Untold Ref Review: Norwich 1 – Arsenal 2 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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By Ref Reviewer 03
Arsenal travelled to Norwich where Phil Dowd officiated, picking up a hard fought 2-1 away win.
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OTHER | Van Persie | Naughton | C | Fairly normal but perhaps used his arm | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OTHER | Koscielny | C | Push – advantage played | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | OTHER | Barnett | Gervinho | C | Holding | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | OTHER | Song | Hoolahan | C | Holding | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | OFFSIDE | RVP | C | Just off | 1 | 1 | |
| 15 | OTHER | Johnson | Arteta | C | Led with forearm | 1 | 1 |
| 15 | YELLOW | Johnson | NC | Should’ve been booked | 0 | 0 | |
| 16 | GOAL | Morison | C | Didn’t feel he pulled Mertesacker back, Mertesacker also held Morison’s hip – goal okay | 1 | 3 | |
| 18 | OTHER | Hoolahan | Arteta | C | Tug – advantage played | 1 | 1 |
| 27 | GOAL | RVP | C | Goal okay | 1 | 3 | |
| 30 | OTHER | Johnson | RVP | C | Hard trip – advantage played – he wouldn’t have made this challenge had he been booked earlier | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | OTHER | Naughton | Gervinho | NC | Stuck foot in as Gervinho tried to clear – not given | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | OFFSIDE | Barnett | C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 34 | OTHER | Johnson | Ramsey | C | Lunged in studs up to play ball at Ramsey’s feet | 1 | 1 |
| 34 | YELLOW | Johnson | NC | This was Morison’s 3rd dangerous challenge, also whined about the call – should’ve been booked by now | 0 | 0 | |
| 35 | OTHER | Johnson | Song | NC | Late to the ball, went through Song – not given | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | OTHER | RVP | Barnett | NC | Trip – not given, perhaps they thought Barnett had played the ball out | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | OTHER | Hoolahan | NC | Raised hand to protect face, blocked ball – not given | 0 | 0 | |
| 42 | OTHER | Koscielny | C | Raised hand to protect face, blocked ball – given this time, but ref needs to be consistent | 1 | 1 | |
| 45 | OTHER | Crofts | Santos | C | Pull | 1 | 1 |
| 45+1 | OTHER | Naughton | Ramsey | NC | Studs to boot after Ramsey had passed – ref missed it | 0 | 0 |
| Half time | 14 | 18 | |||||
| CORRECT | 66,67% | 66,67% | |||||
| YELLOW | 0 | 2 | 0,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | |||||
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| 4 | 6 | 66,67 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| Second half | |||||||
| 47 | OTHER | Arteta | Crofts | C | Clipped his heel | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Arteta | Johnson | NC | Slid in a bit dangerously – not given | 0 | 0 |
| 49 | OFFSIDE | RVP | C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 51 | OTHER | Vermaelen | Hoolahan | C | Slight check | 1 | 1 |
| 55 | OFFSIDE | Pilkington | C | Ref correctly allowed advantage to play, then Gervinho nearly scored when he rounded the keeper | 1 | 1 | |
| 58 | OTHER | Arteta | Tierney | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | OTHER | Martin | Ramsey | C | Trip – advantage played | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | GOAL | RVP | C | Goal okay | 1 | 3 | |
| 64 | OFFSIDE | Walcott | C | Assumed correct | 1 | 1 | |
| 66 | OTHER | Bennett | Gervinho | C | Sliding tackle from behind | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | YELLOW | Bennett | C | Dangerous tackle – yellow but could have been red | 1 | 2 | |
| 68 | OTHER | Crofts | RVP | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 70 | PENALTY | C | Unintentional handball by Mertesacker – correct non call | 1 | 3 | ||
| 70 | OTHER | Mertesacker | Holt | NC | Holt backed in, didn’t play ball – wrong call | 0 | 0 |
