Ref Review : Arsenal – Swansea, when is it going to start to even out?

48 Replies to “Ref Review : Arsenal – Swansea, when is it going to start to even out?”

1. Here’s a very simple supposition. Let’s imagine just for a moment that the findings that the Untold team get to the effect that referees do show some sort of bias against Arsenal, is true.

   That raises rather a frightening point.

   Changing the manager won’t make any difference at all.

2. It could be argued that your articles are biased but i honestly feel that if a neutral observer genuinely and objectively looked at our matches they would arrive at the same conclusions.
   How is it possible that Ozil can literally get wrestled to the ground in two separate games each directly leading to conceding a goal (aided by an outrageous Vardy dive but hey Karma)?
   Robbed of 3 points (when considering Swansea’s Williams was as offside as Giroud was against Watford).
   How is it that Rashford can move his hand to stop the ball crossing the line?
   Robbed of one point.
   How is it that Rambo had a goal disallowed against Liverpool at the Ems when not even level?
   Robbed of two points.
   What do we have do to get a penalty (maybe cheat like other teams?)? Again Southampton, at home, Giroud had his shirt severely ripped. No holding there then. Potentially robbed of 2 points.
   Meanwhile the Tinys get gifted a pen at Citeh for “Back” ball and an offside winner at Watford.
   4 points donated out of nothing.
   This has been going on for years e.g. the 4-4 comeback at Newcastle where only ONE of the four Toon goals was valid.
   I know Wenger is under a lot of pressure but he must be tearing his hair out knowing that in each season we start with a handicap of circa 7 points.
   Of course we get no sympathy because there is no shortage of publicity over incidents such as Gabriel wrongly getting away with that two footed challenge. Same old Arsenal always cheating? More like same old Arsenal always cheated.

3. Time and time again, these detailed reviews highlight the failings of referees, with Arsenal invariably being the loser.
   But what happens next? Is a copy of each review forwarded to the FA and/or the PGMOL?
   I suspect not.
   What the reviews actually DO is to inflame any true Arsenal supporter who takes the trouble to read them. Inflame with the continued injustice caused to our great Club via errors, omissions and deliberate corrupt decisions made by guilty match officials.
   If something is to be done to ensure integrity in the actions of referees, there should be an official channel of communication through which reports of wrongdoing can be properly investigated.
   The introduction of video technology and an appeals system cannot be far off, although even this will not provide the complete answer to the problem.
   In the meantime, presumably we soldier on in an uneasy limbo,
   with raised blood pressure at each reported injustice.
   Not an ideal state of affairs.

4. Let’s imagine that the untold team are absolutely correct and there is a bias from referees against Arsenal, I’m afraid that’s where I have a problem with the referee thing if untold team know it and it’s true Arsenal football club must know it yet they do nothing why ?

5. Tony you are right. The most important change that needs to happen is a change in the refs!!!!!!!!!

   I wonder when it is going to get so clear to the masses that the refs are manipulating the outcomes that there is an outcry! I thought that maybe Dean’s antics would be enough but I was wrong. So the refs are even bolder in the manipulation!

6. Tony
   ‘Changing the manager won’t make any difference at all.’
   Unless the bias is against Wenger and not Arsenal as a club.

7. Things will not change until the maths says we cannot catch the chosen, until someone senior at the club has the balls to take this on, or …and I say this controversially, contrary to Tony’s point, and saying it not wishing it to happen, but until Wenger goes.
   Still believe their is a complex relationship between the media, the FA/EPL/PGMOL, an establishment dislike or perhaps fear of what an unabated Arsene Wenger could do to English football as they know it. He is stopped every time he gets in any where near the title…..or has been for over a decade.
   I am sure a Steve Bould, koeman, or heaven forbid Jose would get kinder treatment from these crooks.
   Two issues here, and found myself agreeing with a poster yesterday, I am not sure Wenger always gets enough backup from the club, cannot prove or substantiate, but this may be a case in point.
   Then, if the club ….and I don’t mean the manager are not concerned enough to act on what we are seeing week in week out…..what do they actually stand for? Passive acceptance in return for something? Clattenberg was stood down after giving Spurs that ridiculous penalty at City…….why do we never see the same….do city act in a way Ivan and co do not.
   But all that aside, if there is an agenda, some of the defensive lines, lack of protection and situations we get into on the pitch do help somewhat. As do some of our home fans, just wish they would show the spirit of Leicester more often at these refs. Or maybe, like they players, they are beyond weary at all this
   Cannot think of another set of fans generally so accepting of poor refereeing……even the Watford game, all some talk about Gab should have been sent off , neglecting to mention the lack of penalties given to us, potentially two more in that game.

