Untold Ref Review: West Bromwich Albion 2 – 3 Arsenal « 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 Michael Jones –
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Michael Jones (2012-05-13) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 1 | OTHER | Cox | Coquelin | NC | Didn’t see anything wrong | 1 |
| 1 | OTHER | C | Ref blew more to be able to stop play and to get the beach balls off the field | 2 | ||
| 2 | OTHER | Vermaelen | ? | NC | Held him not given, WBA lose the ball | 1 |
| 4 | GOAL | Arsenal | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 5 | OTHER | Long | Koscielny | C | Jumped in the back | 1 |
| 6 | OFFSIDE | WBA | C | 1 | ||
| 11 | OTHER | ? | Song | NC | Push not given | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | ? | RVP | NC | Came in late not given | 1 |
| 11 | OFFSIDE | WBA | NC | Long was offside | 1 | |
| 11 | GOAL | NC | It was offside | 3 | ||
| 13 | OTHER | Coquelin | Fortune | C | Trip | 1 |
| 14 | PENALTY | Jenkinson | C | Jenkinson ran with his back towards the ball that fell on his upper arm, correct non decision | 3 | |
| 14 | OTHER | Olsson | RVP | C | Push | 1 |
| 15 | GOAL | WBA | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 17 | OTHER | ? | Gervinho | NC | Trip not given | 1 |
| 19 | OTHER | Song | ? | C | Trip | 1 |
| 22 | OFFSIDE | Arsenal | NC | Picture clearly shows RVP was onside | 1 | |
| 23 | OTHER | Long | Vermaelen | C | Jumped in the back | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Long | Song | C | Trip | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Benayoun | McAuley | C | Trip | 1 |
| 26 | OFFSIDE | WBA | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 27 | OTHER | McAuley | RVP | C | Trip | 1 |
| 27 | YELLOW | McAuley | NC | Stopped a promising attack as RVP could have a shot in from 15 yards in front of goal | 2 | |
| 30 | GOAL | Arsenal | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 32 | OFFSIDE | Arsenal | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 34 | OTHER | Santos | Fortune | C | Trip | 1 |
| 34 | YELLOW | Santos | NC | stopped what could be a promising attack | 2 | |
| 35 | OTHER | Olsson | RVP | C | clear trip | 1 |
| 35 | YELLOW | Olsson | NC | no chance of playing the ball, cynical trip | 2 | |
| 39 | OTHER | RVP | McAuley | C | Trip | 1 |
| 39 | YELLOW | RVP | C | came late correct card | 2 | |
| 42 | OTHER | NC | bad position from the ref stops an Arsenal attack | 1 | ||
| 43 | OTHER | Olsson | RVP | C | another trip from the same defender on RVP | 1 |
| 43 | YELLOW | Olsson | NC | Surely a card for persistent fouling should be given now | 2 | |
| 46 | PENALTY | Coquelin | C | WBA appeal for handball but the arm was as close to the body as can be, correct non call | 3 | |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 46 | OTHER | C | Ref calles Song and Long over and tells them to keep calm after some shoving | 2 | ||
| 48 | OTHER | Jenkinson | Morrison | C | There was a little hand from Jenkinson but not much on but go with the ref on this one. I think the ref got fooled because of Morrison pulling a muscle and going down from that | 1 |
| 54 | GOAL | Arsenal | C | correct goal | 3 | |
| 57 | OTHER | Santos | Fortune | C | Trip | 1 |
| 62 | OTHER | Olsson | Koscielny | NC | jumped in the back not given | 1 |
| 65 | OTHER | Fortune | Koscielny | C | Push | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Benayoun | Dorrans | C | Trip | 1 |
| 68 | OTHER | Song | ? | NC | obstruction, advantage given | 1 |
| 69 | OTHER | Long | Song | C | Trip | 1 |
| 71 | OFFSIDE | WBA | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 72 | OTHER | Santos | C | Handball given | 1 | |
| 75 | OTHER | Santos | ? | C | advantage given after a trip | 1 |
| 83 | OTHER | Fortune | Song | C | Held him | 1 |
| 83 | OFFSIDE | Arsenal | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 87 | OTHER | Gibbs | Odemwingie | NC | Gibbs put his body between the ball and the striker who grabbed Gibbs and then went down | 1 |
| 90 | OTHER | NC | Five minutes extra time???? For what? | 1 | ||
| 93 | OFFSIDE | WBA | C | assumed correct | 1 | |
| 94 | OTHER | Ramsey | Odemwingie | C | Push | 1 |
| 94 | OTHER | Long | Gibbs | C | Trip | 1 |
As if the PGMOL got scared after we wrote that the appointments of the refs looks strange we suddenly got in our last two games a ref we didn’t have before. So it was Jones for the first time in the league this season.
