Stoke v Arsenal. The Match Officials: “This man shouldn’t be allowed within 100 miles of an Arsenal game”

Stoke v Arsenal 6 December 2014 – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw

  • Referee – Anthony Taylor
  • Assistants – J Collin and I Hussin
  • Fourth Official – R East

Anthony Taylor

Mr Taylor is a Cheshire FA referee, he was born in 1978 and (possibly for his extreme bias against Arsenal) is now FIFA accredited.  He has been a Premier League referee since the start of the 2010-11 season.  To date he has officiated in 87 matches issuing 16 red and 280 yellow cards

J Collin has worked with  Mr Taylor once this year on season opening day when Stoke were beaten by Villa 0-1.  Last year they were also paired once for Swansea’s home game v Southampton on 3 May 2014 which Southampton won by 1-0

I Hussin has worked with Mr Taylor once this year on 26 October when Spurs lost to Newcastle 1-2, nothing from last year.

Opening day last season, Anthony Taylor was in charge, and what an abomination of a referee he turned out to be for that game, so much so that we didn’t have him again till the away game at Leicester game on 31 August this year when he was also an abomination costing us two points.  This man shouldn’t be allowed within a hundred miles of an Arsenal game.

Strong words, here is the evidence for the prosecution

2014-15 Season

Ref review Leicester – Arsenal

Overall score 61% weighted, balance against 7/93, three wrong important decisions (second yellow card, red card, penalty or goal) –

Minute 50 Hammond pushes Cazorla in the box, no penalty given; Min 58 Moore should be sent off for a second bookable offence (his first booking should have been for a dive to try and win a penalty in Minute 35 – needless to say that wasn’t given either) and in Minute 84 Hammond should have had a straight red for deliberately treading on Ramsey’s leg as he lay on the ground (he got a yellow!  He had already committed more fouls than the rest of the players put together and should have received at least one booking.).

2013-14 Season

Arsenal 1 – Anthony Villa 3 – Quoting from Walter’s report

“From the first minutes it was clear that the ref was going to give us nothing. Every time an Arsenal player came close to an Anthony Villa player the whistle went.  On the other hand Villa could do what they want and only when things really were bad the ref would give the foul.

Of course the balance wasn’t right with Arteta missing in midfield and that lead to the first Villa goal. Most refs would have given the advantage as Villa had a shot on an open goal but missed it. This ref came back to the foul and gave the penalty. Defendable according to the rules. But only  a ref on a mission would take this decision. 

Let us move on to the second half. How happy he was to give a penalty for a tackle on the ball from Koscielny. Koscienly clearly played the ball but the ref couldn’t wait to give the penalty and a yellow card. Two wrong decisions.

The ref then kept his card in his pocket when Vlaar who was already on a yellow made a similar foul on an Arsenal player with the difference being that Koscielny didn’t make contact but Vlaar clearly did take out Rosicky. But now the second yellow card was kept in the pocket.

I will not go on about Wilshere being stopped by Vlaar in the penalty area where the ref should have given a penalty to Arsenal when it was still 1-2. Because every person with knowledge knew that it would take the most blatant of handballs on the line to make sure that the ref would give a penalty for Arsenal.”

2012-13 Season

Three games :-

Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Arsenal Vs Queens Park Rangers (1 – 0) [27/10/2012]

71% overall score, bias against 81/19, one wrong Important Decision when in Minute 57 Granero should have had a second yellow card for a foul and then dissent.

Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Reading Vs Arsenal (2 – 5) [17/12/2012]  70% overall, bias against 16/84, no wrong important decisions.  Seven correct goals and still a score of only 70%!  He had a good first half only missing one foul by an Arsenal player.  His second half performance was not very good earning only 59% and missing many fouls and getting all of four yellow card decisions wrong.

Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Sunderland v Arsenal (0 – 1) [09/02/2013]

58% overall score, bias against 11/89, and two wrong Important Decisions.  In minute 24 Cattermole should have been sent off for striking Cazorla on the back of the head.  in Minute 62 Larsson was given a yellow card for dissent, it should have been his second as he should have been booked in Minute 53 for two bad fouls in less than a minute.

2011-12 Season

He was reviewed in 5 games against all opponents during the season.  His overall competency score (weighted) was 66.7%, he got 50% of penalty decisions wrong, 67% of yellow cards wrong and 75% of red card decisions wrong.  Goal decisions were 90% correct.  Looking at his performance with individual teams, Arsenal were in bottom place with a bias of -13, Norwich wee top with a bias of +8 and Liverpool on +7.

