A referee review Martin City – Arsenal. An utterly unacceptable referee

113 Replies to “A referee review Martin City – Arsenal. An utterly unacceptable referee”

1. About City’s first goal it was and should have been offside. During HT PL TV had Andy Townsend and co analysed the decision and showed that it was offside prior to the corner. Townsend said we were “unlucky” that the goal was left to stand or something of that sort

2. These numbers are pathetic.. Havent seen such a one sided refereed match this season apart from the Taylor fiasco. I wonder did Arsene get an apology phone call since Riley loves doing them nowadays? Not that it would help anything since all the refs are acting on his will?

3. Thanks Walter. This is an utter disaster to be frank. Not that I didn’t expect it to happen sadly.. Atkinson was just setting us up for Chelsea where someone will attempt to deliver the coup-de-grace. Probably Mike Dean.

4. should have been 5-5 plus a penalty to us.

   De Ja Vu anyone??

5. pathetic whingers. well beaten (again), suck it up and move on.

6. Walter, this review is much appreciated, especially when we remember your home circumstances.

   Atkinson’s performance was one of the worst we have suffered (although Riley himself probably surpassed it). In a straight world Atkinson would be fired.

7. What an absolute disgrace; two disallowed goals, two incorrect offside decisions, a denied stonewall penalty, all going against us. The City had two goals that shouldn’t have stood; the first from a corner where one of their players had been in an offside position, and one from a free kick from a phantom foul. This is outrageous, and the media keeps silent about this. I can understand our players sticking two fingers at the city crowd or feeling despondent after this mugging. And if one takes a look at the next 3 referees we will face, it’ll only get worse than this, we are doomed.

8. Stuart,
   It should have been 3-5 plus a penalty, city scored from two goals from a corner and free kick which shouldn’t have been given.

9. tublu
   go fornicate with your sister, fucking inbred.

10. If you open both eyes you would see the ball for the supposed penalty hit zabaleta on the shoulder! The reality is that if negredo had put two one on one chances away, it’d would have been eight.

11. I enjoy reading this article, People don’t want Arsenal to win the league, please always write review of Arsenal matches i know it require alot please. Thanks Up Gunners

12. whats worse is that we have Dean, Dowd and Probert in our next 3 matches to ensure we are not top by new year..Utter disgrace

13. AL. If you can’t handle a defeat graciously then gas yourself and die like a typical southern fairy you cockney gobshite

14. What can b done … Something needs to b done. It’s been going on for too long … The referees r ruining arsenals games .

15. What amazes me is that people think we’re being paranoid. They think that there are no dodgy dealings with MILLIONS of pounds of oil money flying around in each match.
    Why not check if there is a direct connection between a richer teams and bad decisions?
    Second thoughts … why bother? Most sheeple just blame Wenger.

16. We’ll be down to ten men in the champions league next!

17. Blueshy
    That wasn’t a defeat, it was a mugging, and there’s nothing to be gracious about that. And I wasn’t talking to you btw, so why don’t you crawl back under your rock, like the northern son of a crack whore that you are.

18. Thanks Walter. Good to have the detailed analysis to confirm the ghastly truth.

19. Apologies to the site owners and all the decent bloggers on here, just couldn’t stand it. Think I’ll go away for a while so I don’t reduce this thread into a slanging match coz I’m not going to be able to keep quiet if someone bad mouths me when I’m hurting like this.

20. I would invite the city fans who come on here to offer some analysis instead of starting insulting.
    Like comment on the decisions that went against Arsenal like the two goals and not giving penalty.

    I know it is easy to brush away decisions going in favour of your team. But don’t expect any sympathy then when decisions go against you in the future.

    Funny how a bit (a lot in fact) of oil money turns City fans in to some sort of United fans…

21. Arsenal were deservedly beaten and the ref had nothing to do with it. If anything he benefited Arsenal rather than City.

    Negredo should have had a hat-trick in the 1st half, whilst Arsenal scored with their 1st shot on target which was a gift

22. Walter,

    Thanks for this, I knew I wasn’t seeing things. As you say we were mugged. I’ll forward you the notes I made earlier this afternoon. I think I picked up most of what you saw.

23. Thought it was just me who thought ref was biased, and if Jack gets booking how about Milner for his con of the ref over the penalty. Don`t believe Szczesney had his foot off the ground, but Milner “dragged” his foot to be tripped “after the ball was going out of play”
    WE all know we`ve been conned, but what can we do about it? Money doesnt talk it shouts

24. Thanks for your contribution Naz.

    May we ask you on what analysis you come to the conclusion that ‘he benefited Arsenal rather than City’???

25. stop whining!! man city could’ve had scored 8/9 goals..only if you had watched 2nd half..we were totally outplayed in every part of the pitch.Yes, the refree did make some questionable offside calls, but that wouldn’t be the reason we lost would it?…i believe the reason we lost was we played too open. Arsene should know when to play beautiful football and when to play defensive..i think his ego got a better of him..you dont just come to ethiad stadium with an intention to outscore the opponent..

26. Nesta, please keep your eyes wide shut.

    Just the two goals disallowed would make it 6-5.
    On a league that has been decided on goal difference just two seasons ago EACH AND EVERY decisions (and certainly on goals) is important and should be correct.

27. I also wonder what missing chances has to do with referee decisions. And if we talk about missing chances: Giroud missed 3 open chances in 5 minutes in this game. According to some counting I could say we scored 3 good goals, 2 disallowed goals, 1 penalty not given that is 6 goals for Arsenal and then the 3 missed chances, that is 9 goals for Arsenal.

