Tottenham v Royal Arsenal: the match officials

Spurs v Arsenal 07 February 2015 – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw

Firstly following Walter’s reviews of Mssrs. Moss (Arsenal v Stoke) and Dean (City v Arsenal) here is the updated Table of Shame

Mr Moss scored 72% overall with a bias against Arsenal of 90% and two wrong Important Decisions (second yellow, red cards, penalties and goals),

Minute 10 Arnautovic should have been red carded for his push on Debuchy which resulted in a three month injury and Min 35 and 42 Crouch should have had two yellow cards for his usual elbowing of defenders.

Mr Dean was perhaps slightly better in some ways than usual (he did give us a perfectly justified penalty for the first time in over 6 years) but his overall numbers were still not good – 64% overall and bias against both teams 27/73. One wrong important decision not given, Kompany was allowed to stay on the pitch following a nasty foul in Min 22 (not given yellow card), he was carded in min 40 and should have had a third card in min 55 for two footed challenge on Alexis.

As we won both games, no change in the points total, the wrong decisions are now at nearly 8 to 1 against us so it certainly isn’t evening out yet.

On to Saturday and our visit to the Totts and this is a game that needs a referee willing to be firm but fair, both teams are in good form with exciting attacking players and there is the potential for an excellent game of football. At the final whistle will we be talking about that or the referee?

• Referee – Martin Atkinson
• Assistants – S Child and H Lennard
• Fourth Official – A Marriner

Mr Atkinson is amongst the busiest referees this year – this is week 24 and it will be his 20th game. Mr Child is a regular partner, this will be their 13th pairing. For Mr Lennard it is the seventh time this year partnering Mr Atkinson and they have operated as a threesome four times since 28th December, so we can expect a well oiled machine.

2014/15

This will be Mr Atkinson’s third Arsenal match this year, we first had him at Chelsea where between them they conspired to beat us two nil. Mr Atkinson was bad on an epic scale that day delivering the worst refereeing we have seen so far this year and getting a dismal 45% rating, bias against the two teams: 14/86 and six wrong Important Decisions.

He is incapable of giving a fair refereeing performance in a game between Arsenal and Chelsea so we should expect him again for the reverse fixture in April. His performance still makes me lose my temper, so for more details read Walter’s review using the link below.

We also had him for our home game v QPR where he was better (not by a lot), he got 70% overall rating – the minimum acceptable score, his bias scores were virtually identical 87% against Arsenal, 13% against QPR and there were a further six wrong Important Decisions. Three not given penalties – Min 23 Onuoha fouled Giroud, Min 75 Fer on Mertesacker and Min 90 Gibbs on Zamora. The one penalty he gave for a Debuchy foul on Hoilet was incorrect as there was no contact between the players, the goal they scored therefore also counts as a wrong decision. In minute 52 Ferdinand should have been sent off for grabbing Giroud by the neck. The red card for Giroud was absolutely correct, an inexcusable rush of blood to the Gallic head, even though he was fouled and pushed into their keeper in the build up to the headbut.

2013/14 – Three games

14 Sept Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3 (with Mr Lennard as one of the Assistants)

Walter’s review

Sunderland 1 – Arsenal 3 : a longer one, some interesting things about referees and booing and hating players

Koscielny penalty was correct, the other big talking point (at least on MOTD) virtually all possible decisions were defendable. The fact was that the referee blew his whistle when he did and the game stopped then, that the Sunderland player continued to play was totally irrelevant. Arsenal were the better team and

14 December Man City 6 Arsenal 3 (again with Mr Lennard as Assistant)

Individual errors, giving it away and not taking our chances

A nightmare from the referee and both assistants, so many wrong decisions that day the true result could have been a win for either team. City scored from most of their chances and we didn’t. We also had two good goals ruled out for bad offside decisions.

6 April Everton 3 Arsenal 0

Everton and a bit of Chelsea – Arsenal 3-0

Everton with the better chances in the first half and the Ref with some poor decisions,

Good early card for booking Coleman for reckless challenge on Sagna, then no card for a late Naysmith challenge on Arteta, or a Baines flying in on Cazorla. Flamini getting a booking for his first foul. Sanogo having a goal disallowed in extra time at the end – he was level with the last defender yet called offside, also why was Barkley not sent off for pushing Arteta to the ground with both hands? Adding insult to injury he actually booked Arteta!