What of his history against Stoke

This Season

One game on opening day Stoke v Villa (0-1)

2013-2014

Two games; 29 September Stoke v Norwich (0-1) and 12 January Stoke v Liverpool (3-5)

2012-13

One game reviewed

Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Manchester United Vs Stoke City (4 – 2) [20/10/2012]

94% overall rating – yes 94%! bias against 33/67 (but this figure is really irrelevant as he made very few mistakes) and one wrong Important Decision when in Min 42 Scholes should have had a second yellow card, the foul was given but not the card.

Four games and Stoke have lost all of them, so Stoke also unlikely to be looking forward to this appointment.

In Summary

  1. The man makes Dean look an Arsenal Supporter
  2. His bias figures against Arsenal are enormous – he shouldn’t be allowed within a hundred miles of an Arsenal game.
  3. He doesn’t seem to know what should be a yellow or red card offence and penalty decisions are a lottery except if you are Arsenal, when you know you aren’t going to get one.
  4. Against a physical side (which Stoke have been over the past few years) I fear that Arsenal are at risk of getting another serious injury
  5. Stoke players are certain to get the benefit of every possible call.
  6. Arsenal players will be carded for the most petty of offences and are likely to be sent off for nothing.
  7. His overall competence numbers are far below acceptable and it beggars belief that he has been given FIFA accreditation.
  8. The last three Stoke home games he has refereed have all ended up as away wins so that might be a crumb of comfort for Arsenal fans. On the other hand Stoke fans will think they are owed a win.

COYG

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53 Replies to “Stoke v Arsenal. The Match Officials: “This man shouldn’t be allowed within 100 miles of an Arsenal game””

  1. Mr crawshaw, unfortunately you ruined a good piece by ranting about Taylor. Sticking to facts would maybe made this less a rant against Taylor. Proving bias would be hard as refereeing decisions come down to their interpretation of an event seen from a certain angle for the briefest of moments without aid of replays. Incompetence I or inconsistency in his standards are easier to show, however it is down to the eleven players on the field to make sure however bad or good a ref is the result is in their own hands. Yes I shake with fear Taylor refs in one of our games but that’s life we just get on with it.

  2. There has been a lot of media publicity all day on Stokes intention to give it rough to Arsenal. This is looking like premeditated thuggery and in the event of injury to our players surely intent could be proved in the courts with the media cited as accessories.

  3. So glad that you have brought this up. This ref is the extra man for Stoke, and Arsenal are going to suffer from the veiled threats already being uttered by those rugby players from Stoke. Wenger is playing it down, and instead should be highlighting the problem we potentialy going to face with a biased ref and an opposition bent on hurting us physically.Wenger needs to warn his players not to play into the referees and Stokes hands and not fall for their tricks. He should be telling his players to play their best football as we are a better team than Stoke, not ‘it’s going to be a hard game, and Stoke are a difficult team to beat’.

  4. Richard

    “Yes I shake with fear Taylor refs in one of our games but that’s life we just get on with it.”

    That comment alone beggars belief.

    That’s alright in your world is it?

    The Richard household.

    Richard junior:

    “Daddy Daddy whenever I go to school one of the boys keeps kicking me and the teachers doing nothing about it Daddy. I’m really scared”

    Richard:

    “That’s life son, just get on with it.”

    What a wonderful attitude you have Richard. Your son would be so proud.

  5. Anthony Taylor + Stoke = ruination.

    I’m expecting the worst. If our players leave the stadium all in one piece after this match it will be a miracle.

  6. Until the club say or do something, this is going to happen, time, after time, after time.

  7. The boys have to put a double shift to win this one, but i think they can.
    1-0 to the Arsenal!

  8. I agree with Mandy – our club needs to do something about this (the broader refereeing) situation.
    Soldiering bravely on is not fair on either players, investors or supporters.

  9. Mandy Dodd

    Hear hear.

    But it doesn’t bode well when the extent of Wengers reaction is to just basically say, “we know it will be tough”

    If he cant, or wont see what’s going on, what chance have we got?

    The least he should be doing is pointing out the incitement that’s been going on in the media and pointing out the possible consequences of such incitement.

    Just acknowledging he knows that it is going to happen could be seen by some as acceptance of it.

    Not good.

