Cardiff v Arsenal – 30 November 2013 – The Officials
By Andrew Crawshaw
- Referee – Lee Mason
- Assistants – L Betts & M McDonnough
- 4th Official – R East
I’m beginning to get bored this year with the repetition of referees for our games – this is the fourth time for a repeat visit in 13 games. Chance, coincidence or something dark in the water? How many times have other teams had repeat visits this year and by whom?
|
Team |
Referees with multiple appearances |
|
| Three games | Two games | |
| Arsenal | 4 – Lee Mason, Mark Clattenberg, Martin Atkinson & Michael Oliver | |
| Aston Villa | 2 – Anthony Taylor, Mark Clattenberg | |
| Cardiff | 1 – Anthony Taylor | |
| Chelsea | 1 – Howard Webb | |
| Crystal Palace | 2 – Anthony Taylor, Chris Foy | |
| Everton | 2 – Anthony Taylor, Phil Dowd | |
| Fulham | 1 – Andre Marriner | 1 – Lee Probert |
| Hull | 1 – Howard Webb | |
| Liverpool | 3 – Andre Marriner, Howard Webb & Martin Atkinson | |
| Manchester City | 3 – Howard Webb, Mark Clattenberg & Phil Dowd | |
| Manchester United | 1 – Michael Oliver | |
| Newcastle | 1 – Phil Dowd | 3 – Andre Marriner, Chris Foy & Mike Dean |
| Norwich | 1 – Chris Foy | |
| Southampton | 2 – Andre Marriner, Howard Webb | |
| Spurs | 3 – Mark Clattenberg, Michael Oliver & Mike Dean | |
| Stoke | None – 13 different referees so far | |
| Sunderland | 2 – Lee Probert & Neil Swarbrick | |
| Swansea | 1 – Mike Dean | 2 – Mark Clattenberg &Phil Dowd |
| West Bromwich | 3 – Lee Probert, Michael Oliver & Phil Dowd | |
| West Ham | 3 – Howard Webb, Jonathan Moss & Phil Dowd | |
So we aren’t unique in repeat visits – Fulham will be fed up of Andre Marriner (one win out of three), Newcastle with Phil Dowd (one loss and a draw so far) and Swansea with Mike Dean (one win out of three).
Only Stoke so far have had a complete variety with a different referee in every game. No obvious signs of a major conspiracy in the appointments so far for Arsenal, I’m just getting a little fed up of seeing the same faces week after week..
Having got side tracked in that analysis, back to this weekend. Well we had him on the 6th October for the away game to West Brom (1-1) and I gave a fairly thorough review of his history with us up to then in my preview for that game West Bromwich Albion v The Arsenal – Referee preview.
I thought him useless and biased in that preview and nothing he did in that game in any way convinced me that I was wrong. Walter summed up that game in this article Arsenal – WBA, the told you so game.
Here is the overall anti-Arsenal Bias table from Walter’s year end summary of performances from last year – Lee Mason is the third up from the bottom with more than double the bias of Mike Dean (and we all know how bad he can be)
The main talking points from the game were the stonewall penalty for Arsenal when Mulumbu tried to break Wilshere’s leg within 5 meters of Mr Mason without him seeing anything wrong The Mulumbu – Wilshere incident: penalty or not? How the English media stands alone.
The second was for a penalty call on Koscielny for a tackle on Long which was not a penalty in any shape or form apart from the views of some jaundiced pundits (I did point out in my preview that if you were inclined to put on a bet it might be on Arsenal not being given a penalty, on Arsenal to draw or lose, and for disallowed Arsenal Goals, so I got two of the three right).
Mr Mason also displayed the main trait of biased refereeing where one team is allowed to be as physical as they wish to be (WBA) and the other is penalised as soon as they get near an opponent (Arsenal).