8. Thanks for the report. Great comments on the article today too.

9. For all those who think that it will change with a change of manager, the answer is only if he is the type that will play the game a la Mouriniho, Ferguson who gained their monikers by toeing the line. Except this year The special one was not wanted at Chelsea and so they too have been targeted as has Van Gaal.

   Money is the problem and those that profit from it, like former players we all know and some of you probably respect but in truth they are like a cancer to the game we knew as football.

   As for video refs if you think that will change anything you still have your eyes closed to whats really going on.

10. Interesting.

    The Ozil foul is as clear a foul as you are likely to see. I called it at the game and when I saw the replays and the stills it made it even more obvious. It would have been a foul in a rugby game. Since when are players allowed to wrap their arms around anothe rplayers neck and prevent them controlling a ball? Ozil could control the ball. What is so strange is the referee was standing close to the foul.

    On MOTD after the game, ex spud Danny Murphy was doing the punditry. Amazingly, he said he wasnt convinced it was a foul.

    Is this just a case of the English dinosaurs doing what they do best or an example of bias? I think it is both.

11. You’re right Mandy, there is a point of enough is enough, the club need to do something even if they start calling us whingers, videos montages need to be shown, but not until other clubs join in who get raped by the Piss poor referring.

12. The awful truth is that this performance is only the third worst we have seen this year over the full 90 minutes..
    I know the referee previews are read by the club and I’m equally sure that they read the reviews as well. Personally I’d like to see us apply to join the Bundesliga and leave the whole sorry edifice that is English football behind.

13. We need a transparent audited refereeing group of 40 refs or the number required to team has the same ref for the season.

14. PS: Just a thought.

    Does anyone know over the course of this season what the decision count for and against us is?

    That way we can see just how hard done by we have been or otherwise.

    Swansea is a great example. Two goals are scored by our opponents that should not have been allowed. The Williams goal was clearly offside, yet the Linesman/asst referee allowed it.

    Against Watford, Girouds early goal was disallowed despite at worst being level.

    It seems the Linesman/asst referees have much sharper eyes when it is a marginal decision for the opposition.

    Its either bad luck or something else.

15. proudKev is piss taking the the highest level, its beyond joke, my solictor friend said are you over arsenal losing you were so grumpy? They played crap, I offered him to watch all the arsenal matches this season see if it evens out. \As a solicitor you like evidence based so lets see what you think if I’m taking shit about the ref!

16. Lets start by kicking Barcalosers ass and get back on a winning run baby!! go Gunners!

17. Seems a bit of a pattern fouling ozil in the build up to goals.
    BUT, that aside, hard as it may be in these circumstances, the team and manager need to be aware of what is going on and somehow counter it…..more solid formations in mf and at the back may help until we get our attacking thing back. We seem to concede virtually every counter attack, and that is not good

18. While it can be argued that being an arsenal fan, the is a bit of confirmation bias, as you already think we’re being cheated, even if a neutral observer did a review like this, I think we’d have similar results. Not as extreme as yours but definitely would show some bias against us.

    One Question though: Have you actually ever tried to get these reports into the hands of people that can actually do something about it. I don’t know, maybe send am email to sky or BT, or even the club or the FA.

19. Our safest bet, if we prioritised testing out pgmol and our beliefs about them, would be to replace Wenger with…Gary Neville.

    A true son of the North, schooled under a manager who matches Mourinho for cynicism and anything-to-win behaviour, and someone who, should the refs behave against his team as we believe they currently do against Arsenal, would not tolerate it for a minute.

    The media would also be thrown into complete disarray by such an appointment. Either the refs would have to change, or they would be called out on it constantly, and the media would have to choose whether or not to turn on Neville.

    Anyway, an idle thought, that I even play around with up sums up how impossible i feel the situation regarding us the refs and the media is.

