Arsenal v Newcastle – 16 December 2014 – The Match Officials
by Andrew Crawshaw
- Referee – Lee Mason
- Assistants – S Burt & A Halliday
- Fourth Official – R East
The Referee appointments for Arsenal games don’t get any better, but for followers of Untold that will hardly come as a surprise.
Mr Mason’s 11th game of the season and his first for Arsenal, second for Newcastle. Mr Mason is Lancastrian and chairman of the Bolton Referees Association. He has been a Premier League referee since 2006.
2013-14 Season
Arsenal – WBA, the told you so game 6 October 2013 – West Brom 1 Arsenal 1
“ Wilshere was like an outlaw on the field and I mean this as a person who was not allowed to go in to any challenge or being called back for a foul but on the other hand could be pushed, pulled, kicked without that the ref would give a foul to Arsenal. But this same Wilshere scored a vital goal for us. His shot took a slight deflection on Olsson and ended up in the back of the net.”
Cardiff 0 – Aaronsenal 3 30 November 2013 – Cardiff 0 Arsenal 3. An Inspired Aaron helped us to a fully justified three points, Cardiff played football and not rugby and thus the main threat from Mr Mason was nullified.
Southampton 2 – Arsenal 2 – Mason as predicted yet again 28 January – Southampton 2 Arsenal 2
“Now of course when you play bad it doesn’t mean that the ref should assist the other team. I have seen the “foul” from Mertesacker a dozen times now and I really cannot see what was the foul. He cleanly played the ball and then the Southampton player went down. This was never a foul. To ad insult to the injury Southampton scored from the free kick that was given.
Then we have to give credit to Mason. He made a right decision. He gave a red card against Flamini for a two footed tackle. He got the ball but it doesn’t matter. It is a reckless and dangerous tackle and a red card should be given.”
Norwich – Arsenal, what a pair of goals! 11 May 2014 Norwich 0 Arsenal 2. Another Ramsey special and a first for the Corporal (I do wish we hadn’t loaned him out to West Ham this year – he does seem to be improving steadily and not being given too much grief from referees over imaginary fouls). Norwich for once playing football and not injuring our players.
None of these games had either Mr Burt or Mr Halliday, Mr East was fourth Official for the Swansea game
2012-13 Season
Match Review: Lee Mason – Stoke City Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [26/08/2012] 55% overall, bias against 26/74 and five wrong Important Decisions (Second Yellow, Red Cards, Penalties or Goals). In Minute 7 Wilkinson threw himself in front of a ball that was going into the goal, his arm was outstretched and prevented the goal. Should have been red card and penalty. In Min 38 Arsenal should have had a second penalty, in Minute 57 Gibbs shoved pennant in the penalty area – should have been a Stoke penalty and in Minute 63 Stoke should have been further reduced following a nasty studs up challenge. Awful refereeing and it cost us two points.
| Match Review: Lee Mason – Aston Villa Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [24/11/2012] |
80% overall, bias against 0/100, no wrong Important Decisions. An excellent first half, one wrong call in Minute 2 Gibbs wasn’t offside. The second half wasn’t quite as good with a number of wrongly called or non called fouls and another wrong offside against Gibbs. Better this time but all eleven wrong call against Arsenal.
Ref review 2012/13: Lee Mason. The ref with penalty area fever and Arsenal phobia
Across all of his 15 reviewed games (out of 24 in total) Here is a summary of his numbers
| Decision | Total Correct | Total Incorrect | % wrong |
| Yellow Card | 39 | 40 | 50.6% |
| Red Card | 1 | 8 | 88.9% |
| Goals | 33 | 5 | 13.2% |
| Penalties | 3 | 7 | 70% |
One correct red card out of 9, 3 correct penalties out of 10, 5 wrong goals out of 38 and yellow cards a 50/50 lottery. Unacceptable!
2011-12 Season
REFEREE REVIEW 2012: Lee Mason. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.
