Untold Ref Review: Chelsea 3 – Arsenal 5 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Ref Reviewer 03
A crazy game at the Bridge. How was the ref doing or was he joining in the madness? In some way he was….
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight | on |
| 2 | OFFS | Lampard | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | OTH | Santos | Sturridge | C | Slight trip by Santos | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OFFS | C | Cole was correctly judged onside | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | OFFS | C | Ramires was initially in an offside position but ball ran to Sturridge who wasn’t – correct call | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 7 | OTH | Song | Sturridge | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | OTH | Ramsey | Ramires | C | Looked a little pushing/holding by both – ref favours the defender | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | OTH | C | Chesney gathers Lampard’s header just out of play – goal kick correct | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 11 | OTH | Arteta | Ramires | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | GOAL | C | Lampard – goal okay | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 18 | OTH | Lampard | Arteta | C | Shove | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | OTH | Walcott | Cole | NC | Push not given –Chelsealost possession | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | OTH | Gervinho | C | Handball – hard to tell, assumed correct | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 27 | OTH | Terry | Gervinho | NC | Slight tug on Gervinho’s shirt – not given. Slowed him down enough for Cole to dispossess him | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 28 | OFFS | Gervinho | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 30 | OTH | RVP | Cole | C | Holding | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | OFFS | Mata | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 36 | GOAL | C | RVP – goal okay, Robin was initially offside but got back onside after ball played to Gervinho | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 37 | OTH | Ramsey | Terry | C | Pulled on Terry’s shirt – gets a talking to, lucky not to be booked | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 39 | OFFS | Sturridge | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 39 | GOAL | C | Goal by Sturridge correctly disallowed for offside | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 40 | OTH | Mikel | Walcott | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | OTH | Torres | Mertesacker | C | Caught Mertesacker with an elbow | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | YEL | Torres | NC | Not overly violent but worth a yellow | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 42 | OTH | Gervinho | Mikel | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | GOAL | C | Terry – goal okay | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 45+1 | OTH | RVP | Mikel | C | Attempted trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Half time | 23 | 31 | 35 | |||||
| CORRECT | 88,46% | 88,57% | ||||||
| YELLOW | 0 | 1 | 0,00 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| GOAL | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | |||||
| OTHER | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | |||||
| 5 | 6 | 83,33 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 6 | 6 | 100,00 | |||||
| Second half | ||||||||
| 47 | OTH | Ramires | Gervinho | C | Foul from behind | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | OTH | Ramires | Arteta | NC | Caught Arteta in the boot/ankle – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 49 | GOAL | C | Santos – goal okay | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 50 | OTH | Szczesny | Cole | C | Rushed into Cole outside the penalty area taking him out of the play | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | RED | Szczesny | NC | Considering Arsenal’s net was empty and Chelsea had other players coming into the area, I felt this should have been red, not yellow | 0 | 2 | 3 | |
| 51 | OTH | Santos | Sturridge | NC | Pulled on his arm, then was dispossessed by Gervinho | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 | OTH | Ramires | Gervinho | NC | Won the ball but got the player too | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 | YEL | Ramires | NC | Dangerous play – worth a booking | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 55 | OTH | Cole | Walcott | C | Jumped into Theo – went for the player not the ball | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 55 | GOAL | C | Theo – goal okay | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 60 | OTH | RVP | Cole | C | Foul – came in a bit strong on Cole | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | OTH | Song | Lampard | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | OTH | Song | Mata | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | OTH | Malouda | Arteta | NC | Malouda kicked Arteta in the stomach | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 66 | YEL | Malouda | NC | Should have been booked | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 68 | OTH | Song | Ramires | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 69 | OTH | Ivanovic | Szczesny | NC | Ran into the keeper from free kick – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 70 | OTH | Malouda | Arteta | C | Shove | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 71 | OTH | Lampard | Walcott | NC | Ran into the back of Theo – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 72 | OTH | Bosingwa | Santos | NC | Push on the defender – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 77 | OTH | Cole | Walcott | NC | High boot – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 77 | OTH | Ivanovic | RVP | NC | Elbows RVP in back of the head while going for header – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 77 | RED | Ivanovic | RVP | NC | Should have been sent off | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 78 | OFFS | Torres | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 78 | YEL | RVP | C | RVP started a heated exchange of words