    I do not believe Neville could do any better than Wenger even with the 5-10% minimum boost to our chances we would gain through ordinary refereeing, which presumably we would see from his appointment. That gain would be offset by greater losses.

    Still, I wouldn’t half like to see it play out, for kicks and educational purposes, in an alternate reality. In this one, nothing, bar scandal and regime change (tremendously unlikely), will improve our treatment from refs while Wenger remains.

    The next man is guaranteed to be, at the least, a lot more cynical and morally flexible, and it may be that this alone will improve things. All evidence suggests playing dirty is what pgmol and the British game responds to and rewards positively.

    A slightly more realistic choice would be Moyes, though again the significant gain would be less than the loss. A Northern British manager would, even for a season, surely go some way to resetting things in the direction of normal. Given the only candidates though, they would also be like a kind of human sacrifice; a desperate treatment to try burn away disease while hopefully not damaging the body too badly.

    If disaster strikes and Wenger leaves, Koeman is a reasonable bet from an uninspiring pool. He seems a cynical fellow, and the media currently love him.

    Watching how that would work if in charge of the club would be interesting, if you could view the whole thing coldly and dispassionately, which will inevitably be how I watch football should all these bastards succeed in driving Wenger out early.

20. I think Andrew will have an updated table with decisions going against us and in favour.

    Did we lose points when opposition teams were allowed to score from offside positions/fouls on defenders or our valid goals being ruled out for offside this season: YES!

    Did we win one point when we were allowed to score from offside positions/fouls on defenders this season: NO!

    In fact we lost at least some 8 to 9 points that way. Only goals! And then I don’t mention red cards, penalties….

    And then I am not even counting the Southampton point as the only valid goal they scored was on a counter when 3-0 down in extra time. That match might have gone completely different if it wouldn’t have been for 3 goals given by referee decisions.

21. Salt in the wounds.

    Leicester’s goal this week stemmed from a free kick of there kind Ozil finds impossible to win : shielding the ball, contact from behind.

    Extra salt : it probably wasn’t even a free-kick; Mahrez had no interest in anything but trying to induce the tiniest bit of contact, which he succeeding in drawing, barely, before flopping over.

    And ,get thee to a doctor because your blood is now pure salt, there was also a clear offside before the ball found the net.

22. Thanks Walter.

    It’s hard not to come across as being ‘bad losers’ and cited as using referees as scapegoats.

    But when you really look at the number of decisons that go against us, it’s not surprising!

    Costa at Stamford Bridge was another example of a referee, Mike Dean, seeing incidents and letting them go. He did the same when Jack was put into hospital by that late Paddy mcNair tackle, didn’t even give award a foul!!

    Mike Dean saw Costa grab Koscielnys face, he saw him barge Koscielny to the ground – but he did nothing. Yet he sent Gabriel off for something he didn’t see. The FA agreed that Mike Dean had screwed up, retrospectively banning Costa – too late games gone.

    Madley in the Swansea game was stood close to the foul on Ozil.

    These are not difficult decisions, there are no bodies in the way, these are obvious decisions being ignored. That’s why I have a problem with it.

23. on the issue of shady refs….came across this article….quite a read this
    http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/webb-of-lies.html

24. SeaGoon
    7 points is about what I have it at up to this point in the season.

    This has been mentioned on here before but It’s worth repeating. If you are a ref or linesman in an Arsenal game and you are not sure, it’s always safer to give it for the other team. By far less scrutiny in the aftermath.

    Wenger will say ” special circumstances “, or ” ask the referee why he did , or didn’t give it”
    While most pundits will admit it might’ve been a wrong decision but quickly find other explanations why the play also resulted in a goal, usually Arsenal player mistake. I have done it myself.

    As to why no one makes more of it, it’s quite simple really. There is so much more in a way of shortcomings with this Arsenal team , things Arsenal can actually control , like player motivation, tactics, transfers,fitness and injuries, that most people ignore the obvious referee bias as a stand alone issue as it should be treated, and instead concentrate on all these other aspects which are clearly within Arsenal control.

    There’s also very little motivation from the ownership of the club to do anything about , seeing as clearly trophies aren’t the priority but the steady growth and brand valuation.

25. Dermot Gallacher also called Amat’s foul a good decision from the ref which means English referees are crap even when they retire. The commentator on Sport Klub was shocked that Medley hadn’t stopped the game before Routledge’s goal.

