Ref Preview: Arsenal – Reading, Chris Foy as the ref

By Walter Broeckx

After what seemed an eternity we are back in football business. And our next game brings us the visit of Reading to the Emirates.

The ref in charge will be Chris Foy. Foy is 50 years and one of the old refs and with an experience of around 12 years in the PL he should know his job a bit.

So how do Arsenal and Reading fare under Foy? As always Untold Arsenal will talk you through it and look at the expected, the unexpected and the strange things that are almost normal in the land of Referees. Or Mike Riley land, also known as the land of milk and honey. Oh well….

Let’s look at the numbers first. Arsenal in the PL :

	Total games	won	draw	lost
Arsenal	797	426	212	159
	%	53,45%	26,60%	19,95%

 

And in a graphic this looks like this

Well not much I need to say about those numbers. Regular readers will know them by now.

And now how do we do under Foy?

	Total	won	draw	lost	won	draw	lost
Arsenal	797	426	212	159	53,45%	26,60%	19,95%
Foy	25	18	4	3	72,00%	16,00%	12,00%

 

So it is obvious to see that Foy is one of the refs under whom Arsenal do better than usual. Not that I like his style completely to be honest but that is down to the fact that I think he is at times a bit too lenient when it comes to handing out cards. If I look at his bias numbers it looks bad for Arsenal. But in general we seem to be able to overcome his refereeing style. One of those strange things in sports I guess.

We have had him three times this season. The opening game with a 0-0 draw against Sunderland. And then we had him in two wins. The 7-3 win against Newcastle and the 1-0 win against Stoke. During that game he allowed a bit too much arms and elbows swinging, and the disgusting Shawcross tackle late in the game. But you also all will remember him overturning his assistant referee when this assistant tried to rule out a perfect valid goal? That was excellent refereeing on that moment.

So all in all Foy is certainly not a Dean-ref for Arsenal looking at the past. We can hope that it stays like that.

Let us now turn our attention to the visitors: Reading. And have a look at their numbers in the PL so far.

	Total games	won	draw	lost
Reading	101	31	21	49
	%	30,69%	20,79%	48,51%

This was taken a few weeks ago but is obvious that Reading with their going up and down in the PL doesn’t have a great win percentage in the PL. In a graphic this looks like this

And this season yet again after promotion it looks one long fight for survival. But for the moment the outcome of that battle doesn’t look that good.  In fact the win percentage this season is around 16%. So not really a good season for them.

Now let us see how they do when Foy is around.

Reading	101	31	21	49	30,69%	20,79%	48,51%
Foy	11	2	4	5	18,18%	36,36%	45,45%

And the we see that Foy is one of the refs under whom they under perform. The win percentage goes down dramatically when Foy is around for Reading. Even though one could say that looking at this season they are doing rather in line with their overall performances.

But I can imagine Reading fans saying ‘oh no’ when they see that Foy is the ref for this game. Only Atkinson has a worse win percentage for Reading.

What more can we say about the ref that might be of interest? Well the fact that Foy is an Everton fan might interest us. Always a bit strange that we have a ref that supports a team with whom one is battling for a CL spot. Always dangerous for 50/50 decisions. Back of your head influence. I’m not saying that Foy will do anything wrong for that but this is another example of the PGMOL not taking care enough of their appointments. But then again… they could have send Dean.

Foy has done a previous Arsenal – Reading game. In 2007. On that day Arsenal won 2-1. Goals from Gilberto Silva on penalty and Julio Baptista. And an own goal from Fabregas late in the game. One yellow card for each team. Interesting to see that Reading at the time was standing in 6^th position at the start of the game. Arsenal in 3^rd. Those certainly were better days for Reading.

So if all goes as expected Arsenal should win this game. But as this is the PL it will not be enough to just turn up and expect to win the game. The games between Arsenal and Reading have had plenty of goals so far this season. Let us hope that Arsenal keeps on producing the level of scoring goals against Reading. And let us hope that the defence puts in a Bayern Munich or Swansea performance.

Recent posts…

• SOMETHINGS EVIL THIS WAY COMES
• Abou Diaby: be strong
• Arsenal’s worth almost double that of Chelsea; Man City worth less than Tottenham
• Endangering the safety of an opponent: “intent” and “but I got the ball”
• Taxpayers money is going to support clubs in debt

The referee analysis

• Case study 9: Reading
  

  The books…

  • Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
  • Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
  • The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches

  The sites from the same team…

  • Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?
  • The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society