2012/13 – Three games

85% overall rating, no bias against either team (47/53) and no wrong Important Decisions – Atkinson on a good day – here’s hoping for a repeat!

71% overall, Bias against both teams 69/31 and one wrong Important Decision, Minute 19 Torres using both hands pushing Koscielny as Chelsea score – goal shouldn’t have stood.

61% overall, bias against 10/90 and 7 wrong Important Decisions.

• Min 1 Chelsea should have a penalty Diaby holding Oscar;
• Min 5 Ramirez plants his studs on Coquelin, play should be stopped, Ramires booked and Arsenal restart with free kick – instead Atkinson ignores foul and Chelsea score with no Arsenal player having touched the ball;
• Min 15 Chelsea wrongly awarded penalty from which they score, Ramires should have been booked for diving and dismissed as it would have been his second;
• Min 62 Ramires (again should have a yellow card for pulling back Walcott on a promising counter attack;
• Min 77 ramires (again) should be dismissed for pushing Wilshere in the face quoting the ref reviewer “I can’t remember having seen one player making that many bookable offences in one game and still the ref didn’t give a yellow card. Amazing to be honest.”;
• Min 94 Foul in the penalty area – Cahill on Vermaelen, penalty not given. In total two incorrect decisions favouring Arsenal, twenty-one favouring Chelsea. Atkinson showing his true colours (blue).

Atkinson v Spurs

Mr Atkinson is a referee to be feared by Arsenal – is there any evidence to suggest that the same should apply to Spurs? For answers we have to go back to 2012/13 as there are no meaningful analyses of referee decisions since then. There were four games reviewed which might give some pointers.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Newcastle United Vs Tottenham Hotspur (2 – 1) [18/08/2012] – 72% overall score, bias against 36/64 and one wrong Important Decision Min 75 Gallas was offside for Tottenham goal, which shouldn’t have counted.

– 79% overall, bias against 69/31, one wrong Important Decision Min 55 the Wigan goal shouldn’t have stood due to a foul by a Wigan player.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Sunderland Vs Tottenham Hotspur (1 – 2) [29/12/2012] – 72% overall score, bias against both teams 50/50 and one wrong Important Decision when in Min 80 Tottenham should have had a penalty Gardner on Bale.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Wigan Athletic Vs Tottenham Hotspur (2 – 2) [27/04/2013] – 67% overall, bias against both teams 69/31 and one wrong Important Decision. Min 64 Jordi came in studs up at head height on Spurs player. Straight red everywhere in the world but the Premier League, not even called as a foul!.

Enough evidence there to suggest that Spurs were also treated badly by Mr Atkinson, probably not to quite the same extent as Arsenal.

In 2013/14 Mr Atkinson was in charge of Spurs twice – their 6-0 defeat at Man City on 24 November and their 3-1 victory at Swansea on 19 January 2013.

This will be the first time Mr Atkinson has been in charge of a Spurs game this season.

In Conclusion

Mr Atkinson is always bad news for Arsenal, the only good news is that we aren’t playing Chelsea where he is at his most biased.

Historically, Mr Atkinson hasn’t seemed too keen on doing Spurs any favours either so there is a (probably slight) chance of him being more even handed than usual in this game, particularly as neither team is a direct threat to either City or Chelsea at the moment.

Worryingly Mr Atkinson still seems to have little grasp of a bad tackle and seems to allow potential leg breakers or other over the top challenges to occur without serious sanction.

He also has particular problems in correctly identifying fouls and good challenges in the penalty area, expect some controversy in that area of the pitch.

I would expect a poor performance with a handful of wrong Important Decisions, mostly (but not necessarily all) against Arsenal.

I am worried about uneven application of the offside rule, typically Arsenal are offside a half yard behind the last defender when he is referee, I suspect that he gives his linesmen instructions to be extra strict. Hopefully Mssrs. Child and Lennard won’t let such an instruction affect their judgement.

COYG

Untold Arsenal

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Curious anniversary of the day: 

• 6 February 1894: Ly Burrows debut for Woolwich Arsenal v Rotherham. As an amateur he swapped between Arsenal and Tottenham over several seasons.