    I know that last part is bollocks but so is bringing up City missing chances when we talk about referee decisions going against one team

28. i have 3 pictures{ three wrong offside, monreal, giroud, and bender } and they suport this article so how could i add them here

29. Thank you, Walter for doing the review. This match was definitely crying out for it. One thing I found absolutely shocking were some decisions, or should I say indecisions, were right in front of the linesman. Plain to see, but the linesman ignored it.

    As to that Ramsey throw-in incident, I also had first thought Atkinson gave a reversal for an improper throw-in. The commentators in my country also thought so. However, after looking at it again, I think the ref and the linesman were uncertain who the ball last came off of. This was even after Ramsey went to pick up the ball to throw it in, and the City player sprinted off in defence. There was no doubt in the players’ minds that it was an Arsenal throw.

    But Atkinson and his linesman slowly decided that they would give the throw-in to City. Ramsey threw the ball in quickly before Atkinson could signal that they were going to deny Arsenal again and give the ball to City, and so it looked like a reversal for an improper throw-in, but my take on it is that they were saying that it was not Arsenal’s ball to throw in.

    Either way you look at it, it was a bad call, and it stopped Arsenal from making a quick attack.

30. I’m pretty sure Bendtner was offside. 101goals link doesn’t show it from a proper angle.
    I have not seen Giroud disallowed goal, and unfortunately 101goals doesn’t have a picture for that either.
    So 2 incorrect goals decisions sounds doubtful.

31. Thanks very much for this Walter, I know you have other demands on your time at the moment but thanks for making a special exception….for a special exception. I thought that was one of the most biased performances I have ever seen, from all the officials.
    This site gets what 800000 hits a month, now many know that Atkinson is a Chelsea supporter , Riley is a Utd supporter and the fans are being cheated. Will be interested to see how the city fans on here react if they are on the end of such a performance from Atkinson say against Chelsea because they could easily be at the whim of Riley Barrett Scudamore et al as they decide whose money talks loudest while Utd are out of picture.
    Do you think this is s short term attempt to stop us in our tracks…or something that will last all season and a real attempt to destabilise?

32. Gianni, you mention the bogus foul throw stopping arsenal making a quick attack…..that seems to be one of the main methods of recent refs….stopping us making a quick attack…

33. Turn it in Walter ffs your thesis is immediately undermined by your view that Arsenal committed 3 fouls in 90 min despite having Flamini on the pitch. More bollocks comes in the form of recalculating the score based on what you perceive to be wrong decisions. For example you get the penalty (which YOU assume would be scored) the score would be 3-2 and what happened in the rest of the game becomes an unknown because the flow of the game changes. The only truths here are that the best team won on the day and that you had a few MARGINAL decisions go against you which makes you think if only, and adds to the pain. Get over it ffs xx

34. When u look at it at the end of the day city are trying to bye the league.They dont even deserve to be where they are.

35. I thought Atkinson was a disgrace and your article just rubberstamped it. The people at work think I am mad but even they couldn’t deny the blatant bias shown by Atkinson. If it’s true that Mike Dean had been appointed to the chelsea game that is just another disgraceful act by the PGMOL

36. What was interesting yesterday , that on the comments of an article in the daily mail which criticised arsenal very unfairly, there were a lot of neutral fans who noticed the complete bias and unprofessional performance of Martin Atkinson.the main media in this country just seemed to gloss over the referees performance which was a disgrace in itself

37. ok here is the Giroud “goal” http://prntscr.com/2bqb50
    Olivier is on the same line with the defender, so no offside
    but he “scores” after the ref has stopped the game and everybody on the pitch have stopped, so Giroud should have received a yellow card
    here is the Bendtner “goal” http://prntscr.com/2bqbzc
    that is a clear offside

    please get your facts straight, guys, and thanks for the otherwise pretty good review

    COYG

38. Wow! I am almost speechless but not surprised! From day 1, my suspicion for this season has been that the only thing that will stop Arsenal winning a 14th League title is the refereeing in this country!! 3 goals scored, 2 perfectly good goals disallowed, a penalty not given, Aguero being offside for City’s first goal, and all I see is ‘Man City thrash Arsenal’! No, Spurs got thrashed at Man City, Arsenal were screwed by the ref out of a win that would have almost shut the door on the title race!! Expecting much more of this for the run-in…

39. and here are the videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7WtptcDgAA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFek-knhQ0M

40. Like I’ve already said on another thread this was borderline criminal officiating from the entire crew and even worse than in Villa game. My only question to Wenger would be – where’s the outrage?
    “Referee had a poor game”..? That’s it? Surely Wenger can afford a fine from the FA for a bit more strongly worded opinion in order to protect his players in the future, can’t he?

    Does anyone think Ferguson or Mourinho would’ve taken it laying down? I don’t think so .
    Or is it because he’s been complaining on other occasions Arsenal failed to get a result when refs might’ve done a decent job?

    Something ,one or two posters on this site could be accused of as well.
    And no, I’m not telling anyone how they should feel about any particular referee performance( as it was suggested by someone before) least of all Wenger but merely stressing an importance of having a strategy for achieving your goals in the game of high stakes of the PL . In this case a favorable or at least even level of treatment by PGMOL . Complaining about every or almost every ref, domestic or European , is a bad or no strategy at all.

    I gave an example of Howard Webb ,who I thought had a decent game and by decent I meant he got all important decisions right ,yet he got about the same level of negative reaction from Wenger as Martin Atkinson and his crew, who missed a stone called penalty(if there’s such a thing), disallowed two legal goals,got two or three other off-side calls wrong and that’s just to name a few.

    Talk about not knowing how to pick your fights !

