Arsenal v Cardiff: 1/1/14 – the Match Officials. Are we making an impression?

Arsenal v Cardiff 01 January 2014 – the Match Officials

By Andrew Crawshaw

  • Referee – Jonathan Moss
  • Assistants – S Long, S Child
  • Fourth Official – P Gibbs

This is the first time either team have seen Mr Moss this year and seems to be a first appearance for Mr Gibbs so a warm welcome to him.

How did Mr Moss do last year in the Arsenal table of shame?

 

Arsenal-bias-per-ref

 

So here’s a surprise, the PGMOL seem to have backed off a bit and given us a referee who doesn’t seem to hate us with the same passion as those we have seen recently.

Maybe they are trying not to make it too obvious that they have no intention of letting us win anything. Maybe with first the Liverpool manager and now the Southampton manager (article to follow) breaking ranks and openly suggesting something is wrong with refereeing in the Premier League, PGMOL and the League are trying to reduce the number of outrages committed against Arsenal.

Moss is the second bar from the top with a paltry -8.66 bias against Arsenal.  Awful, but compared to the majority positively pleasant.

Looking into the numbers in a little more detail, he officiated in three games last year.

Match Review: Jonathan Moss – Wigan Athletic Vs Arsenal (0 – 1) [22/12/2012]

75% overall, bias against 41/59 and no wrong Important Decisions (second yellow, red cards, penalties or goals).  The key incidents in the game were :-

  • Minute 2 – First Arsenal foul by Cazorla correctly called by referee
  • Minute 8 – First foul by Wigan player, pull on Wilshere not called by referee
  • Minute 14 – McArthur correctly called for foul
  • Minute 17 – Wilshere fouled just outside penalty area – nothing given
  • Minute 17 – Podolaki rightly called for foul – a pattern beginning to develop here (fouls by Arsenal being called – rightlly as it happens)
  • Minute 19 – The pattern develops as another Wigan foul on an Arsenal player goes unpunished.
  • Minute 37 – Wigan player wrongly given offside – looked level
  • Minute 40 – Wilshere receives a yellow card – rightly for a foul.  As far as I can see was his first of the game.
  • Minute 45+1 – The Ox has to jump to avoid a challenge – no foul given.
  • Minute 50 – McArthur wrongly adjudged to have fouled the OX who had mistimed his kick and missed the ball.
  • Minute 58 – Walcott fouled in the penalty area by Beausajour, referee rightly awards a penalty kick which Atreta scores (0-1)
  • Minute 76 – Arsenal player runs into the back of Wigan defender in Wigan penalty area – foul on defender should always be given.
  • Minute 85 – Maloney rightly given yellow card
  • Minute 89 – Wigan shout for handball penalty against Gibbs.  Ball struck his hand but hans was in noemal position – Referee rightly declined the appeal
  • Minute 90 – A second handball shout by Wigan, again it was ball to hand so rightly declined by referee.

A hard fought victory with the referee allowing the usual minor fouling of Arsenal players to proceed unchecked whilst allowing little leeway for Arsenal players.  Mt Moss did get the three penalty claims correct and had the courage to award one to Arsenal whilst declining two to Wigan.

Match Review: Jonathan Moss – Swansea City Vs Arsenal (0 – 2) [16/03/2013] 92% overall, bias against 78/22 and no wrong Important Decisions.  The key incidents were:-

  • Minute 8 – Jenkinson fouls Hernandez, nit given
  • Minute 25 – de Guzman rightly given a yellow card for foul on Cazorla.
  • Minute 72-  Monreal scores (0-1)
  • Minute 82 – Arteta rightly given a yellow card (as in the first half the first serious foul and the card comes out) well done to the ref entirely consistent
  • Minute 90 – Gervinho scores a goal (0-2)

Excellent refereeing throughout.  Only four wrong decisions all game, three called against Swansea and one against Arsenal.  Two significant fouls one in each half and both dealt with with yellow cards.  If only all games were refereed like this I would be out of a job as there would be nothing to draw attention to.

Match Review: Jonathan Moss – Queens Park Rangers Vs Arsenal (0 – 1) [04/05/2013] 73% overall, bias against 17/83 and no wrong important decisions.  The key incidents in the game were :-

  • Minute 0 – Theo scores (0-1)
  • Minute 1 – Mbia commits a foul, planting his studs on the back of the ankle, foul given but should have been booking.
  • Minute 41 – Sagna penalised when referee is fooled by a dive
  • Minute 46 – Ramsey penalised for handball but had his arms by his side and made no movement towards the ball.  No deliberate contact so no foul
  • Minute 46 – The phantom foul by an Arsenal player appears
  • Minute 55 – QPR player trips Arsenal player not given
  • Minute 56 – Onuoha wrongly penalised for a non foul
  • Minute 59 – Monreal rightly gets a yellow card
  • Minute 63 – Derry rightly gets a yellow card
  • Minute 77 – Taraabt goes down in penalty area and QPR claim a penalty, there was shoulder to shoulder contact only no foul so appeal rightly turned down.
  • Minute 77 – Jonas rightly gets a yellow card

We scored in the first minute and then defended well, QPR never looked like having enough to score against us.  Two wrong calls against QPR, eleven against Arsenal but again Mr Moss got the one big call absolutely right.

In 2011/12 there was only one reviewed game from Mr Moss Untold Ref Review: Aston Villa 1 – Arsenal 2  He gave Arsenal a penalty in the first half but failed to give a second one in the second half and he rightly sent off Hutton in the 93rd minute when he displayed his stupidity.

In all four games Mr Moss showed good judgement over the big decisions, only getting one wrong.  He seems to be a home referee.  Last year in his 11 reviewed games, five were within a 60/40 bias, one favoured the away team and five the home team.