with Ivanovic over his challenge a minute earlier. Ref booked both to diffuse the situation | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 78 | YEL | Ivanovic | C | See above | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| 80 | OTH | Lukaku | Santos | NC | Obstruction – shielded Santos from Meireles | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 80 | GOAL | NC | Mata scored directly after the obstruction – should have been disallowed | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 81 | OTH | Song | Lukaku | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 83 | OTH | Arteta | Meireles | C | Ran into Meireles | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 84 | OTH | NC | Throw-in wrongly awarded to Arsenal – ball came off Koscielny’s feet | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 85 | GOAL | RVP – goal okay | 1 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 87 | OTH | Rosicky | Ivanovic | NC | Rosicky bumped him off the ball with hip – not given | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 87 | OTH | Ramsey | Meireles | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 88 | OFFS | Terry | C | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 90 | OTH | Song | Cole | NC | I couldn’t see much wrong here – it looked like Cole tried to hold off Song with his arm and lost his balance | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 90 | YEL | Song | NC | Song picks up a yellow for what appeared not to be a foul | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 90+1 | OTH | Meireles | Rosicky | NC | High boot – not given, advantage signaled later | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90+1 | OTH | Meireles | Song | NC | Seconds later Meireles lying on the ground kicks at the ball in vain, kicks Song. Advantage signaled 4 seconds later, Arsenal would go on and score from the play | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90+1 | RED | Meireles | NC | Meireles probably should have been sent off for this – ref did give a yellow once play had stopped. | 0 | 2 | 3 | |
| 90+2 | GOAL | C | RVP – goal okay | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 90+3 | OTH | Torres | Koscielny | C | Swung wildly at the ball – caught Koscielny | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90+3 | YEL | Torres | NC | Should have been booked | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 90+3 | OTH | Bosingwa | Arteta | C | Trip | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 90+5 | OTH | C | Played +4:53 – the extra 53 seconds mostly due to lengthy goal celebration in injury time | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2nd half score | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 24 | 38 | 67 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 53,33% | 56,72% | |||||
| YELLOW | 3 | 7 | 42,86 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 3 | 0,00 | |||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| GOAL | 4 | 5 | 80,00 | |||||
| OTHER | 3 | 7 | 42,86 | |||||
| 10 | 22 | 45,45 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | |||||
| TOTAL SCORE | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 47 | 69 | 102 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 66,20% | 67,65% | |||||
| YELLOW | 3 | 8 | 37,50 | |||||
| RED | 0 | 3 | ||||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| GOAL | 8 | 9 | 88,89 | |||||
| OTHER | 4 | 8 | 50,00 | |||||
| 15 | 28 | 53,57 | ||||||
| OFFSIDE | 8 | 8 | 100,00 | |||||
| Correct calls | For Chelsea | 23 | 48,94% | |||||
| For Arsenal | 24 | 51,06% | ||||||
| Total correct calls | 47 | |||||||
| Wrong calls | Against Chelsea | 5 | 20,83% | |||||
| Against Arsenal | 19 | 79,17% | ||||||
| Total | 24 |
The first half passed without too much controversy and Marriner scored high marks.
The second half was another story. With Arsenal just having equalised with an Andre Santos goal making it 2-2, Szczesny raced out of his goal in an attempt to cut out a long pass to Ashley Cole. Cole got to the ball first and Szczesny in an attempt to block a possible shot, made contact with Cole’s knee taking him out of the play. Arsenal had some players rushing back into the area, but so did Chelsea. The ref gave a yellow, but I felt this should have been red, especially considering that Arsenal would have had no goalkeeper in the net, that Cole’s touch was soft and he would have got to the ball had he not been fouled, and that Chelsea had other players running into the area. On the following free kick, Szczesny made a great save. Arsenal had dodged a bullet.
Chelsea were no angels either. Malouda kicked Arteta in the stomach, Meireles kicked Song, Torres kicked Koscielny, Torres elbowed Mertesacker, and Ivanovic elbowed Van Persie. All of these incidents were worthy of yellow or red cards, only two of them were whistled as fouls and no cards were given against them.
While Marriner put in a good shift in the first half, his second half performance wasn’t up to scratch. In the first half, wrong decisions favoured Chelsea by a negligible 2 to 1, but in the 2nd half the wrong calls heavily favoured Chelsea by 17 to 4.
More specifically, we might look at wrong decisions up to the point when the game was being drawn or won by Chelsea as compared to after Arsenal had gone ahead by 3 goals to 2. Before Theo had put Arsenal on top in the 55th minute, Chelsea had received the benefit of wrong calls by a relatively slim margin of 5 to 3.
Now compare this to the favourable calls Chelsea received after they had fallen behind. From the 55th minute to the 95th minute, the wrong decisions favoured Chelsea by a difference of 14 to 3. One such non-call was the obstruction of Santos by Lukaku which enabled Mata to score Chelsea’s equaliser to make it 3-3.
But just when it looked like Chelsea might go on to win the match, a defensive error allowed Van Persie to run on to an errant pass, dribble past the keeper, and calmly slot home the winner. A fifth goal for Arsenal and a hat trick for Van Persie killed off the match for good.
Another interesting pair of numbers our ref reviewer gathered are these numbers
Official Fouls Chelsea: 8 fouls
Arsenal: 18 fouls
Fouls Adjusted for Wrong Calls: Chelsea: 20 fouls
Arsenal: 19 fouls