    As Mick & Mandy pointed out, PGMO have been in a dirty war against Wenger, Wenger’s style of play and Wenger’s virtues. Unfortunately, our club has a majority owner who doesn’t care about anything else but business which means Arsene has only Arsenal players and supporters on his side in that war.

    “Smash them!” is PGMO motto in more ways than one.

    If a new manager arrives, maybe Walter would get a “surprising” answer to his question from the headline. I could even put my left testicle on a bet that the media would conclude the praise for the new manager “adjusted to English football” with a sting directed at Wenger, something like: “Why did they stick with Wenger for so long?”

    When was a scandal in Britain so big that it caused a major change? People still respect Churchill despite his comments on other races that were disgusting.

26. is there a link between biased officiating against us and our poor finishing?
    it’s already a fact here that we’re mostly undone by poor officiating, does that mean top-ranking officials and stakeholders don’t get to see our games, or they see the games but don’t give a hoot on the proceedings that take place during the game.
    It’s quite obvious(from majority of comments generated on this site) our major problem stems from poor finishing and bias officiating. Teams don’ need to stress themselves against us anymore because
    1) they’re sure we won’t take our chances.
    2) the ref’s prescence gives them immunity to influence the game in whatever way they want.
    i’ll only be disappointed in the boys when i find out there’s no scientific proof linking bias officiating with poor finishing. for now, i’m totally disappointed in the board for not being able to publicly address this issue of bias officiating that’s become a cog in our wheel of progress.

27. concerning the issue of poor finishing, it’s something that needs to be tackled internally (or externally) asap. we can’t keep going round in circles whenever we lose a game, we know what’s besieging us, what do we do about it?

28. @fabrechenko

    Yes, our finishing has been terrible.

    However, it’s easy to find a connection with the refs.

    If Southampton had had a man down as they should have had, perhaps that Alexis’ shot wouldn’t have been cleared off the line because of their lack of personnel.

29. I cant imagine that Feruson at ManUre would have let things get this bad with the refs cheating, I’m sure he would have beaten down the door at the F.A. and confronted this issue head on, where we have a club have done nothing and just allowed them to continue on their merry way stuffing us at every opportunity, Wenger has kept quiet on numerous occasions when he should have been shouting from the roof tops

30. I think the last man to say anything is Wenger. We all know (or should know) that if he opens his mouth he will be ridiculed by the media and the dumb part of our fans. And Riley will instruct his people to do even more…

31. I’m pretty certain that the club would get heavily fined for talking negatively about the refs, so they don’t do it ‘in public’. But I’d be amazed if the club aren’t making regular representations to the authorities about the poor standards of the Refs.
    It would be nice to hear that’s the case but if it isn’t, it could be because previous approaches have gained sweet ‘FA’…

    Even If the Untold reviews have some bias, there’s no excuse for any ref to ever get a score below 50%. in any other business a score below 90% would cause major reviews of the processes and procedures.

32. I think the reason why the bias is so much worse this season than in others is because the standard of the other ‘big teams’ has been that much worse and hence more bias is required to stop us doing well.

    On a separate subject, I note a distinct absence of aaa’s making comments on this post. I would strongly suggest that this is because they can’t cope with scientific evidence…..unsubstantiated opinion doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny when it comes to ref reviews obviously!

    Finally, a heartfelt plea. Don’t we have one supporter out there who is a lawyer and is prepared to put a case together to present to anybody that will listen…….or have I answered my own question in that nobody wants to listen?!!! Clive Anderson, stand up and be counted!

33. All forwards run on confidence. We’ve seen it with all players (even Thierry had dry spells!). When the refs aren’t giving you anything you deserve then you start to feel everything’s against you including the goal posts…

34. After both Southampton games when Wenger spoke out against the referee he was said to have been ranting by the media and Koeman said first that when it’s 4-0 you can’t blame the referee (the fact that the ref was actually to blame shows the worrying state of affairs), and he spoke against Wenger again in the second match and then the media branded Wenger as having lost it.

    The manager knows the issues the club faces, but the media is so against him that the refs feel safe in their wrong doing because they know that they won’t be held accountable.

