 84,85% | ||||||
| YELLOW | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| OTHER | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | |||||
| 8 | 8 | 100,00 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| Second half | ||||||||
| 45 | OTHER | ? | Gervinho | C | Advantage given | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Badu | Djourou | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 49 | OTHER | ? | Ramsey | C | No contact with Ramsey but because of the way the threw himself Ramsey had to jump high up and out of the way to not get caught. This is also a foul | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | OFFSIDE | Udinese | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 52 | OFFSIDE | Di Natale | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 52 | OTHER | Neuton | Walcott | NC | Clear push in the back not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Isla | Song | C | Push in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | OTHER | Koscielny | ? | C | Coming in from behind | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 60 | OTHER | Goal kick given | NC | Szczesny touched the ball and it went in a corner | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 67 | OTHER | Song | Di Natale | NC | The smile on Di Natale his face said it all. He got cought out in a dangerous situation and the ref fell for it. No contact and Song nicked the ball away from his feet | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 68 | OFFSIDE | Chamakh | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 70 | OTHER | Pinzi | Gervinho | C | No chance of playing the ball there | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 70 | YELLOW | Pinzi | C | Deliberate foul | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 73 | OTHER | Frimpong | Badu | C | Pushing | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 74 | OTHER | Frimpong | Di Natale | C | Pushing in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | OTHER | Armero | Sagna | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | YELLOW | Armero | C | Refusing to take the distance after the free kick | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 79 | PENALTY | Udinese 7 | Song | C | The usual pushing and shoving and Song was held for a moment but I could not see if this was still the case when going down. I can agree with the non call as it was not clear to see | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 83 | OTHER | ? | Walcott | NC | Walcott at full speed gets a push in the back but nothing give | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 85 | OTHER | Tackle on Gervinho but the defender played the ball so no penalty but the ref doesn’t give a corner | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 86 | OTHER | Danilo | Gervinho | C | Pushing in the back | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | OTHER | Chamakh | ? | C | Tackle foot forward on the ball but still a foul correct from the ref | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 88 | OTHER | Frimpong | ? | C | Push | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 93 | OTHER | Koscielny | Armero | C | Little kick against the foot | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2nd half score | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 19 | 23 | 28 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 79,17% | 82,14% | |||||
| YELLOW | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| GOAL | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| OTHER | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| 4 | 4 | 100,00 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | |||||
| TOTAL SCORE | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 43 | 51 | 61 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 81,13% | 83,61% | |||||
| YELLOW | 6 | 6 | 100,00 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| OTHER | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||||
| 12 | 12 | 100,00 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||||
| Correct calls | For Arsenal | 19 | 44,19% | |||||
| For Udinese | 24 | 55,81% | ||||||
| Total correct calls | 43 | |||||||
| Wrong calls | Against Arsenal | 7 | 70,00% | |||||
| Against Udinese | 3 | 30,00% | ||||||
| Total | 10 |
First of all this was not a home referee. He didn’t give in to the pressure of the home crowd. He gave more fouls to Udinese than to Arsenal. In the wrong calls he favoured Udinese.
But what impressed me most is the fact that this ref has been given a 100% score for the important decisions. This is not saying he made no mistakes because he clearly made mistakes. But when it came down to the most important decisions he made not mistakes. And I think this is for the first time in our ref reviewing history that I have a ref who has made no mistakes on the important decisions in a game.
I read that some supporters where not happy with the ref. But I must say that I as a ref was rather satisfied with his overall performance. I think because he didn’t give us 2 or 3 decisions near the end of the game that made some Gooners annoyed with him. The last impression stays the most as we say over here and I think this was the case.
I also liked the way he immediately gave a yellow card in the first minute. In the EPL many refs would even not have given the foul “he played the ball”-rubbish excuse. But he knew that at that moment in the game it was important to show to all the players that he would not accept such dangerous tackles. My second favourite moment of the refs game.
The favourite was when Neuton was fouled by Walcott and he waved with the imaginary card and got one himself. I wonder… if we would have had Blom in the games last season against Barcelona…how many Barcelona players would have stayed on the pitch those nights?