    About Milner and his penalty.
    Milner is considered to be another one of those so called” honest” British players who unlike those cheating foreigners would never take a dive to win a penalty , when in fact he is just another Ashley Young – lite and he’s done it twice in one week.
    His penalty against Bayern was a dive and the one against Arsenal was too , although I don’t blame
    Lary, Curly and Mo ….oops, I mean Atkinson and his crew for not getting this one right.
    I suspect had he played for Arsenal and his name was Milnoure , the British pundits might have an issue with him.

41. Come on mr Gazidis . Webb and Atkinson with their respective performances followed by Dean Dowd Probert. You know what’s going on, we know what’s going on, we know you know what’s going on and we know you and your colleagues check in on these blogs. Please do something about this refshite , quietly and behind closed doors if need be, but please do it. Afterall, you are from a family that has stood up to worse.

42. I suspect that even had Arsenal been given the two ‘offside’ goals and converted the Zabaleta penalty, they would have found a way to let in seven, so poor was their positioning on the day, and so easily did City seem to be able to turn their attack on as needed.

    That said, it’s easy to suggest that poor officiating should not affect the players, but, really, how could it not? Would anyone be at the top of his game when he feels that every call is going to go against him? I think not.

    I’d be very, very interested to see a similar review from a City-supporting referee, or, at least, from a completely neutral one. Unfortunately, most people will disregard this review, coming as it does from an avowed Arsenal supporter. Thank you, in any case, for shedding light on the problem.

43. Tom, completely agree with you on Milner. Do not think the Webb performance was in Atkinsons league by any means, but his treatment of fouls, or lack of it did not look even handed to me. Atkinson and co performance was bad even for the PGMOL standard. But it seems we have to live with this type of refereeing week in week out, as I am sure you will discover with the uncanny accuracy of many of the previews, but will leave you to judge that for yourself. I agree with you on fergie and Jose not taking refereeing of such standard….but then again, they rarely, if ever have to face this. Seems for some reason they have more clout than the likes of wenger, certainly with the media. Maybe wenger knows speaking out is a losing battle so he is going to work by some other means, who knows. I also wonder why wenger does not make more of this, but I also know when he does, the team are sent their punishment, as they were when we successfully contested the Eduardo punishment. We may have our theories but none can say definitively why this happens so regularly to Arsenal as opposed to others, but we see with our own eyes….then there are the ref previews , the stats, and you see Atkinsons record for Chelsea, certain refs for Utd, or Deans for Arsenal, and their corrupt little game is shown for what it is. And those refs previews, just have to mention them twice!

44. The World is concerned about match fixing and we see a performance like that. The game was a fantastic world-wide spectacle and they saw bias towards Man City on a colossal scale. The question is- after that- how can any of us, all of us, tell if we have witnessed match-fixing or not? If we see near zero bias and even-handedness we know the game is worth a candle. But after that epic millions will be scratching their heads– not just at the ridiculous audacity of the clown in charge but at the potential for bringing the English Premier League game into total disrepute- rendering the home of football a laughing stock and leave them wondering if the game here is as bent as a fiddlers elbow.

    And how the stuffed shirts on the Tele and in the Media can skip over a disgrace that is unbelieveable until- that is- you realise they must be part of the sordid affair too.

45. Walter,
    A true gift your work: your J’Accuse vs Refshite. Riley and PGMOL are busy delivering the goods; which explains their longevity.

    “How the stuffed shirts on the Tele and in the Media can skip over a disgrace that is unbelievable until- that is- you realise they must be part of the sordid affair too.”
    Doanythingformoney,
    Bravo! Selfsame gravy train. They are convinced that because they put their lens filter on everything that no one else can see through to the other side.

    Mandy,
    I think it’s high time for the fans to bring an ocean of red cards to the Ems and hold them up in unison every time Atkinson, The Dean and Probert and the rest pull another outrageous stunt. It’s time for the fans as well as, yes, once again management to pull back the curtain. You’ve long seen Gazidis ascension as a potential counterweight to the refshit. Apparently not. There’s nothing to lose with a massive protest on all fronts, because we’ll lose if we don’t.

    Perhaps it has dawned on Ozil, just as it was clear to Jack from his up thine salute – imo, two sides of the same coin of disgust their justified reactions. And that cunt Nasri (and perhaps their management man P. Veira) know exactly what went down, them having had the full-bore Arsenal experience.

    Welcome to the rest of your newly charmed life, Don Pellegrini.

46. Walter,
    There’s a Ministry of Sport inquiry into the 8 arrested here for match fixing a week or so ago. My apologies if I missed it (really busy, alas), but it’s high time UA lasered in on this one.

47. Thanks Walter! In the first minutes the tone of the game was set by the ref. He was favorable to Man City and against Arsenal. I think Man City also got away with lots of small fouls – for example a shove in the back, a grab of a shirt or a body check. And it was clear that Arsenal was going to be punished for similar actions. So this allowed Man City to press more closely and forced Arsenal to give more space. This also allowed more time for Man City to be creative.

    I think another factor was the space between games. As Arsenal had one day less between games they were put at a disadvantage. The research clearly indicate that one team playing with three or more days of rest against a team with only two days rest gives an advantage to the more rested team. This is stated not to whine but the FA needs to construct the fixture list in a way that is fair for all teams.

    Actually I think Arsenal did very well given all the disadvantages (less rest, clear bias from officials that affected big decisions and the run a play). I don’t think many teams could over come those two factors. I think some of the poor passing and poor decisions that Arsenal players made in the game were reflective of the fatigue factor.

48. My beloved Gooners….please don’t feed the trolls like Blushite and Tublube as they are basically adolescents looking to get a high by posting on UA….their desperate need for 15 seconds of ¨fame¨ and their feeble efforts to bait us deserve our disdain, our disinterest and our dignified silence. They will disappear into cyberspace as soon as we refuse to respond. Lets deal with intelligent bloggers (the vast majority on UA) and rubbish the rest into the trashbin where they usually inhabit.