    It won’t even out until Arsenal find another Sir Henry Norris as Tony pointed out in the History Article.

35. Thanks @Guaresh that link explains so much.

36. Updated tables are in the referee preview for Everton. Wrong Important Decisions this season are averaging – yes averaging – three per game. The PGMO (or more likely their controllers) have absolutely no intention of letting Arsenal or Arsène win the PL this year. No team can sustain this level of bias and win anything. I have a feeling that it will continue until we cannot finish higher than fifth place. Of course statistical evidence of the sort that we have is absolutely no proof of this being a conspiracy but just because I’m paranoid it doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get me/us.

37. i don’t think wenger is scared of the media, i just feel (just my humble feeling) the arsenal board are not passionate about arsenal enough to support our manager. or there’s a bigger plot to this than can be seen.

38. @Gouresh, thanks a lot for the link. The writer makes a very compelling case for fixing and for Leicester doping.

    Makes one wonder whether Wenger bringing up doping this season is a coincidence.

39. Why knowing all of the bias & cheating comes to nothing is simple. The FA run football. If you show them up they can stop you playing, watching or for that amtter existing in the game. They are bigger tahn God in football. The corruption will continue unabated as the government have ho control.

    The FA can stop anyone attending football without recourse to the law!

    Te system is absolutely open to corruption & is probably more corrupt than an acidic alkaline.

40. excuse the dyslexic typos. Age gets the fingers miss aligned – almost like PGMO selective vision.

41. @virg The Wenger line recently regarding Leicester ‘we’ve beaten them twice, so we’ve done our bit’ keeps playing in my head now lol. Things like that must make him proud if he actually knows what Leicester/& refs are up to.

42. Quite right Walter, wenger cannot win.
    This should be bought up behind the scenes at Ivan’s level. If it is not can only conclude he doesn’t see a problem, he doesn’t care, he has been silenced, or knows the club are rewarded…of sorts for keeping to the status quo. I strongly suspect the latter…..perhaps with instructions to keep quiet from above
    Think wenger could do with a bit more help from above here, I wonder if he may have been hinting as much in his widely differently interpreted comment yesterday

43. Some good points made about why Wenger/club are quiet about cheating Refereees but the fact is we just bend over and take it

44. @thierryhenry22, for sure.

    Following on from that link that Gouresh provided, it’s said that doping was discovered by Arsenal’s stats analysts StatDNA:
    http://synomic.blogspot.in/2016/01/snitching-diecisiete.html

    Earlier in the season when Wenger was to meet with officials to discuss his comments, if he had this data he must have at least mentioned it, or handed it over?

    That nothing is being done about this is very disconcerting.

45. Arsene Wenger no matter what way he turn’s just cannot win.
    The fickle fans, the club not giving him the support he needs,
    Ex Players who owe this man so much but don’t know what loyalty means at all.
    The refs who are rotten to the core, blatantly sticking two fingers up and saying “the is nothing at all you can do”.
    The stupidity of the fans who refuse to see what is happening right in front of their eyes but take their hatred out on the man who is battling on all fronts just to get a win.
    Players who are so tense going out own their home ground because they know what is happening with refs and tense and uncomfortable because people who profess to be supporters giving them dogs abuse when a passage of play breaks down.
    AW is a man of Honor but those who he is up against sadly don’t even know the meaning of the word and therein lies the answer as I see it.
    When AW does go it’s going to be a sad day not just for Arsenal but for the world of football. How many honest men can you say that about in Football?
    Those who show this banner tonight could not lace this mans boot’s because quite simply he is a class act something they will never be if they live till they are 100 years old.

46. Someone mentioned earlier our poor finishing. One of the reasons for it could be that our players have to work so much harder than others clubs to overcome the awful bias from referees, and those extra efforts lead to a lack of lucidity in front of the goal…

47. Linda, you are completely right as usual. How Arsene Wenger rises above all this and goes on giving his all to his job is amazing.

48. Sorry about making a rather late comment, but I have been travelling a lot lately.

    This is another excellent report, but what a wretched biased performance from Madley. It would be hard for Riley and his 16 or 17 untouchables to pretend that this effort by Madley was anything other than a blatantly biased performance – unfortunately, with media protection, Riley’s minioms are relatively immune from criticism – for now – but the evidence is mounting!