  10. I’m expecting nothing from this match. Even a draw would be a good result in my book.
    The combination Stoke + Taylor = waiting for accidents to happen.
    A win would be nothing short of a miracle

  11. One hopeful sign, we seem to have tightened up a bit yesterday, we can perhaps afford less possession than usual and hit them with a sucker punch . Less possession, less chances for them to kick us. There are some teams who see less possession as less energy and less injuries, Chelsea and others have been amongst them. Such an approach might not be pretty or fit in with wengers philosophy but may be appropriate for the circumstances of this game. Contrary to popular belief, we have some large and strong players, but we will not be allowed to use them in any capacity with this referee.
    Wenger baffles me a bit on these issues, he either seems to ignore what is going on, refuses to recognise it, thinks he can defeat it on his terms or knows he is onto a losing battle, not sure which. At times , I have found myself wishing wenger had read untold ref reviews and prepped his team accordingly, but have never been under the impression any such thing has happened. Though I think Arteta, if not wenger is well aware of what goes on, shame we are missing him so often these days.

  12. It also worries me that the match is not broadcast on live TV in the UK: most of the action will remain unseen so no need for it to be commented on by any of the opinion makers.

  13. Apprentice Taylor is such a transparent bungler that he makes Dean look subtle. That’s not a compliment.
    The team that suffered the most from his performance last season were not the eventual FA Cup winners but, of course, England (Chambo).

    Ever get the impression some at the FA /PGMO were upset with the result in May? Simply re-watch that game and you’ll find the answer (only three nailed on possibly four pens not called. It all evens out…)

  14. @Mandy,
    i think its a lost case. If a big part of our fans see these stuff every match and still believe its either bad ref or that we should be beat it no matter what! Then how can Wenger git it with the media when his own people (fans) ate not with him?

  15. I remember the game that Ramseys leg got mangled by the brainless lump Shawcross. The commentator at the time said that the Stoke fans gave Ramsey a standing ovation for him as he was stretched off. My friend was actually at the game (with all of the Stoke fans no-less) and he said that they were actually all cheering about him breaking his leg, as well as applauding Sharcross as he walked off after being sent off. At the time i didnt realise this and actually felt some respect for the Stoke fans (until i heard what really happened of course). Its great how the commentators can put a spin on things.

  16. You bunch of Jessie’s how dare you conceed the game before a ball is kicked .
    Stoke aren’t that good for Gods sake look at there league position . If we play as we can of course we can win .
    Jambug you tell your boy to go into school and walk up to that lad and hit him as hard as possible , should cure problem I think .

  17. And can you imagine the type of headlines that would come out if Wenger tried to say what is so well documented on this site? It would be relentless, specially without the backing from most fans and they would just use it as another thing to try and cuss him with. Its a loose-loose situation really. Im sure Wenger is well aware whats really going on.

  18. Wish I knew the answer to that Yassin. Wenger is certainly up against it, especially since the media focus on the most negative of our fans, and those who pretend to be our fans, but are anything but. We must be the only team going with a small but vocal section of fans who want us to lose so they can moan about it and call for wengers head.
    Agree Jammy J , there would be headlines, but that never stopped Gary Monk, Rafa, Jose or Fergie….ok I know the last two are a different case with the refs. I have always advocated that Ivan G should use his powerful position in football in general to get us a level playing field, david dein would certainly have done so.
    Finsbury agree, we pissed them off in may, perhaps wenger electing to stay on pissed them off further, as will our new found spending capacity and signings like Sanchez…who needs to be very careful tomorrow. Especially as they will be wanting three north west giants, two of them struggling a bit to join Chelsea in the top four.

  19. My heart sank when I saw the title of this article and it sank even more when I saw the name ‘Antony Taylor’.

    But of course none of the press at the press conference mentioned Antony Taylor because they are all in cahoots with the referees.

    I don’t know exactly what people expect Arsene Wenger to do. His job is to give his team confidence that they can win. He dropped hints, saying Stoke always seem to come out hard against us. When asked about Ryan Shawcross in particular trying to hype things up before the game, he gave a wry answer which made clear his actual thoughts, and suggested these sorts of remarks are not a good way to prepare for a game.

    He is not in a position to bring up the question of the ref. Unlike the press, who didn’t. People have short memories. Don’t you remember when he brought up the refs before? He and our players were branded cry babies and he was fined for his remarks.

    We can only hope for the best. We can be sure that our players have not forgotten Antony Taylor, or Ryan Shawcross. I truly wish our team the best of luck.

  20. Would add…..you know how Chelsea have struggled a bit at Newcastle recently…..well not any more, Atkinson has been chosen for that game.
    If Arsenal do not cause a fuss, Man City should, or is it just Chelsea’s turn this year ?

  21. Feeling that the PL is rigged somehow, at least the results are somehow manipulated to fit into someone’s ideal.
    BUT, i wonder why AW is targeted so? There is something more behind all of this i am starting to see, and it would surely be very interesting to get the full story.

