FA Cup Quarter Final 2015-16 Arsenal v Watford – The Match Officials. He’s ok-ish.

by Andrew Crawshaw

As this is a cup weekend, I’m not going to update the Table of Shame or Hall of Shame till League games resume on 19 March.

The Match Officials are :-

• Referee – Andre Marriner
• Assistants – Simon Long, Matthew Wilkes
• Fourth Official – Stuart Attwell

In order to prepare this preview I am going to assume that exactly the same instructions have been given as would be the case in a Premier League game.

Andre Marriner has refereed two Arsenal games this season, both of which we won by a single goal margin.

Ref Review : Newcastle – Arsenal 76% overall weighted score, bias against both teams 33/67 and two wrong Important Decisions (second yellow, red cards, penalties and goals).  In Min 12 Thauvin fouled Bellerin in the penalty area, this should have resulted in a penalty and a yellow card neither of which were given.  In Min 26 Thauvin rightly was given a yellow card but this should have been his second and he should have been sent off.

Ref Review: Arsenal – Man City 58% overall, bias against both teams 87/13 and two wrong Important Decisions, both involving Fernandinho who should have had a first booking in Min 31 for a foul on Campbell (the foul was noted and advantage played but at the next halt in play the card was stuck in Marriner’s pocket).  He should have had a second yellow card for a foul on Bellerin in Min 59 and a further card for a foul on Campbell in Min 61.  Any two from three – take your pick.

Last season 2015-15 he also was in charge for two games, again we won them both, the first by one nil, the second by two nil

REF REVIEW Arsenal – Southampton 59% overall weighted score, bias against both teams 77/23 , two wrong Important Decisions.  In Min 87 a Southampton player punched the ball away from Giroud, luckily for Arsenal Ramsey scored from the rebound so we will never know if the penalty should have been given (Marriner gave no indication that he was ready to award one), certainly the player was not carded for his actions.  Min 90+2 Alexis was fouled in the penalty area without sanction.

Ref Review : Arsenal – Everton: a first half to cherish 69% overall weighted score, bias against the two teams 75/25 , and one wrong Important Decision when in Min 53 Jagielka used his arm to block a Giroud shot.  No penalty again.

His first half was spot on – no mistakes at all, 9 fouls, one offside and a goal to Arsenal.  The PGMO tea at half time must have been spiked though as only one of the first six decisions in the second half was correct.

Going back to 2013-14 and we had Mr Marriner three times, twice at home which we won (2 – 0 v Hull and 4 – 1 v Sunderland) and the disastrous 6 – 0 away game at Chelsea where Mr Marriner (prompted by Anthony bloody Taylor) sent off Gibbs for a handball by The Ox which shouldn’t have been a red card anyway as the ball wasn’t goalbound).  There are no  referee reviews for this season.

One more year in my records 2012-13 and we had Mr Marriner only once, again at home and another win this time 5 – 1 against West Ham

Arsenal v West Ham United (5 – 1) 67% overall, bias against the two teams 69/31 and one wrong Important Decision when in Min 41 Vaz Te should have been dismissed for a second yellow card.  He was correctly booked here for dissent against being given offside (he was level) but he should have had an earlier booking for a kick on Mertesacker.

I have no ‘flags’ against Mr Long, this year but have one against Mr Wilkes for his part in the Lee Mason debacle against Southampton when he failed to flag Van Dijk offside in Min 3.  Nothing serious.

We have not had Mr Attwell as a referee this year in any of his four games in the Premier League.  We have had him once as fourth official to Mr Clattenburg when Clattenburg ensured that West Brom were able to win 2 – 1.  I hope he doesn’t think that was a proper reflection of how to referee a football match as our reviewers gave it a score of 42%.

Summary

1. We don’t tend to see Mr Marriner too frequently, twice a year on average in league matches and most of those have been at the Emirates.
2. Mr Marriner’s scores are rarely that good, 76, 58, 59, 69 and 67%.  Only one in fact above the minimum acceptable level of 70%.
3. He can be influenced by other officials in his decision making, hence his cock-up over sending off Gibbs at Chelsea in 2013-14.  Also in the West Ham game in 2012-13 when in Min 67 Giroud was penalised for getting the ball away from a West Ham player behind Marriner’s back.
4. We have won all of our home games in the last four years with him in charge – I hope that doesn’t mean he will try harder on Sunday to break that run.
5. Mr Marriner always displays a ‘healthy’ bias of wrong decisions against Arsenal (presumably to show his PGMO masters that he is ‘onside’ with their programme).  The numbers are however not as virulent as many of his colleagues so I suspect there is a decent referee in there trying to get out.
6. Where Mr Marriner falls down are
   1. His blindness to see penalties in favour of Arsenal and
   2. His inability to issue yellow and red cards for serious fouls on Arsenal players
7. He is normally OK(ish) in applying advantages and less likely than most to use the ‘phantom foul’ routine but I fully expect the worst from him on Sunday.

COYG

Anniversary of the day – the full index is here; today’s selection is here

12 March 1900: Arsenal recorded their biggest ever league win.  Arsenal 12 Loughborough 0.  Only 600 turned up to this Monday afternoon game, and such was the state of Loughborough, Arsenal paid their visitors train fare to and from the game so that the match could be played.

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The Untold Books

The latest Untold book is Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970 with a Foreword by Bob Wilson, available both as a paperback and as a Kindle book from Amazon.   Details of this and our previous and forthcoming titles can be found at Arsenal Books on this site.