Clearly there are no statistics for Cardiff and Lee Mason relating to the Premiership and so no independent reviews available but historically in the Championship he has done six games in which Cardiff are unbeaten three wins and three draws.
|
Date |
Game |
Score |
Yellows |
Reds |
Penalties |
| 28/04/2012 | Palace v Cardiff | 1 – 2 | 4 (Parsons & Garvan – Cardiff, Gunnarson & Miller – Palace) | 0 | 0 |
| 23/04/2011 | Cardiff v QPR | 2 – 2 | 2 (Quinn &Whittingham – Cardiff) | 0 | 0 |
| 25/09/2010 | Cardiff v Millwall | 2 – 1 | 3 (Keogh – Cardiff, Dunne & Morison – Millwall) | 1(Trotter Millwall in Min 40) | 1 |
| 15/03/2009 | Bristol C v Cardiff | 1 – 1 | 5 (Orr, Skuse &Maynard – Bristol, Johnson & Ledley – Cardiff | 0 | 0 |
| 06/11/2007 | Cardiff v Palace | 1 – 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 05/08/2006 | Barnsley v Cardiff | 1 – 2 | 3 (Howard & Richards – Barnsley, Gilbert – Cardiff) | 0 | 1 |
So yellow cards reasonably evenly distributed, very few red cards and I couldn’t find who the penalties were given to or if they were scored. (If anyone can give me a link to a site with this kind of info for future use I would be most grateful.)
As an aside, I was at the Emirates for the Marseilles game on Tuesday night and wasn’t the refereeing a refreshing change. Fouls were called when made by both teams and more serious ones ‘rewarded’ with cards.
Yes the replays showed that the penalty should have been a free kick on the edge of the penalty area, but the referee called it immediately, and the Marseilles players didn’t contest it particularly strongly.
In my opinion, more than half of the fouls he gave on Arsenal players would never have been given in a league game such is the difference in the standards. I still think the extra officials behind the goals are a waste of space, proper reference to video replays would be a far more effective way of cutting down controversy.
So, in conclusion we will be playing against both Cardiff and the Referee on Saturday. Aaron will undoubtedly want to impress on his return to his old club and we have the confidence in our ability to beat anybody. Should be a good game if Mr Mason doesn’t get in the way again and I am looking for another solid win with another clean sheet. It is about time Cardiff lost a game with Mr Mason in charge.
And for those of you minded to put on a bet check on the odds for Arsenal not being awarded a penalty, having a goal dis-allowed, and the game ending in a draw.
One final thought – if Stoke can have a different referee for each of their 13 games so far this season why have Newcastle and ourselves had repeat visits by four separate officials in the same time?
Recent posts
- FA email hacking and misuse of tickets case – arrests and forthcoming trial
- The Emirates: the view from on high
- The Emirates: a view from the cheap(er) seats
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…
-
- The Anniversary Files: January to June
- The Anniversary Files: July to September
- The Anniversary Files: October to December
- The Anniversary Files: January to June
Go to http://www.transfermarket.co.uk. You will get all the ref stats including the penalties given to teams. Thanks for the effort you putting in to highlight performances of referees. Most of them have been cheating Arsenal for years and, the press as we know remain silent on this.
sir wenger please make our dream become true ????
Lee Mason? 🙁
This is revealing. I’m sure Arsene knows this and the solidity of the team now should outshine whatever plan the see has. Nevertheless we’ll keep fingers crossed
Let’s hope this latest match fixing scandal nets some of these people, getting sick and tired of worrying about officials than the opposition. It’s not a coincidence that we see the same faces again and again while the likes of Stoke have only seen all the refs only once. The appointment of officials and scheduling is designed to affect Arsenal. If one looks at the top 6 teams(Arsenal,utd,spurs, Chelsea, city & Liverpool) only Arsenal has 4 separate occasions where we play teams from this group in succession. I think utd will only do that once, and so will city, spurs and Liverpool. I don’t think Chelsea even play anyone from this group back to back all season. I think in march we even have 3 weeks playing teams from this group in succession. And if we are still in the champions league you can throw in the likes of Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern in there. All coincidence? I certainly don’t think so.
AR16 article:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/29/arsenal-aaron-ramsey-cardiff-city-wales
Maybe I’m being naive but I suspect that officiating will improve this weekend for the next few matches. No, I don’t think the refs are going to get better. I just think the embarrassment of the previous weekend coupled with the arraignment of suspects for match fixing may give them reasons to pause and be just for once in their lives.
Well, we can always hope.
The ref is becoming our new mike dean expect more and worse of the same the longer we stay top. Away fans don’t let mason away with anything. Keren barratt and mike Riley should start reading the papers things are coming home to roost
How to make beautiful ugly, by Lee Mason.