    Anyway, Stoke or no stoke, we have to start coming together now, remember we were where chelsea is now last season, and look where we finished, lots of games to go yet, and if anyone should stop their run, it has to be Arsenal anyway.

    I have got a little resignation now about football since i (again)realised that it is is(should be) just a game, but it is really not. In fact there is very little left in the world that is not manipulated or corrupted in some way.

    Still, we need to win.
    I want the team to try to make their own luck today, they know what is at stake.

    We, and Arsenal need to make more noise about the ref selections over the last 5 seasons, they are so transparent that even children will see through them.

  22. Ye of little faith. Shawcross on a stretcher in a coma. Taylor reeling from being accidentally head butted by Shawcross (he’s not that kind of player). Picture it and believe. Arsenal will shine and whup the hateful arses of the northern dikes led by Sparky the bum boy.

    Stoke want a fight. Arsenal will stand tall and take them on despite PGMO.

  23. Anthony Taylor + Stoke + Mark Hughes = The best Arsenal FC performance ever. Come on, guys. Despite believing in the demon, you should also believing in angels. Let’s voice your undying support for our angels as only the good should prevail. I never stop encouraging or believing in the players. Stoke might be interested in bloodshed but that’s their eventual undoing. We go for the win. Go Gunners!

  24. I am applauded by the negativity that’s coming out. Everything is targeted that we will loose the game and it is not even started. Whatever happened to the ability of our players and them trying to finish their chances? How will the ref affect this? Forget this & gloom scenario. When the going gets tough THE TOUGH BATTER EVERY ONE.

  25. We play football so fast that stoke players collapse. one of them being shawcross who is in the way of a Ramsey goal and so his head goes with the ball!!! Magnificent!

  26. I was appalled to read on another site of the sheer hatred Stoke supporters have for Arsenal FC and those who follow it.
    What a sad indictment of humanity when a sport can inflame such tribal emotions.
    It all stems, I suspect, from the GBH sustained by Ramsey at the hands of Shawcross a few years ago.
    All right-minded Stoke fans know full well that the Stoke player should have faced prosecution in a court of law

  27. Strange, given some of the more obvious provocations to lose it, but that appointment of Atkinson for Chelsea today has brought on perhaps the strongest sense I’ve ever had that something more than bias, and largely unconscious, is rotten in referee Denmark and in the heart of the game in this country.

    I burned for weeks after the Chelsea game. The challenge on Alexis was an awful one, and thoughts of how easily it could have resulted in a very bad injury, and that it only got a yellow when it was undoubtedly a red, were bad enough, but the real anger came from thinking about, from knowing, how surely a red would have come for one of our players in the same circumstance (yep, Wellbeck’s was also a red late on, but the game was dead, and Atkinson is shameless but not stupid). Those are the conditions the players and manager must surely grasp, if only instinctively in some cases, they face on a weekly basis, and I’ve no idea how you can put up with that and play a normal game.

    So, he does them that gigantic favor against us, one which, if the system worked properly would see him penalised with a poor marking for the game, jeopardising his chances of being near the top of their marking system and getting biggest games… and then they get him again not too long after for another tricky assignment. It is a bad joke.

    Seems appropriate to ask at this time what will happen if another awful (3 or 4 months for Wilshere is pretty bad, but by our blood and bone standards not awful enough) injury is on it’s way. My take is that the Ramsay one should have and may have put an intelligent and moral man like Wenger into a moral quandry : his being our manager appears to have led to our chances of sustaining terrible challenges and injuries way beyond acceptable levels, so how do you push on ,in his shoes, knowing this is the case? But, to give into it would not only be stupendously unjust, it would also represent a huge moral failing- in that it would be allowing shitbags to win.

    To me that is a true moral dilemma. If he recognizes how much higher than they should be are our chances of sustaining bad injuries as a result of bad fouls, and accepts that there is a strong possibility it is linked to him remaining in charge, it requires only a basic re-ordering of the facts to arrive at the point where these players he recruits and selects face far greater threat to their careers than they would were they not at the club or, possibly, were he not the manager.

    It may sound overblown, but that’s where my mind went after the Ramsay one, and I have to think such thoughts were in Wenger’s head,too. My guess is that ,easily or with difficulty, he decided ‘no, it can’t be right to give into this shit’. And he’s right, but there has to come a point where it’s too much. It feels as though, having died down as it tends to, and for a little longer each time, another has been on the way for a while now. Cahill could have been it, but luck saved us; Wilshere is not quite it because it has not even been recognised that a bad challenge took place.