49. I agree that referee including linesmen made many mistakes against Arsenal. Who knows what were in the mind of the referee. With so many mistakes, it does look like the referee was biased. Unfortunately it was not going to be a fair game. Admittedly Arsenal did play poorly. If we were more accurate in passing and clinical in scoring, we could have won. It is academic now, we need to learn from the mistakes and bounce back with a good show against Chelsea.

50. Just me thinking aloud – life sucks !

    http://unitedcombatsports.com/jokes-funny-855.jpg

51. Walter, thanks so much.

    I was getting ready for bed a few hours ago. I was still very much in a funk over Sunday’s shenanigans. The refs were blatantly biased, and as always, nobody was saying anything about the impact it had on the game, and the implications of, for example, the montage of City fouls shown on MOTD2 which were ‘hailed’ as “Arsenal lose the ball”.

    Even news of the AVB sacking didn’t make me feel better. One comment on another positive site, allowed me to feel different. I’ll paste it:
    ArsenalAndrew
    December 16, 2013 at 8:03 pm
    Well, despite playing our third game in under 6 days;

    Despite normally reliable players having a shared off day quite possibly as a result of that manic schedule;

    Despite the worst refereeing and the worst linesmaning performance since Dowd’s Newcastle Special;

    Despite two incorrectly ruled out AFC goals;

    Despite the stonewallest penalty shout since stone walls were first erected, not being given;

    Despite Milner, already 5 goals to the good doing the old trailing leg routine to win a penalty with a manoeuvre that would have seen Eduardo and all his family crucified;

    Despite incorrect corner kicks and throw-ins repeatedly awarded to Team Manchester …

    Arsenal STILL scored three goals at the You’vebinhad Stadium, a place where only 15 goals had been conceded in the last fifteen games.

    THAT is the real story behind the headlines.

    And that is one more reason why Bayern Munich will tread warily in the next round of the CL.

    And why my disdain of those STILL out to knock our great club continues to grow, week in, week out.

    The above comment (which was followed by a A Sugar radio link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01nj6n5

    and a sp*rs hip hop song link (which I’ll link to on my next post), took me out of my funk. I wrote something that I’ll copy and paste in the next post, too.

    I’m now elated to have seen this ref report because that’s what I saw going on. I realise that the ref reports have stopped me going loopy. After all, I’d be very fortunate to understand what’s going on if I only watched MOTD.

    Thank you Walter.

52. Is it a yellow if you stop a counter attack by a foul in the opposition half or in your half ? Because that is what everton did in the previous league match, city did last match and napoli did at their place, stop an arsenal counter attack with a foul in arsenal half . I don’t think any of it got a straight yellow. They were only accumulated yellows like its a normal fowl.
    So the template to defeat arsenal is simple, as soon as you loose the ball kick the arsenal player and get a foul, don’t think about the card, the ref wont give you one because he doesn’t know the rules.

53. Hip Hop Cock – from our friends:
    https://vimeo.com/82053417

    Prior to spotting this ref report, I’d written something on another site, and I’d like to paste it here:

    PG comments:
    “Where are you miserable bastards?”

    I answer (about 14 hours after first reading that):

    I’m ****ing HERE, you ****!

    Why oh why oh why oh why… can’t I just stew in my own ****ing misery?
    I’ve a RIGHT to me ****ing grumpy. Did you watch the same match as me? Did you see what was going on? Did you think there was anything suspicious about the Bayern/City game,its final score, and the way both teams played???? (Extra question marks for added gravitas, or summat)?!? Have you heard the way they’ve been talking about us – for years?

    Did you see a compilation on MOTD2, where they showed how Arsenal were fouled off the ball, over and over again, whilst commentators say “Wilshere lost the ball”, etc – presumably to demonstrate that this is how it’s gonna be – just like its been for so many times over the past 8 years? (If you still have the program – watch that bit again in slow motion). The ****ing GLEE of Danny Murphy. He really came into his own (mouth). Previously he tried to play it with a straight (crooked) bat, but on Sunday, he positively (negatively), GLOWED!

    Mind you, I’ve never noticed Mark Chapman (main MOTD2 presenter) show such closed body language – as he sat well back in his chair – arms firmly folded around himself – as he “invited” the plundits to tell everyone how Arsenal are soooooo shit. Still, he’s a lot better than Colin Murray with his ??? voice and full-on sneering, surely? And Chiles, and Linekar, and……

    So yeah, I’m a miserable bastard.

    Be that as it may (as it were), it so happens I saw this article many hours ago. I was wanting to write something nice about the previous post by Demetri Loizou. Lovely piece, Demetri. And then I got a phone call. AVB’s been sacked.

    Yes, yes, I know – Every ****ing cloud, blah de ****ing blah! NO, actually. THAT news didn’t cheer me up. **** no. I wanted a full season of UTTER ****ing misery for dem fools – AND for the journos and assorted ***tbuckets who declared, indefatigably and undoubtedly, that beyond all reasonable doubt, in this day of our Lord and as God is my witness, and “I’ll eat my hat” if…… Spurs don’t win the league/eurodisney/finish above Arsenal…blahdy ****ing blah. You’ve heard it, no?

    Now just escape briefly into fantasy land, and imagine AVB staying till the end of the season, and take some time to think about where Spurs might be.
    So, don’t you think the outcome could’ve been more mirth-full? (If you disagree, you’re a ****!)

    Having said that (or ‘be that as it may²’), I did get just a little rise out of the news.
    Naturally, it wasn’t enough for me to take the “miserable bastards” bait, and come all over this page with my withering exhalations. (What the **** are THEY?)