There are naturally no reviewed games for Cardiff for last year.

If Mr Moss continues in the same manner as his previous games for Arsenal we should have nothing to fear.  His judgement is generally sound, particularly with big decisions and he has shown that he is not afraid to give a penalty for Arsenal when that is necessary.

Overall a game we should be targeting three points from and I’m hopeful that that will be the case, I am also hoping for fluent performance and some goals to continue our good push for the title.

COYG

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22 Replies to “Arsenal v Cardiff: 1/1/14 – the Match Officials. Are we making an impression?”

  1. Perhaps the PGMOL think they don’t need to fix this one given the injury list. No Rambo, Özil, Giroud, Gibbs for definite and maybe no Rosicky, Walcott, Monreal or Vermalen. Tony and I better pack our boots!

  2. of course this extended injury list is in no way a consequence of a) playing so many matches in ten days or b) getting no protection from the likes of Rameries/Tiote from the referees now is it Mr Riley?

  3. Drew,
    I correct you. We played 3 games in 7 days exactly as the others had 3 games in 8 to 9 days.

  4. Perhaps the PGMOL have decided that it’d require too obvious a degree of bentness from the ref to fix this result and have resigned themselves to whatever the ref can wangle out on the day if he gets the chance, rather than risk sending in Mike Dean or one of his chums in jihad mode.

  5. THE THREE ROSES
    A woman goes to her doctor and says she wants an operation because her vagina lips are much too large. She asks the doctor to keep the operation a secret as she is embarrassed and does not want anyone to find out. The doctor agrees. She wakes up from the operation and finds three roses carefully placed on her nightstand.
    Outraged, she immediately calls the doctor and says ” I told you not to tell anyone!”
    The doctor replies, “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell a soul!” When the woman inquires about the roses the doctor says, “Oh, those! The first rose is from me. I felt bad because you went through this all by yourself. The second rose is from my nurse. She assisted me with your operation and has been through this procedure herself, so she understands what you’re going through. And the third rose is from the guy upstairs in the burn unit. He wanted to thank you for his new ears.”

  6. Lost in translation –

    The Examination.
    A man went into the proctologist’s office for his first exam. The nurse told him to have a seat in the examination room and that the doctor would be with him in just a few minutes. When the man sat down and began observing the tools, he noticed there were 3 items on a stand next to the doctor’s desk-
    1. A tube of K-Y jelly
    2. A rubber glove
    3. A beer.
    When the doctor finally came in, the man said “Look Doc, I’m a little confused. This is my first exam. I know what the K-Y is for, and I know what the glove is for, but can you tell me what the BEER is for?”
    At that the doctor became noticeably outraged and stormed Out the door. The doc flung the door open and yelled “Dammit, nurse! I said A BUTT LIGHT!”

  7. Premature.
    A man was having problems with premature ejaculation, so he decided to go to the doctor. He asked the doctor what he could do to cure his problem.
    The doctor said when you feel like you are getting ready to ejaculate, try startling yourself. The same day the man went to the store and bought himself a starter pistol.
    All excited to try this suggestion, he ran home to his wife. At home, he found his wife was in bed, naked and waiting. As the two began, they found themselves in the 69 position. The man, moments later felt the urge to ejaculate and fired the starter pistol.
    The next day, the man went back to the doctor. The doctor asked how things went.
    The man answered, “Not that well…. When I fired the pistol, my wife shit on my face, bit 3 inches off my penis and my neighbor came out of the closet with his hands up in the air.”

  8. Squad looks thin for tomorrow, hope they all play well, who ever plays, but we expected to have some injuries. Who’s going to play, i can’t even see. A (somewhat or most different) new Arsenal on the field, interesting.
    Hope they can do us proud.
    Best wishes tomorrow the team.

  9. regular refs for relatively easier games – yes they sit 16th in the league and were promoted only this yr, which is an easier game than say I don’t know playing champions from two seasons ago with a bent ref. Neway lets see if this ref too wants to move up in the Riley world, there is a sure fire way for him achieve this through tomorrows game. Fingers crossed no more injuries because of kicks and studs.

  10. I rather think it is more a case of the PGMOL keeping their powder dry fro games they can more easily influence. Why waste an expert cheat and one of their best hit men on a home game vs. Cardiff? Surely the cheating would have to be more than obvious for them to get a result?

  11. there were pictures of Zelalem in the training shots today, thinks its unlikely he’d start but he might be on the bench. I’d like to see Gnarbry as well. And I’d much rather win this and then worry about Saturday than pick a side with the Spuds in mind

  12. @Blacksheep63,
    I agree with you. Take one game at a time. The FA Cup is of less importance anyway.

  13. I will be otherwise occupied from now until next year – so – a Very Happy New Year to all Gooners!!

  14. @Andrew. Walter

    I am trying to make a mid season summary of 1992/93 (42 games, not 38 games). They were using 40 referees that season, but quite a few got 1 game or some other small number. At the half way point (which is where I am), most teams had only seen a referee twice at most (usually just once). I’m not finished wading through the mid table, but Arsenal is an exception, we had one referee 3 times (we got 2 wins).

    Walter has probably gone to sleep, and I don’t have an idea where Andrew calls home, so maybe he doesn’t see this soon either.

    But, from what I am seeing, the beginning of the EPL is far enough back that a person can notice differences from what should happen, to look for bias and corruption.

    Happy New Year!

    Back to data analysis.

  15. @ OMGArsenal – Is that your final diagnosis , Don ? You’ve just confirmed what I’ve long suspected and have aspired for ! Thanks!
    Having now peaked , its all downhill for me !Woopieee !

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