    Don’t know if Wenger can take another and really don’t know if I can. Eee, Stoke away does put me in a bad place mentally

  28. When people think dodgy refs, Webb or Riley for Utd spring to mind, but Atkinsons record of bias towards Chelsea may trump the lot of them.
    Google Atkinson Chelsea, everything he does seems to be for them.
    He is on someone’s payroll, not necessecarily the clubs…who knows, but someone who has a vested interest in Chelsea winning. The pgmol will be aware of this when appointing him. Would imagine lots of pgmol betting slips going in when Atkinson does Chelsea. Can Newcastle win…..not impossible, but the odds are stacked against them before the game starts.
    Curious how often we get Atkinson when we play Chelsea, just like we always seemed to get Webb against Utd and dean against arrys spurs.
    All since mike Riley came onto the scene.
    As another blog says football isn’t fixed, it’s fucked.

  29. To the people that say we should just try and play better than the other teams to negate the effect the ref will have on the game; how do your propose the players play so well as to avoid getting any nasty challengers? Or to avoid getting countless yellow cards for soft tackles? What about all of the clear penalties when Arsenal may have otherwise scored a goal? Or the other team being given a goalkick when it was a corner and vise versa? How are you meant to play as to get around all of these things? Having these PGMOL refs is more than just playing against 12 men; sometimes i would prefer to play against 12 men and have a fair ref than 11 & a bias ref.

  30. Newcastle down to 10 men just as Chelsea go 2-0 down.. What a huge surprise. Did anyone see if it was deserved?

  31. And now i see that there is an extra 6 minutes added on at the end. This is just fucking ridiculous.

  32. Im not actually watching the game, just seeing the live commentary through the Sky Sports app, so ill reserve my judgment until someone whos actually seen it chimes in. But with a red card right after Newcastle go 2-0 up and the 6 added minutes, it all seems very suspect

  33. up yours maureen Arsenal stayed 49 undefeated!!! with all your whore income you couldnt achieve half that.

  34. Phew, thank god for that! I think i almost want Chlesea to loose as much as i want Arsenal to win haha.

  35. the Stoke City fans are happy a quick goal and Taylor to boot. Arsenal are better than all of that. Arsenal will win today.

  36. 3 down but that is what we expect with Taylor playing for Stoke. WE will still beat the cheats!! I believe in a higher order than these PGMO cheats.

  37. The saddest thing this match brought out is the way Alexis was treated by the PGMOL cheats. They did everything to obstruct this footballer. They called his throw in foul when it was perfect. It is time for Arsenal Football Club to call these officials to book. Explain their poor performances. The only call that was half decent was the offside for the possible 4th Stoke goal.

  38. From the preview:

    1. The man makes Dean look an Arsenal Supporter – CORRECT
    2. His bias figures against Arsenal are enormous – he shouldn’t be allowed within a hundred miles of an Arsenal game. – CORRECT
    3. He doesn’t seem to know what should be a yellow or red card offence and penalty decisions are a lottery except if you are Arsenal, when you know you aren’t going to get one. – CORRECT ASSISTANT GAVE IT
    4.Against a physical side (which Stoke have been over the past few years) I fear that Arsenal are at risk of getting another serious injury – NOT CORRECT
    5. Stoke players are certain to get the benefit of every possible call. – CORRECT
    6. Arsenal players will be carded for the most petty of offences and are likely to be sent off for nothing. – MORE THAN CORRECT
    7. His overall competence numbers are far below acceptable and it beggars belief that he has been given FIFA accreditation. – MORE THAN CORRECT
    8. The last three Stoke home games he has refereed have all ended up as away wins so that might be a crumb of comfort for Arsenal fans. On the other hand Stoke fans will think they are owed a win. – CORRECT HE HATES ARSENAL SO MUCH THAT HE WILL EVEN LET STOKE GET AWAY WITH ALL THEY DID

  39. Ok, not 100%, but still! What a joke! Untold can spot the PGMO’s tricks from a hundred miles away!

    I think this performance today from Taylor is the straw that has broken my back. Enough is enough! So many weak yellows given to Arsenal players; phantom Arsenal fouls; extremely lenient with Stoke…

    Unbelievable!

    Wenger surely can’t keep quiet after this!

  40. Wow. I came here after the match, and every you say is spot on… And people still call you paranoid, Walter. Kudos to you for keeping on at this task.

  41. Walter – It is so difficult to accept such predictable cheating week in week out. It is time some international press are directed to Untold to give us publicity.

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