    The fact is: ArsenalAndrew@ 8:03 pm’s post ****ed me out of my funk. (there’s a disco song about that – Get the funk out my face, or summat. You tube if you wanna).
    It was AA to the rescue.
    (You **** off too).

    By the time I’d listened to S’lordy Sugar, and then watched the Spurs hip hop (haven’t they got any black *supporters?), I was ****ing compelled, nay forced, to dribble onto the screen.

    So thanks all, especially those who’ve posted since about 8 pm. I’m sure the comments before are all ****ing spiffing, but as I haven’t even read the article again since about 11 am, I can’t be ***ing bothered.

    Up yours!

    *At least theirs isn’t entirely a closed supportership given the inclusion of sheep shaggers at their training ground. Very ****ing inclusive.

54. First off, I would like to say that I respect the commitment to the cause despite the situation at home Walter. I’ve been busy with exams, but I saw that looking back through the archives. Best of luck to you and your family.

    On to the match itself. It’s hard to blame the referee when we really displayed a poor attitude and lack of focus. We gave up such silly goals, at such silly times. We wasted good chances to score when they came our way. We generally looked scared at the start of the match, and that fear translated to a poor performance. At least that was my view.

    I saw the horrible refereeing as it happened. Knew it was happening. The players knew it too, and that can contribute to a bad performance too as the desperation grows, but that still was poor from us in my view.

    The referee though, has no excuse whatsoever either. Or should I say, the officials. Those offside decisions were ridiculous in their regularity. Negredo was offside (I saw it post-match) for the corner for the first goal. Nacho and Theo were in attacking positions wrongly given offside. Bendtner’s goal. Giroud’s goal (although City players stopped so it might not have been a goal) the non-penalty award. and the numerous fouls given against us, such as foul on Wilshere not given which led to a Toure shot for them.

    On top of that, the scheduling of the game. A day’s rest less, and as one commentor has said on the blog before, we have a run of such fixtures 4 times this season, and this also seems to coincide with the period when there’s likely to be FA cup and CL games in between. ManU away just after Dortmund away. City away just after Napoli away. and now in Feb and March something similar. Whatever, but it’s likely to be another manipulation. Which is why Wenger asked for an ‘Ethics Commitee’

    Despite our poor performance, and the ref, I didn’t think the game was so one-sided in ManCity’s favour. We made it look that way through the stupid goals we conceded, and the referee made it look that way by denying us the opportunity to even apply pressure on City. And now I see we have Mike Dean against Chelsea. At least we should be well rested for that one. Hopefully that will be enough, because we need a win. More for belief than anything else.

55. Oh my word. You lose 6-3 and blame the ref! You were outplayed I’m afraid. If you had have scored 5 goals city would probably have scored 9. You need to be a bit more gracious in defeat in this case I’m afraid.

56. John,
    Is being outplayed (letting in 3 at home is not that good in fact) an excuse for a ref to mess it up? If you would have read this article properly you would have read that I said that we gave away 3 goals ourselves and that it cost us.

    Like I said before it only takes some hundreds millions of oil $$$$$$ to make City fans forget and become like United fans.

    Ignoring bad refereeing is easy when you win

57. John what have you got shit in your eyes ?
    It would have been hard for City to score 9 when they only had 1 other shot on target.
    You can’t honestly tell me that you watched the game and thought the refereeing wasn’t biased or at worst corrupt. It happens nearly every game. Against Everton I lost count of how many Arsenal attacks got speed by rotational fouling yet the first card was in the 42nd minute.
    PGMOL = CORRUPTION AT HIGHEST LEVEL

58. John also Arsenal had better chances but the referee and his assistants decided to stop everything we were doing. . Can you honestly say that man city had a good defence on Saturday. I don’t think so just a referee in their pocket all game !

59. The FA have received the submission of observations from Martin City-son with regards to Wilshere showing middle finger and probably will be banned for the next match, while FA’s so-called retrospective punishment will certainly overlook the dangerous tackle on Giroud by Yaya Toure. It will also not suspend the linesmen by superfluous arguments.

60. Just came back from a trip, so was only able to watch the recording tonight. From putting stills on the match, here’s what I can tell:

    13′ – Negredo was offside – his foot was ahead of Kos by a few inches.
    55′ – Toure with the studs on Giroud’s shin, from the side, so the protectors were only doing a marginal job – I’m not a ref but I’ve seen red cards given for less.
    67′ – Giroud was level with Demichelis. He was leaning more towards MC’s goal, but shoulders don’t count, if I remember well – the rule says that in order to be deemed offside, the attacker must be closer to the goal line than the second-last opponent with any part that can lawfully touch the ball. I stand corrected if I’m wrong:) Also, you can see from the photo that the assistant is ahead of the play, so he sees Giroud offside even if he isn’t. The defenders have arguably let themselves off the hook, so I guess it’s fair to only count the offside.
    89′ – Bendtner’s foot is level with Demichelis’. It’s true that the motion takes NB forward, but the synchronization between the “three” is perfect. Too perfect.

    That being said, it was pretty obvious that one day of rest made a lot of difference in MC’s favor. Only Gnabry was running free when he came on. Besides, the commentators were mentioning that 8 of their starting 11 hadn’t played with Bayern. That wage bill must go somewhere. It’s still admirable that Theo managed to score two (and could have had a hat-trick) even if not fully fit, so the goal machine is still there, only in a different form. Oh, and I can’t wait to see Terry biting the dust again:)

61. For the person asking that we are mad as we say that Arsenal made only 3 fouls.
    Atkinson gave 6 fouls against Arsenal in total. 3 of those decisions were wrong. One imaginary foul on Aguero, one foul from Giroud given but he should have given a foul against Kompany who has blocking Wilshere, and one imaginary foul/dive from Nasri.

    So yes that is from the official 6 fouls given, 3 wrong ones.

