Manchester City v Arsenal Sunday 8 May – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw Following the review of Roger East in the Palace game Here is the updated Table of Shame Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 1 44 Red Cards 2 16 Penalties 3 30 Goals 1 11 Total 7 101 Possible Cost in Points 0 29 Only one wrong Important …

The most astonishing analysis yet: how refs apply different rules on fouls for and against different teams

I may be nuts but I’m not crazy: Crying foul – the league table that will amaze all Arsenal fans By Proud Kev Whenever we mention referees, there are certain people who roll their eyes and believe we are all conspiracy nut jobs. For what it is worth I may be nuts but I do …

Arsenal Chelsea, Sunday 24 January 2016 – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw Here is the Table of Shame updated following the Liverpool game. Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 1 24 Red Cards 1 10 Penalties 2 16 Goals 0 8 Total 4 58 Possible Cost in Points 0 13 I count the not given penalty to Arsenal in Min …

Arsenal vs Manchester Utd. Expect elbowing and wrestling with impunity.

The Referee Preview by Andrew Crawshaw Following Usama and Walter’s review of the Chelsea game Ref Review : Chelsea – Arsenal. How Mike Dean & Co screwed an entire game… here is the updated table of shame Wrong Important Decisions Favouring Arsenal Favouring Opponents 2nd Yellow Cards 0 7 Red Cards 0 6 Penalties 0 …

If a game that involves men sticking their heads up each other’s bottoms can have open refereeing why can’t football?

What can football learn from rugby? * By Blacksheep I watched the second half of the England/Wales rugby match on Saturday and apart from wondering at the Welsh comeback and the high attrition rate in terms of injury, I was mainly struck by the marked difference in officiating. This weekend we have again seen some …

FA Charge Arsenal with failing to control its players; petition to stop Dean stands at over 69,000

. The petition “Prevent Mike Dean from refereeing another Arsenal game” now has nearly 70,000 signatures.  Please sign up if you agree. . By Walter Broeckx; additional material by Tony Attwood Chelsea striker Diego Costa has been charged with violent conduct by the Football Association following his side’s win over Arsenal on Saturday. The FA …

Ref Review: Arsenal – Liverpool

By Usama and Walter ARSENAL vs. LIVERPOOL COMPETITION: English Premier League MATCH NO. 3 DATE: 24th August 2015 VENUE: Emirates Stadium (London, England) MATCH OFFICIALS: REFEREE: Michael Oliver 1st LINESMAN: Simon Bennett 2nd LINESMAN: John Brooks 4th OFFICIAL: Neil Swarbrick First Half Fouls, Advantages, Cards, and Penalties Time Foul by Foul For Description & Decision …

Ref Review: Arsenal – Liverpool

Ref in this match was Anthony Taylor A first 30 minutes that were rather un-Taylor. As he made no mistakes. The only mistake was from an assistant who judged a Liverpool player offside but Koscielny was still behind him. The first error from Taylor was then again a typical one. Sakho came in leading with …

Ref Review : Newcastle – Arsenal: an overwhelming bias

Ref for this match was Mike Jones The first foul only  happened after 12 minutes but the Ameobi kicked Alexis in the chest. Not with hit studs but a high foot making contact should have been punished with a yellow card.  Ref Jones let it go and as a result Cabella only a minute later …

Ref Review : Arsenal – Everton: a first half to cherish.

Ref for this match was Andre Marinner Well this was turning out one of the most boring referee reviews ever in the first half of this match. Marinner missed a foul from Coquelin early in the match and should have given a foul to Everton…and that was it for errors in the first half. Take …

Ref Review(s) : Arsenal – West Ham, two for the price of one

Ref in this match was Chris Foy for 59 minutes and Anthony Taylor for the rest. Because of this interruption we have two ref reviews in one article and I will also add the final score of the two refs and call this the PGMO score for this match. CHRIS FOY What a way to …

Ref Review: Crystal Palace – Arsenal

Ref for this match was Mark Clattenburg A bad start for the assistant when he ruled Özil offside when he was clearly not. Özil scored but we don’t know really if this was because of the CP defender stopping after the whistle or not. So will not take the goal decision as a wrong itself. …

Can we really trust Riley to bring about reform?

By Walter Broeckx The other day I read an article about Mike Riley where he talked about the mix up that has happened once again when ref Neil Swarbrick send off the wrong guy in the match Manchester City – West Bromwich Albion. One could say sending off the wrong player is something that only …

Ref Review : QPR – Arsenal

Ref for this match was Kevin Friend The match started with a few decisions going against Arsenal early on. Coquelin was called back for offside when he was clearly onside. Arsenal should have got a corner but instead QPR got a free kick. Zamora then put an arm in the face of Gibbs and again …

Ref Review : Arsenal – Leicester

Ref for this match was Mike Jones Mr. Jones certainly wasn’t at his best in this match. After two early fouls not much happened till Upson pulled Alexis down with a holding offence around the neck when he could have gone one on one with the last defender in the middle of the goal was …

Ref Review Tottenham – Arsenal

In case you have not come across this series before, we have reviewed hundreds of matches over the past few years – both matches involving Arsenal and those not.  At the end of the seasons we’ve also compared the way referees have handled different teams. Ref for this match was Martin Atkinson A few interesting …

How referees get to the top

Don McMahon A number of Gooners have asked about how referees get promoted to the top of their profession so I am humbly submitting my experience and will happily accept any corrections our readers can bring to my attention. I will be speaking in general for both genders and  North America officials but worldwide for …

Other countries are more open than the PL and the PGMO

  In the last article we looked at how Mourinho is playing games with the media, the FA and PGMO.  All this – and indeed the whole threat of Type III match fixing (in which club owners seek to persuade refs to hinder the progress of other clubs, rather than fix the results of their …

A referee’s dilemma: do you report the corruption of your colleagues?

By Don McMahon The core issue with being an official is one’s integrity. IF the referee or his/her assistants lack the moral courage and integrity, even in making a difficult but self-evident call on the field, even ONCE, then they are certainly very susceptible to being ” influenced” by those who make it their profession …

Handball or not? Analyzing the decision.

By Walter Broeckx In our match against Leicester we had an incident where Alexis tried to make a pass and a Leicester defender handled the ball and the ref gave no penalty. Let us have a closer look on this particular incident with the laws of the game in hand, the instructions towards referees and …

Ref Review : Arsenal – Aston Villa. Arsenal commit two fouls in 45 minutes.

Ref for this match: Anthony Taylor First remark I want to make is that apart from a few minor incidents it seemed that Aston Villa wanted to play a fair match of football. This resulted in the fact that the first time the ref had to make a real decision…it was to approve a goal …

Ref Review : Manchester City – Arsenal: A master class performance!

Ref for this match was Mike Dean I know on a lot of occasions people say that our referee reviews are all about sour grapes. So how do we judge the ref in a match when for the first time in 12 centuries (more or less) we beat a top 4 club at their home …

REF REVIEW Southampton – Arsenal

Ref for this match was Craig Pawson A ref we haven’t got many numbers on so it is always difficult to draw conclusions. What I did noticed is that he is not looking good at hidden kicks on the Achilles. Alderweireld did this a few times and each time it escaped the ref’s attention. This …

Are you a victim of PPP? Don’t suffer in silence, take action!

By Blacksheep I watched the FA Cup tie against Brighton & Falmer Albion in rather dreary modern pub close to where Tony and I usually meet to travel down to the Emirates. They had the game on their (biggish) screen and it was convenient for hooking up with the twins. There was no sound so …