There were 6 reviewed games out of 24, here are his Important Decisions
| Decision | Total Correct | Total Incorrect | % wrong |
| Yellow Card | 12 | 15 | 55.6% |
| Red Card | 0 | 4 | 100% |
| Goals | 11 | 3 | 21.4% |
| Penalties | 6 | 4 | 40% |
He was unacceptable in 2011-12
Who was his least favoured teams – why Arsenal of course along with QPR and West Brom. and his favourites Everton and Stoke
In Summary
- Mr Mason is in the same mould as Dean, Atkinson (when Chelsea are about), Probert and Taylor. They are an Unholy Quartet who should be forced to referee games in Siberia, Antarctica or anywhere that Arsenal aren’t playing. To put any of them in charge of Arsenal is an affront to all who value fairness.
- Mr Mason has little idea what constitutes a red card, none over a penalty and yellow cards are a 50/50 lottery. Must be due a promotion to FIFA Accreditation with one more dodgy performance screwing Arsenal.
- Arsenal will be systematically robbed on Saturday
- When Arsenal have momentum look out for phantom fouls, not given advantages and all of the other tricks to enable Newcastle to regroup.
- Newcastle will be allowed free licence to commit fouls in our penalty area, look out for pushes, hands being used to help their attackers to jump higher to name but two. Should any Arsenal player attempt anything similar, the whistle will sound and probably cards will be shown.
- Woe betide any Arsenal player who runs alongside someone from Newcastle, you will be booked.
- This is one game when I really hope I’m wrong, but I fear that this appointment is intentional to try and destroy Arsenal’s chances of gaining places in the league table.
COYG
Well, I used to say that Italian Referees were not up to standard, and I am afraid that
English referees have fallen in that category.English referees were conisdered to be the best,certainly not at present,with TV viewers disgusted and paying spectators really watching
what is really going on in certain matches.
One has to admit that mistaken decisions are excepted, but some of them seem to have a question mark over them. Most irritating is when a player makes a foul and the referee ignores it, but within a minute he whistles and gives the fouled player a yellow card for the same foul.
No wonder comments against referees are openly discussed.
Thank you Andrew, a worrying review. You mention Atkinson, Dean, probert, Taylor now mason…..with the exception of probert, we have had all that lot in the last few games, that is not coincidence.
Have a gut feeling that this season is all about making sure Utd get back in the top four, and if they can screw arsenal in doing so, well so much the better.
But unfortunately, for all the noble work of untold and others, unless the club do something about this….well, hard work is in vain, and it appears the club passively accept this. Maybe they don’t want to rock the top four boat, but the problem is, you need players to get into the top four. These refs are very good at depriving us of players, that along with our naturally high injury rate should be ringing alarm bells at the club. I hope they hear them. Dowd or Marriner against Liverpool?
Let all of us be calm and not worry ourselves too much of any might be a foul play refereeing against Arsenal by Ref Lee Mason in our home game with Newcastle on Saturday at the Emirates Stadium. I am confident the Gunners will rout the Magipbs to retreat from the Emirates and collect all the 3 points at stake from them. The Gunners themselves are not in any mood of conceding any points to the Magipbs. Neither will they fall into any picking-up of injury trap of Mr Mason and his match assistants. Let those Gunners the boss will select for this match concentrate totally on the game. They should focus on the game from the blast of the whistle to the last second of the game. Least they be caught off guard as they were caught at the Britannia. The goals that will win this game should unfailing be scored by the Gunners by every possible means.
@Samuel Akinsola Adebosin
Glad you are positive for the match.
//
Yes they continue to attack Arsenal, but they are being exposed slowly but surely. Pardew seems to know what he is doing, so it will be a tough match. They also have injuries/suspensions so the team is slightly different to that which beat Chelsea(hooray).
Anyway, i’m looking for a win, even though a lot of our youth are probably going to play. The crazy xmas games are just around the corner so hope our other lads come back rested and fit.
Easy to forget in all the understandable worry about our injury list, and in particular the defenders, that we still have these players to start in the more forward positions. In no particular order, as they say on the telly: Giroud Welbeck Campbell Sanogo Podolski Oxlade Cazorla Flamini. If these guys put in the performance they are capable of then we can defend from the front, and I see no reason why we should not have too much for Newcastle this afternoon.
Why is it dated 16/12/2014?
I hear we are going to defend from the front so Giroud & Welbeck will play next to Per & DeBuchy.
Alexis & Ox will cause havoc for the Masons – a secret society in one PGMO.
The home crowd have called out Mason for a “performance” previously, Everton in ’11 I think.