    For your interest: Offical count Manchester City fouls was 12. As we reviewed the match we saw 18 fouls in total.

    Put it in other words: Atkinson invented 50% of the Arsenal fouls and waved away 33% of the Manchester City fouls.

62. Interesting analysis Walter, thanks for taking the time to do it all things considered.
    Have you passed the material onto the club itself?-although no doubt they keep an eye on things at Untold.
    Still think the game would have been very different if it had been played late on Sunday/ Monday night.
    I get the feeling the lads will be ready for Chelsea…
    COYG!
    Amen

63. Slightly OT: If anyone’s interested an investigative journo Declan Hill has just published a new book about match fixing “The Insider’s Guide to Match Fixing”, available on amazon (kindle format too), about research a group at Oxford Uni did into corruption in football in different nations including gambling cartels, organized crime, etc.

    Only just started reading it but it makes football look more like a pantomime than a competitive sport.

    If English football has got as bad as some of the things talked about in the book regarding other leagues… god help us.

    I think I’ll be watching the Darts this december rather than the footie.

64. Just like to say I havn’t seen one of the ‘stop whingeing’ mob come up with any stats to counter Walters detailed analysis.

    You have to ask yourself, does this mean they are happy with this standard of refereeing or are they just happy with it because it’s against Arsenal?

    Sad thing is until the media are outraged with it nothing will happen but the sad truth is the complete opposite is true because they actually love it.

    Compare there reaction to the diabolical refereeing decisions against us highlighted in both the Villa and City games, to the media outrage over one ‘persieved’ wrong decision against United in the CL last year. You know the one, the red card for the high boot.

    They wanted the ref hung drawn and quartered. They went on about it for days. How it robbed Fergie of his rightful CL final.

    Look at the reaction in the media over the incident at Sunderland when the ref stopped Sunderland taking a quick free kick to book a player. An action the rules obliged him to do. Yet the media is more outrage over this ‘correct’ decision than it is for all Saturdays miscarriages added together.

    Screwing Arsenal has become a National pastime and I’m affraid the more we point it out the more they like it.

    I’ve likened our predicament as fans to that of a sane person who has been locked in an asylum incorrectly.

    The more you protest, the louder you shout, the more they ignore you. The more frustrated you get, the more you protest, the more you yell. They dismiss you even more out of hand. The more frustrated you get, eventualy, you’re standing on the roof screaming like a lunatic.

    And thats it I’m afraid lads and lasses. As much as we see the miscarriages week in week out. As much as the likes of Walter proffessionaly anylise the matches and show by way of facts and figures how right we are to be outrageded.

    The more they laugh, the more they mock because basicaly, we are the guy on the roof.

65. Kenneth,
    Yesterday I posted a link on twitter and I got a notification that some people favorited my tweet. One of them works for Arsenal.
    They know… they know… but I think they can only act behind the scenes.

66. It seems straightforward this season.

    How about an example (no names, this is off the top of my head):

    Team A1 weren’t doing as well as expected, change in admin etc. Used to have a deal with B1, B2, B3 etc that they’d roll over v’s A1 and a hefty bung that they’d not take cash to lose v’s A2, A3, A4 and A5.

    Change of admin means deals are gone as new boys involved now and not known if they’re ‘trustworthy’ by the other fixers.

    A1 were used to results going their way as arranged, they got lazy and complacent and it showed on the pitch with the new admin and the deals all gone.

    It’s changed. Admin A1 decides to go and do it ‘proper’ and things smooth out for team A1.

    A2 + A3: use bent refs, deals with other teams etc, which one does best depends on who has the shrewdest deals and which deals actually yielded results after 90 mins.

    A4 & A5: not in on ‘the system’, get screwed over by refs as much as possible (by the highest bidder) in order to pull them down (until they get in line and play ‘proper’ as it were and start paying or offering ‘favors’ to buy results in the accepted way).

    Many leagues seem to work like this, I’d be amazed if corruption didn’t affect English football too.

67. @Walter

    Besides publishing here what do you do with this information? Who are you trying to influence beyond the readers of this blog and how?

    As for the game…well Untold did publish an article before the game indicating that this may happen. Personally I would have left it well alone after the game because you’ll just get accused of being a sore loser

68. interesting Seedy J

69. I think the only difference between the bias in this game and that 50th game at ot is there was less thuggery this time around.

70. Walter,
    It would be great if one of the non arsenal supporting ref reviews ‘volunteered’ to re-assess this game just to settle the argument. If one of hem were a Ma City fan, ths would also be very interesting.

71. Seedy J
    You’re right, it’s definitely corrupt, but here in England they tend to want to go after low level individuals only. If players like Gattusso are being alleged to have fixed matches only as recently as 2011 I can’t see how none of that could have not affected our game here at the highest level. After all he played for in the UK did’didn’t he(no suggestion he fixed matches in his time here).

72. Gooner S,
    we have tried to shout as loud as we could that the emperor had not cloths on. But nobody was interested in what the little boy was shouting (not THAT little boy of course 😉 ) and they all said what great cloths the naked emperor was wearing.

    Thing is that the ‘winning’ part is not interested in this until…they suffer. We have seen it in the last seasons when we exposed teams being wrongly handled. Even City fans coming on here to thank me (and the reviewers of course) for exposing blatant referee decisions going against their team.

    But most of them are not interested in fair football. Most of them only want their team to win…no matter how. I still feel uncomfortable about our first goal against WBA last season when Santi went down without really being touched and got a penalty. That win still is something that is being overshadowed by that incident. I hate it to win with some controversial decision. Mind you I wouldn’t mind now if we beat City at the Emirates with 4 offside goals 😉
    Karma would be nice then. And maybe some who came on here will then come back and scream at the injustice they suffered.