| 72 | OTHER | Ramsey | Crofts | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 74 | OTHER | Holt | Mertesacker | C | Trip – Good call | 1 | 1 |
| 75 | OTHER | Song | Crofts | C | Hanging on him | 1 | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Tierney | Walcott | C | Intentional trip from behind | 1 | 1 |
| 80 | YELLOW | Tierney | C | Deserved | 1 | 2 | |
| 83 | OTHER | Bennett | Koscielny | C | Grazed Koscielny’s leg with his boot – was on a yellow, Dowd showed him mercy | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | OTHER | Santos | Naughton | C | Foul | 1 | 1 |
| 86 | PENALTY | C | Holt backed into Mertesacker and threw himself to ground – good non call | 1 | 3 | ||
| 86 | YELLOW | Holt | C | Booked for simulation | 1 | 2 | |
| 90+2 | OTHER | Santos | Holt | C | Fell easily but there appeared to be a little shove | 1 | 1 |
| 90+3 | OTHER | Naughton | Arteta | C | Push | 1 | 1 |
| 90+4 | OTHER | C | Injury Time: 3 minutes seems right because of substitutions, cautions, plus 30 seconds extra for late substitution | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2nd half score | |||||||
| TOTAL | 24 | 33 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 92,31% | 91,67% | ||||
| YELLOW | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | 100,00 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | ||||
| TOTAL SCORE | |||||||
| TOTAL | 38 | 51 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 80,85% | 80,95% | ||||
| YELLOW | 3 | 5 | 60,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 4 | 4 | 100,00 | ||||
| 12 | 14 | 85,71 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 5 | 5 | 100,00 | ||||
| Correct calls | For Home | 14 | 37,84% | ||||
| For Away | 23 | 62,16% | |||||
| Total correct calls | 37 | ||||||
| Wrong calls | Against Home | 2 | 22,22% | ||||
| Against Away | 7 | 77,78% | |||||
| Total | 9 | ||||||
| Total fouls made by | Home | 18 | 60,00% | ||||
| Away | 12 | 40,00% | |||||
| Total | 30 |
In the first half, Dowd seemed reluctant to issue any cards at all and Norwich’s Bradley Johnson was lucky not to have picked up a booking or two. This lack of pulling out the cards hurt Dowd’s performance for the opening half and he only managed 66.67% for this period.
Norwich opened the scoring with a bit of a controversial goal by Morison. Per Mertesacker tried to protect a bouncing ball, but Morison sneaked in, won the ball and put it away past Szczesny. Some people, including Arsene Wenger, felt that Morison had fouled Mertesacker, and there did appear to be some minor contact. However, Morison didn’t seem to pull Mertesacker back. Our panel of 3 judges voted on the incident and decided that the ref made the correct decision (2 votes to 1).
The second half was a revelation for Phil Dowd who barely missed a call, getting 24 of 26 decisions correct. He made good decisions in allowing advantages, including the play from which Robin Van Persie scored his delightful chip from a through ball by Song.
Grant Holt entered the match in the 68th minute and immediately started making things difficult for Per Mertesacker. Instead of playing the ball, Holt would back into Mertesacker and then sometimes fall down. The ref fell for it in the 70th minute, giving Norwich a dangerous free kick, but most importantly the ref got it right in key decisions in the 74th and 86th minutes when Holt would deliberately run into Mertesacker to gain an advantage. The 86th minute incident was when Holt threw himself to ground in the penalty area. Fortunately this Phil Dowd was on top of his game and didn’t fall for it and booked Holt for his unsporting behaviour.
Wrong calls in the first half favoured Norwich by a 6 to 1 margin. The second half only had 2 wrong decisions, 1 going against each club.
Dowd’s performance in the first half was a substandard 67%. However, his second half performance was an outstanding 92%, pulling his total score to a rather good 81% of all decisions correct. (Note from the editor and getting 100% of the important decisions correct in the second half!!)