And after the first 45 minutes we maybe could be happy we didn’t see him a lot around Arsenal. Way too many poor decisions. Many fouls missed and I wonder if he was distracted by all the beach balls on the pitch and that this caused him lose some concentration early on?
The equaliser from WBA was clear offside. No argument here. Another bad decision going against Arsenal. There was no problem with the other goals when it comes to the laws of the games.
Jones only gave one yellow card but and the one he gave was correctbecause Van Persie came in late with a typical strikers challenge. But some WBA players was given an absolute free pass to foul. Olsson made foul after foul on Van Persie and didn’t get booked. And despite a few of them being very deliberate and cynical. Mind you Santos also should have gotten a yellow for a deliberate foul. So very poor from this part of his job from the ref.
The second half he improved his game and he did better in the overall decision making.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Michael Jones (2012-05-13) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 3 | 4 | 75.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 5 | 60.00 |
| OTHER | 13 | 19 | 68.42 |
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 5 | 20.00 |
| TOTAL | 22 | 35 | 62.86 |
| WEIGHTED | 33 | 52 | 63.46 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 11 | 15 | 73.33 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 19 | 78.95 |
| WEIGHTED | 17 | 21 | 80.95 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 4 | 5 | 80.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 6 | 8 | 75.00 |
| OTHER | 24 | 34 | 70.59 |
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 1 | 5 | 20.00 |
| TOTAL | 37 | 54 | 68.52 |
| WEIGHTED | 50 | 73 | 68.49 |
So he upped his numbers a bit in the second half to save his match a bit. But I’m not that satisfied with his performance to be honest. Could have been better. Should have been better.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Michael Jones (2012-05-13) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | West Bromwich Albion | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 9 | 37.50 | 15 | 62.50 | 24 |
| Correct For Weighted | 12 | 33.33 | 24 | 66.67 | 36 |
| Incorrect Against | 2 | 16.67 | 10 | 83.33 | 12 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 2 | 11.76 | 15 | 88.24 | 17 |
| Fouls Commited | 13 | 65.00 | 7 | 35.00 | 20 |
| Fouls Penalised | 9 | 69.23 | 6 | 85.71 | 15 |
| Period 2 | West Bromwich Albion | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 8 | 50.00 | 8 | 50.00 | 16 |
| Correct For Weighted | 8 | 44.44 | 10 | 55.56 | 18 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 25.00 | 3 | 75.00 | 4 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 1 | 25.00 | 3 | 75.00 | 4 |
| Fouls Commited | 7 | 46.67 | 8 | 53.33 | 15 |
| Fouls Penalised | 6 | 85.71 | 7 | 87.50 | 13 |
| Totals | West Bromwich Albion | % | Arsenal | % | Total |
| Correct For | 17 | 42.50 | 23 | 57.50 | 40 |
| Correct For Weighted | 20 | 37.04 | 34 | 62.96 | 54 |
| Incorrect Against | 3 | 18.75 | 13 | 81.25 | 16 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 3 | 14.29 | 18 | 85.71 | 21 |
| Fouls Commited | 20 | 57.14 | 15 | 42.86 | 35 |
| Fouls Penalised | 15 | 75.00 | 13 | 86.67 | 28 |
The bias table shows a big number of calls going in favour of WBA in this game. A rarity for WBA in fact if I look at the other games of them so far.
So this is it. Final station. Final Arsenal game of the season. But not the final ref review. We still have a lot of games to catch up with so we still will need some time to come up with some final numbers. However if I can I will try to give you my impression of the Arsenal games in some posts in the next weeks. But in the mean time you will be able to enjoy the articles about how refs have done in the other games involving other teams.
But now I would like to thank my ref reviewers for the great job they have done (and still are doing behind the scenes), thank you Dogface for putting it in a nice table each time. And thank you readers for having your say on the reviews.