73. @AL

    I don’t know about only going after low level individuals. Declan Hill’s investigation showed that corrupting Team Officials was the most effective way of fixing a game, Players second and Refs third.

    The Italian clubs seem to work in a kind of ‘Favour Bank’, they get favours from refs or other clubs, they do favours on return, like where Luciano Moggi got a good ref for a Champions League match v’s Ajax and gave the guy in UEFA who picks refs for CL games a very rare four-door Mazzerati in return.

    If a club agrees to lose a game then they can call in a favour if they need cash, points, etc.

    There’s a lot of trust needed in this system and if there’s someone in the league who is outside the system and won’t join it then it could be risky.

    Can you think of any managers who are disliked by refs, FA or Premier League? Past or present? I suspect that includes a disproportionately large number of honest guys compared to the current situation in the EPL.

74. Have heard of the Italian 3 for 3.
    Mazzerati – sounds lucrative out there

75. Hmmmm, a rare Mazzerati sounds real nice…, do we know what our refs drive?

76. beats a rare Materazzi I guess

77. What the refs drive, what the commentators smoke, I wonder…

    If I remember correctly, I heard rumors (a while ago, not sure where) that a premier league ref accepted a big holiday on a villa in the Caribbean belonging to a Team Official for ‘doing a favor’. No idea who, or what team. Just a rumor.

78. I believe in Sweden, there is software and a website available, whereby any member of the population can log in and note the time and location of any member of parliament. Such a system could be used to track officials. I believe the software is open source.

79. Walter
    Thanks and please keep up the good work
    When you think that some lower league players pick-up £70 grand for a booking, just think whats available for a premiership and that isn`t to metion officials

80. jack has been charged by the fa its a total *&^ing travesty.
    wasn’t even gonna watch the match but after that I did.
    I won’t comment on each and everything that annoyed me as walter kindly wrote an article about it and I belive actually manged not to swear or do a chelsa fans impression death threats etc .
    the assults not to mention the frustration the young man must have felt I would think would make us all lose are rag

81. At the end of the day it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you pay the game.

    Cash decides the title before a ball is kicked.

82. SeedyJ,
    You said: “but how you PAY the game.” strange that there is only one letter difference on how it should be “but how you pLay the game.”

    I think you hit the nail on the head

83. Walter,
    It seemed highly appropriate bearing in mind the amounts of cash going through the game nowadays.

    Sky’s current contract cost over £2.8 bn, I shudder to think how much goes in through advertising and sponsorship. Lots of vested interests in the status quo.

84. SeedyJ – Halsey accepted a luxury holiday from José Mourinho. Maybe that is what you were thinking of.

85. SeedyJ – Halsey accepted a luxury holiday from José Mourinho. Maybe that is what you were thinking of.

86. @Gianni Dioro
    Ah yes, that must be it.

    Amazing how there’s not a huge stink over that. Too many vested interests in the media keeping it all quiet I guess.

87. Come on Walt 77 hours later you and your fucked up followers are still at it. ‘NEGREDOS FOOT WAS INCHES IN FRONT OF KOSCIELNYS WAAAAARGGH !!!’ Come on Gooners these were marginal decisions that went against you, not examples of a major conspiracy. One final point before you bleat on about petrodollars and buying success check out your own murky history, Henry Norris and how you bought your promotion to the top division.

88. The beast,
    would you care to take the trouble to read the review. I counted this as a correct decision in fact!

    But the Beast how come that every marginal decision went against us? That is the question we like to see answered.

    And about Norris…LOL…so what do you know about that? Any information that nobody has heard of? Or what the spuds have been telling about it and that is false? It would be a good idea to read the history site about it as they offer money to those who can prove that Norris bought the promotion.

89. well you didn’t earn it on the field…..thought you were into conspiracies

90. @Tony can you please enlighten the beast on the Norris story? He still believes the lies been fed to him.

91. I think that somehow they know the facts and know that for some reason they have been lucky last Saturday. Of course they are unfamiliar with what we have done for several years. And maybe they have felt for years that they have been not favoured at all, just on occasion. As we have shown over the years by the way.

    So they wonder: when did Atkinson become one of ours? But we know that Atkinson didn’t do it for City. No he did it for the other C team, Chelsea. Never mind next time when you see him in a match between Chelsea and City, then you will see the real Atkinson.

    You were the lucky guys on this occasion but I have enough evidence from the past seasons that this is not a regular thing for you.

    But you gladly accept it, as the United fans gladly accepted it all those years. And their reaction to anyone who even dared to doubt the referee and their relation with United was the same we have seen from City fans this time: shut up.

    Like I said in a few years time you will be just like United fans. Most of you are already but don’t realise it yet.

92. The league table never lies….there were 3 other clubs more entitled to that place than the Arse and you know it !

93. The Beast,
    That is such a stupid statement, you are showing how naive and gullible you are.

94. You’re right there Walter, they’ll be just another worthless gaggle of drooling plastics, rolling in the corrupt waste that dirty money has bought them.

    When the house of cards comes crashing down though we’ll see the same thing that happened to Juve when they were done after the calciopoli scandal emerged. They were stripped of two titles and relegated.

95. Explain it then oh wise one….

96. The Beast, enjoy the reading http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/ref-review-2012 and you might like this article: http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/23004
    But of course that is rubbish as we are a bunch of deluded people so it cannot be right that we found such things

    and when you finished all those articles you can look at this also http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/referee-analysis and once you find the articles you can click on the links. We still have to update it with all the articles.

    But the last article can be foun here and then you got all the links http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/date/2013/11/20
    Oh and the reviews of last season were done by refs who in majority did not support Arsenal.