Lets get behind the team and booo that prick whenever he gives his doggy antics ,i like the guys in turkey they know how to do get behind there teams, but for us hmmmmm we are a hell of gentlemen and ladies we don’t have the back to give such a moron a torrid time.
Kampala – we have the necessary but sadly some of our guys use it against the boss. They do not know football but think they are better than the boss.
Will supporters at the stadium be armed with red cards to challenge the refs decisions? Come on Gunners, make a red card 6″x8″ and raise it with noise!
@greencardusa – December 13, 2014 at 2:46 pm – Cue cards ?
Here’s a nifty idea of getting the ‘Word’ of our Lord Wenger across by the silent majority !
At the very least it’ll get a few laughs and lots of attention !
http://www.wimp.com/silentmonks/
Meanwhile the dastardly but childish AAAAA stoop even lower ( than usual!Yes , its possible !)to sway the popular ‘fan’ opinion after the AST, BSM , black bags and “Spend some fucking money ” fiascos !
Good luck with that !
http://www.gocomics.com/wumo/2014/12/12
Arsenal FC vs the ‘oil” /Ruskie money FCs – easily explained in the animal world –
http://www.gocomics.com/wumo/2013/11/11
Am hoping for a good game ,with us winning and not conceding a goal .To all the AKBs , shout /sing your heat out !
Up the Gunners !
Getting robbed, again.
Yep, goal wrongly disallowed and clear penalty not given. Just 20 mins in, should be 3-0 up. Need to get a couple ahead, before Mason pulls Newcastle level.
2nd penalty not given. Free kick awarded instead.
cheating Mason doesn’t see the studs in Alexis stomach from 5 feet. He books Bellerin for a simple foul. Mason is a cheat like all the PGMO twats.
The foul on Alexis given by the assistant was in the box & should have been a pen!!!!
Mason is having a cracker. Crazy refereeing. Must be a new rule that Alexis is fair game to injure and penalties for Arsrnal are now free kicks outside the box. Madness.
Still not sure how Tiote can kick Alexis n the chest and nothing be given. Just like Jack and that McNair late tackle.
Mason is a thief and a cheat. However and despite his efforts we played with conviction and belief. Fuckin amazing game by everybody. COYG !!!!
He is smiling apologrtically for the peno. Shithead.
On the money with Mason 😉
Tilting all game long then covering his Arsenal with the pen when the game was already won. Transparent performance. He’s only fooling himself
AFC won this game in spite of the official. No doubt about it
That’s the scenario where Arsenal will get pens. 3-1 up and game over. If that was 0-0 atthe time or even 1-0 it would not have been given.
Some of Masons card decisions today were scandalous and the disparity on free kicks given for strong challenges was a joke.
Mason will be in trouble with his bosses after that game. Obvious cheating and still an Arsenal win.
Given my contrary views to the Untold website, I am very pleased to be happy with a very professional all round performance against Newcastle.
Right from the start we went for it, but crucially we defended well (their goal was thankfully an isolated incident).
Everyone involved, from the players to Wenger deserves credit.
Everyone except Lee Mason who was very poor. He missed Tiote’s waist high studs up challenge on Alexis and then (I think) harshly ruled out Welbeck’s goal.
He seemed happy to get cards out for a foul committed by someone in red but kept his hand out of his pocket for comparable challenges by Newcastle players.
In the end Tiote should have been sent off.
I’m surprised we got the penalty.
Well done lads. COYG!
Star sports commentators absolutely biased. They criticise the ref & then make excuses for him. Amazing how quickly the dim arse gits change tack. Townsend is probably the worst condescending prat.
Great day at the office. Could have easily been 7-1 if we had a fair ref. The boys did the job.
Incredible how you keep getting these right. Or should I say, predictable?
Quincy,
It only takes a few years of studying each ref and then you know them 😉
And someone like Andrew who can analyse the numbers extremely well and can link that with the way the ref will perform.
The thing is that when I said those things 2 or 3 seasons ago people laughed about it saying how could I predict such things and say how a ref would operate. As a ref it isn’t that difficult to do as you know the different types of ref very quickly. In fact as I now work mostly as an assistant it is very important to try to analyze a ref as quickly as possible so you know how he wants to referee his match. Of course you need to keep it within the laws but you have to “read him” on will he call a foul immediately or wait that extra second to see if an advantage arises. And then as an assistant you have to try to follow that same line a bit.