Untold Ref Review: Arsenal – QPR

Ref on the day was Martin Atkinson

Well that was a match with lots of big decisions. And not really the +98% score the PGMO tells us that referees get in general.

In the first half the ref awarded a penalty for a clear foul on Alexis. It proved to be his only correct penalty decision in the match. Later more on that.

A bit later Onuoha held Welbeck in a warm embrace that outside the football field could be seen as a love dance. Onuoha was like a warm coat hanging over Welbeck on a cold day. Not really allowed within the laws of the game. Should have been a penalty for Arsenal. 1 not given in favour of Arsenal. Remember the count.

But that was the only real big mistake from the ref in the first half. Leaving him with a good first half score of 87% and if we put weight on it this drops to 82%. If we only look at the important decisions the score was 75%.

On to the second half. The first big talking point was the red card for Giroud. Let it be clear Giroud was fouled by Onuoha but that should be no excuse to go to another player in an aaggressive way and then move your head in the direction of his head. For those asking the difference between Wilshere and Giroud was that in the Wilshere case it was Wilshere who was being assaulted by Fellaini in the first place.

But Ref Atkinson let the foul on Giroud go and that could have lead to a serious injury as because of the push he almost collided with Green who luckily could avoid the frontal impact. But Giroud could have ended up with his head against the knee of Green, it was close.  But to send Giroud off was correct.

But what Ferdinand did was also an act of aggression when he pinched Giroud in the neck from behind. He should have been sent off for this also.

Next we move on to the penalty decisions. Fer kicks Per from behind in the penalty area when Per is first on the ball. A clear penalty but the ref ignores it completely. Second penalty not given in favour of Arsenal.

To add insult to this decision two minutes later he gives a non-penalty in favour of QPR when Debuchy clearly kicks the ball away. Hoillet goes down but Debuchy cannot cut off his foot after having played the ball so this cannot be considered a deliberate foul.  But the ref gives it and brings QPR back in the match.

So that is three wrong penalty decisions against Arsenal.

And then we come to the last minute. Gibbs dives in and Zamora goes down. Both players miss the ball but for me and on the replays I have seen, a penalty should have been given.  For those who see this as evidence that the ref was in favour of Arsenal might look back at the first three wrong penalty decisions against Arsenal. I wonder if the ref hadn’t given that wrong penalty and he knew very well that it was a wrong decision that he would have given the second.

But he didn’t and otherwise that would have been very hard on Arsenal as the final wrong penalty decisions is three wrong going against Arsenal and 1 wrong going against QPR.

The score in the second half for the ref was 71% and if we put weight on it we see a score of 62%.  The score of the important decisions was 50%.

Over the whole 90 minutes we get a score of 78%. And if we put weight on the decision he ends up with a score of 70%. Looking only at the important decisions his score is 56%.

The bias numbers. 8 wrong decisions and 7 of them against Arsenal. A bias score of 87% against Arsenal.  So the big teams certainly at home get the big calls they say? Not really in this match.

Classic Untold

98.4% of all referee decisions are correct – the the press believe them

It takes Arsenal 4.6 fouls to get a card.

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