97. Open shout out to all the Blue Mancs coming on to this AFC blog instead of cumming over laminated pictures of mansour and all the other oil rich benefactors who have spunked a billion plus pounds on dragging your shitehawk team out of the shadow of red trafford, do one.

98. The Beast,
    Do you write fortune cookie entries for the day job?
    You’re so unprincipled and snarkie; too much the prick to actually reply to what people bother to present to you: pearls before swine.

99. Oh dear – Mike Dean has been confirmed as the ref for the Arsenal-Chelsea game.

100. Mike Dean? Oh f**k.

     I’m going to the bookies tomorrow to get a few bob laid down. This is a dead cert win for Chavski unless the ref is paralysed from the wallet up.

     Got a bottle of wine (dry Australian red) that needs drinking before christmas, I think that’ll be opening on match day.

101. Yes, the pgmob are outdoing themselves. We also have Dowd away at West Ham (just like last year), and Probert away at Newcastle.

102. SeedyJ

     “Halsey has also admitted in the past that Jose Mourinho paid for a holiday in the Algarve for him and his wife Michelle…”
     http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2424331/Former-referee-Halsey-insists-friendships-Fergie-Mourinho-did-compromise-role.html

103. @Gianni Dioro
     Thanks for the link. Does that situation not scream “bent ref” to everyone? Where there’s smoke there’s fire.

104. SeedyJ – Really, a premier league manager paying for an expensive holiday for one of the referees smells like a bribe. In many sports if a manager did something like this, he would receive a lifetime ban, and the team would be heavily sanctioned – fined, relegated and the like.

105. @Gianni Dioro
     Indeed, many sports would not tolerate it and a scandal would result. But English Football seems to accept it, with the media running round trying to put out the fires rather than looking to blow the lid off the affair.

     Too many vested interests in the media, too much money to be made. They cannot risk a long term “Sporting Ponzi Scheme” for a quick scandal that might sell a few extra rags.

106. Bob I’ve been presented with jack shit in terms of facts and Walt sorry pal no time to read more of your paranoid ramblings about refs…..we’ve all been on the end blatantly wrong decisions. We had that many in 11/12 it nearly cost us the title. Without them though I wouldn’t have witnessed that truly great moment. I’ll be off now…please someone give me a CONCISE explanation how you innocently got ‘promoted’…..good luck for rest of the season

107. Seedy and Gianni, you are such cynics! Jose was only helping a close friend in his recovery
     Close friend: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/la-liga/8478805/Mark-Halsey-lifts-lid-on-friendship-with-wonderful-Real-Madrid-manager-Jose-Mourinho.html
     Nothing wrong with that, Jose clearly never ever benefitted from favours from refs!

     And not even starting on Fergies friends in black…and football management.

     Interesting stuff on FIF today about Michael Owen, the England bookmaker, whose best friends firm fleeced Rooney and I am sure many others for serious money, great for team morale, no wonder England have done so well. Can think of another very high profile high paid England player who has remortgaged his house more than once. A post earlier from seedy mentioned something along the lines of honest guys standing out for being given a hard time from those in the system. Mr Owen never misses a chance to lay into Wenger. Just exactly why did Fergie employ this crock who had lost his hunger…for a few seasons on a massive wage?

108. @Mandy Dodd
     And there was me thinking that Rooney had £700k in gambling debts…

     As for employing Owen, an interesting question. Maybe for what he could do off the pitch than on it.

     Cynic? Not much choice these days. I’d rather scratch my balls with an angle grinder than watch the bent crap on “Match of the Pay”.

109. Yes think Owen looks like he has a multitude of qualities, including an inside track on all things equine. Just a shame he only played an handful of games for his 100kpw, and just look at the stick wenger gets over diaby, at least diaby was not a crock when wenger signed him, nor is he on 100kpw.
     Just seen graham polls ref review of the weekend , what a surprise, not even a mention of the debacle at middle eastlands
     http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2524574/GRAHAM-POLL-Paulinho-sending-Moussa-Sissoko-slap-brawl-Newcastle-Southampton-benches.html

110. No surprise with Graham Poll’s review.

     I remember a song we sang on the Clock End years back in a game v’s Newcastle: “Graham Poll….. You’re a f**king arsehole….” he was practically flogging his log on the pitch there, looked delighted.

     I guess you’re right tho, I am a cynic, lol. If it’s a ref it’s bent and the rich boys are pumping the cash in before the season starts to buy the title and the places.

     Like those antique auction programmes on TV?

     I wonder what the reserve valuation on the title is?

111. The Beast,
     that is how it goes. People come on here tell us to shut up and to get a life without knowing all we have done in the past. For your information the title of the summary of Manchester City in the season 2011/2012 was: “they didn’t win the league with referee assistance”.

     And about 1919: take this for a start http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/314

112. Worst decision was the non red for toure – then u see Arteta sent off in Naples for two yellows – one of which was a borderline foul….biased refs ? Look no further than Riley vs Man U ans dowd at Newcastle where he stole the show – laughable really

113. I’ve been wondering when the refs would step up their “game”.
     The Aston Villa game laid down the template on how to stop Arsenal, other teams have just been slow to adopt it, but they’re perfecting it as he season wears on. Mounting an attack has become tough lately, due to unbooked fouls and refs not allowing advantage for us. We’ve also made it difficult for teams to implement the fouling system, but our opponents are wising up to the fact that they can get away with anything when playing against us. Teams that are usually not physical suddenly become Stoke-ish in the challenge, and sure enough the cards, and often the whistle remain unused until an Arsenal player dares to get too near an opponent. With the latest ref appointments, the message has been sent loud and clear: “Sorry, this title is taken, it’s already been paid for. And if you insist on trying to open a gap up top, we’ll declare open season on your players’ legs.”
     Toure obviously understood the last bit of the message.