Untold Ref Review: Manchester United 2 – 0 Swansea City « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches.
Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have it. All the earlier ref reviews plus analyses of the errors made by refs, and articles relating to our campaign to have the body which organises referees activities reformed, plus an analysis of the background to this campaign, can be found on:
Although this is a site built for Arsenal supporters we welcome comments from fans of other teams, although we tend not to publish comments which are simply abusive or which are completely off topic.
Today’s referee is Chris Foy –
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Chris Foy (2012-05-06) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 1 | OTHER | Gower | Rooney | C | Trip | 1 |
| 2 | OTHER | Jones | ? | NC | Not given frontal tackle | 1 |
| 2 | OTHER | Scholes | ? | NC | Not given pulling and shoving | 1 |
| 17 | OTHER | ? | Rooney | C | advantage given after an attempted trip, field opening up but leading to nothing in the end | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | Dyer | Evra | C | assumed correct | 1 |
| 20 | OTHER | Rangel | Young | C | Trip | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Rangel | Young | C | give the benefit of the doubt to the ref | 1 |
| 22 | OTHER | Chicariot | Vorm | NC | moves to block the path of the keeper when a corner is taken | 1 |
| 22 | OTHER | Rooney | Williams | C | leaning | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | Scholes | Dyer | NC | not given trip | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | 4 | Chicarito | NC | not given push | 1 |
| 26 | OTHER | Carrick | Sinclair | C | pull | 1 |
| 28 | GOAL | MU | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 31 | OTHER | Jones | Taylor | C | Trip | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Smalling | Sigurdsson | C | Trip | 1 |
| 34 | OTHER | Young | Graham | NC | Not given frontal tackle | 1 |
| 34 | YELLOW | Young | NC | should have been a yellow as he threw himself and was dangerous | 2 | |
| 41 | GOAL | MU | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 44 | OTHER | C | ref warns Chicarito that he cannot impede the keeper when a corner is taken | 1 | ||
| 47 | OTHER | Scholes | Allen | C | assumed correct | 1 |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 46 | OTHER | Rooney | Allen | C | Trip | 1 |
| 52 | OTHER | Swansea | Chicarito | C | advantage given after a push, leading to a big chance | 1 |
| 54 | OTHER | Jones | Taylor | NC | Slid in frontal not given, advantage given but nothing really on this time | 1 |
| 56 | OTHER | Rooney | Britton | C | came in late from behind | 1 |
| 56 | YELLOW | Rooney | NC | That was a nasty foul, showing some frustration | 2 | |
| 62 | OTHER | Graham | Smalling | C | doubtful but no conclusive evidence the assistant and ref got it wrong | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Valencia | Sinclair | C | wild kick and Rooney is telling the ref a few things in an unfriendly manner it seems | 1 |
| 70 | OTHER | Smalling | Graham | C | some pulling before the ball is played in their direction | 1 |
| 71 | OTHER | Rooney | Britton | C | Another wild lunge from Rooney, Britton can jump over it luckily | 1 |
| 71 | YELLOW | Rooney | C | Ref had enough of Rooney I think for his shouting and swearing and still had the first bookable foul in mind | 2 | |
| 73 | OTHER | NC | Corner to Swansea not given | 1 | ||
| 74 | OTHER | Rooney | Vorm | C | attacked the keeper in the air | 1 |
| 78 | OTHER | Sigurdsson | Carrick | C | Trip | 1 |
| 91 | OTHER | Evra | Moore | C | Trip | 1 |
So we had Chris Foy at Old Trafford for the last home game from United this season. It looked as if he wanted to let Swansea know what they were waiting here from the first minutes. Two fouls from United in those opening minutes were blatantly ignored. After that a long period with no fouls. One could say that this is one way to restore order on your field but I’m not so sure this is how it is meant to be done.
First the ref ignored that Chicarito was there to impede the Swansea goalkeeper whenever United had to take a corner. But then he called Chicarito over at one corner. Great job I thought but then for the rest of the game he ignored it again.
Young escaped a yellow card for a dangerous frontal tackle and Graham escaped an injury by jumping high up in the air. Poor refereeing and as a result a rather low score in the first half.
Rooney wanted to have a yellow card in this game. He wanted speculation to stop that he has become as soft as a new born baby. He succeeded. Shouting at the ref, complaining at the ref. Two strong tackles and he should have been booked for the first challenge on Britton. After a while even Foy got enough of his behaviour and gave him a yellow card.
Because of Swansea playing fair and square the ref didn’t have to make many decisions and he managed to up his score in the second half.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-05-06) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 11 | 17 | 64.71 |
| YELLOW | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 13 | 20 | 65.00 |
| WEIGHTED | 17 | 25 | 68.00 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| OTHER | 10 | 12 | 83.33 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| TOTAL | 11 | 14 | 78.57 |
| WEIGHTED | 12 | 16 | 75.00 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 21 | 29 | 72.41 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 3 | 33.33 |
| TOTAL | 24 | 34 | 70.59 |
| WEIGHTED | 29 | 41 | 70.73 |
Leaving him with a just acceptable score on the overall decisions but a too low score on the important decisions.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-05-06) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Manchester United | % | Swansea City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 7 | 53.85 | 6 | 46.15 | 13 |
| Correct For Weighted | 11 | 64.71 | 6 | 35.29 | 17 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 14.29 | 6 | 85.71 | 7 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 1 | 12.50 | 7 | 87.50 | 8 |
| Fouls Commited | 11 | 64.71 | 6 | 35.29 | 17 |
| Fouls Penalised | 6 | 54.55 | 5 | 83.33 | 11 |
| Period 2 | Manchester United | % | Swansea City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 3 | 27.27 | 8 | 72.73 | 11 |
| Correct For Weighted | 3 | 25.00 | 9 | 75.00 | 12 |
| Incorrect Against | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 100.00 | 3 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 0 | 0.00 | 4 | 100.00 | 4 |
| Fouls Commited | 8 | 72.73 | 3 | 27.27 | 11 |
| Fouls Penalised | 7 | 87.50 | 3 | 100.00 | 10 |
| Totals | Manchester United | % | Swansea City | % | Total |
| Correct For | 10 | 41.67 | 14 | 58.33 | 24 |
| Correct For Weighted | 14 | 48.28 | 15 | 51.72 | 29 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 10.00 | 9 | 90.00 | 10 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 1 | 8.33 | 11 | 91.67 | 12 |
| Fouls Commited | 19 | 67.86 | 9 | 32.14 | 28 |
| Fouls Penalised | 13 | 68.42 | 8 | 88.89 | 21 |
The bias index looks very interesting. And strange. I can give you a number from our year survey that you will be able to read here in the next weeks about the number of wrong calls against Swansea. In the 6 games we have done them so far they have an average wrong calls against them of 2.3. This is the lowest of the league in fact. And now in this game they got 9 (nine) wrong calls against them! Is this a coincidence that this has happened at Old Trafford? Such a number way out of line with the rest of the season?
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