Untold Ref Review: Blackburn 0 – Man City 4 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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Background: Initially Untold Arsenal started to publish referee reviews of Arsenal matches, and through this we found some evidence of what appeared to be consistent bias by referees against Arsenal. The point was then made we would get a better overall picture of what is going on if we also analysed errors made by referees in non-Arsenal EPL games as well. And that’s what we do.
By Ref Reviewer 03
Manchester City travelled to Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers. The Ref was Phil Dowd.
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight |
| 2 | OTHER | Zabaleta | Hoilett | C | Foul – advantage played | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | OTHER | Goodwillie | Balotelli | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OTHER | Balotelli | Nzonzi | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Goodwillie | Kolarov | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | OTHER | Milner | C | Handball | 1 | 1 | |
| 11 | OTHER | Yakubu | Yaya | C | Yakubu pulled back Yaya a bit deep in City’s own half – Dowd waited 5 seconds to see if there was advantage given, then gave the call, probably should’ve given foul right away | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | OTHER | Yaya | Goodwillie | C | Foul | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Goodwillie | Hart | NC | Goodwillie played for the ball, Hart ran into him. I didn’t see it as a foul | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | OFFSIDE | Yakubu | C | Offside – advantage played | 1 | 1 | |
| 31 | OTHER | Zabaleta | Hoilett | C | A bit late and head to head contact on the defender – good call | 1 | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Nzonzi | Lescott | C | Had his arms over the City defender | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Hoilett | Johnson | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | OTHER | Lescott | Goodwillie | C | Foul | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Hoilett | Zabaleta | C | Shove | 1 | 1 |
| 45+1 | OTHER | Kolarov | Pedersen | C | Shove | 1 | 1 |
| Half time | 14 | 14 | |||||
| CORRECT | 93,33% | 93,33% | |||||
| YELLOW | 0 | 0 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | |||||
| GOAL | 0 | 0 | |||||
| OTHER | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| Second half | |||||||
| 47 | OTHER | Kompany | Nzonzi | C | Clash of heads – free kick to Blackburn – good call by the ref | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Balotelli | Goodwillie | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | Zabaleta | Pedersen | C | Zabaleta got a slight touch but made a hard trip | 1 | 1 |
| 56 | GOAL | C | Johnson – goal okay | 1 | 3 | ||
| 58 | OTHER | Givet | Milner | C | Rash challenge by givet, ref first waited to see if advantage developed | 1 | 1 |
| 58 | YELLOW | Givet | C | dangerous play | 1 | 2 | |
| 59 | OTHER | Nasri | NC | Handball – not given | 0 | 0 | |
| 59 | GOAL | NC | Balotelli scored from a Nasri cross after Nasri had handled the ball – shouldn’t have counted | 0 | 0 | ||
| 61 | OTHER | Zabaleta | Hoilett | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Nasri | Givet | C | Defender tripped deep in his own half – no advantage there, good call | 1 | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Kolarov | Formica | C | Foul | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | PENALTY | Zabaleta | c | Dive – no penalty | 1 | 3 | |
| 69 | YELLOW | Zabaleta | C | Simulation – dived in the penalty area | 1 | 2 | |
| 73 | GOAL | C | Nasri – goak okay | 1 | 3 | ||
| 83 | OTHER | Lowe | Silva | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 87 | GOAL | C | Savic – goal okay | 1 | 3 | ||
| 90+2 | OTHER | Zabaleta | Pedersen | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 2nd half score | |||||||
| TOTAL | 15 | 25 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 88,24% | 86,21% | ||||
| YELLOW | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| GOAL | 3 | 4 | 75,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 1 | 2 | 50,00 | ||||
| 7 | 9 | 77,78 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 0 | 0 | |||||
| TOTAL SCORE | |||||||
| TOTAL | 29 | 39 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 90,63% | 88,64% | ||||
| YELLOW | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| GOAL | 3 | 4 | 75,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 2 | 4 | 50,00 | ||||
| 8 | 11 | 72,73 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| Correct calls | For Blackburn | 16 | 55,17% | ||||
| For Man City | 13 | 44,83% | |||||
| Total correct calls | 29 | ||||||
| Wrong calls | Against Blackburn | 3 | 100,00% | ||||
| Against Man City | 0 | 0,00% | |||||
| Total | 3 |
It’s hard to believe this was the same Phil Dowd some of us are used to because not only did he look leaner and fitter, he made almost no mistakes in this match, scoring a very high 90.63%.
Unfortunately one of the mistakes he did make was costly. Manchester City had just taken the lead minutes earlier from a nicely curved shot by Adam Johnson and were threatening again. Blackburn were trying to get the ball out when Samir Nasri used his right arm to block the ball. Nasri then went straight forward, crossed the ball for Balotelli who poked the ball into the net at the near post, a goal that shouldn’t have counted.
Manchester City were always the better side in this match and were leading 1-0 at the time, but this second goal effectively took the fight out of the Blackburn side, and City ran out comfortable 4-0 winners.
It’s unfortunate for Dowd that that one call ruined a near perfect performance for him because it looked like he was really concentrating on putting in a good shift. It was almost as if he had been reading the reviews here and taken the advice to heart.
PS: The ref reviews are based on TV images. We are depending on what the images show and the given replays to base our reviews. If we cannot review some incidents we presume that the ruling on the field was correct.
If you are a ref and wish to join our team of reviewers just send a mail to walterbroeckx@hotmail.com
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