I really wish that would be the case Bootoomee, but sadly this might be the case for other teams and not Arsenal. Even if they try to show no bias this weekend, I’m sure they’ll revert to their default behaviour the following week.
Mandy
I agree we will see a lot more of this guy as the season progresses. Him and Probert. In a way I think riley and co view themselves as untouchable. The reffing standards in the prem are so poor only a blind man could argue otherwise. Its not helped by the fact that those in the corridors of power in the PL refuse to acknowledge there could be a problem. You just have to look at what Gordon Taylor said, that “cases of lower-league footballers being approached by match-fixers are extremely rare”. Rare would’ve been a bad word on its own, but to say extremely rare is just plain denial. Its just plain stupid to deny there’s a problem in football, when sports with much lesser money and/or fans are riddled with allegations of gambling, corruption and doping.
There have been instances of bookmakers stopping taking bets on matches involving lower league teams after some irregular bets with ridiculous sums of money being placed on matches that had less than 500 spectators. The FA did not even bother to contact two teams that had been implicated in match fixing. With attitudes like these I’m afraid we are fighting a losing battle. There is just too much money being made in football for the authorities to care, they would rather deny there’s problem than face up to it and risk losing millions. Lets hope the papers keep at it though, they are our only hope.
This Arsenal can withstand all & any teams as well as referees. Let’s believe in 3 points on Saturday, and Wednesday against Hull. I’m convinced other teams will drop points in these 2 games and we will expand the gap by the end of the week.
Agree Al if it is happening in the lower leagues it is certainly happening up top where the money is. Easy to make scapegoats of cack handed Asian crooks and the lower leagues to deflect from a much bigger criminality much closer to home
Not sure any team can withstand a determined ref unfortunately Sammy or not easily anyway
Well guys with Rooney not get a red card after video evidence there is no hope…
Just hope the guys are focused and do their very best and take more shots at goal and keep safe .Let the ref do his fucking ‘best’ – we should be able to beat the Bluebirds or the Red Dragons ! 2-0 for me .
Up the Gunners !
The graduate with a Science degree asks, “Why does it work?”
The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, “How does it work?”
The graduate with an Accounting degree asks, “How much will it cost?”
The graduate with a Liberal Arts degree asks, “Do you want mustard with that?”
Dean, to the physics department. “Why do I always have to give you guys so much money, for laboratories and expensive equipment and stuff.
Why couldn’t you be like the math department – all they need
is money for pencils, paper and waste-paper baskets.
Or even better, like the philosophy department. All they need are pencils and paper.”
Logic is a systematic method for getting the wrong conclusion… with confidence.
A team of engineers were required to measure the height of a flag pole. They only had a measuring tape, and were getting quite frustrated trying to keep the tape along the pole. It kept falling down, etc.
A mathematician comes along, finds out their problem, and proceeds to remove the pole from the ground and measure it easily.
When he leaves, one engineer says to the other: “Just like a mathematician! We need to know the height, and he gives us the length!”
Slipping Away…
A man and a woman were having a quiet, romantic dinner in a fine restaurant. They were gazing lovingly at each other and holding hands.
The waitress, taking another order at a table a few steps away, suddenly noticed the man slowly sliding down his chair and under the table, but the woman stared straight ahead.
The waitress watched as the man slid all the way down his chair and out of sight under the table. Still, the woman stared straight ahead.
The waitress, thinking this behavior a bit risqué and that it might offend other diners, went over to the table and, tactfully, began by saying to the woman “Pardon me, ma’am, but I think your husband just slid under the table.”
The woman calmly looked up at her and said, “No, he didn’t. He just walked in the door.”
Va Cong
Rooney didn’t get his deserved 3 match ban, and neither did Mendy who threw a punch at Fellaini right at the end. Mendy is likely to be a very important player for Cardiff against us today.
Another stat I came across last week I think. Flamini- 7 fouls, 5 yellow cards. He might have deserved all of those cards but that has to be the most punished foul/card ratio.
Shard
Very easy for the media to label another foreign player a Balottelli or Vieira, and I don’t mean the brilliance, while thugs like Rooney are viewed as angels and remain unpunished.
Brickfields,
As an engineer, I liked the jokes Thanks.
Corrosion Dictionary
Anion – To watch closely with one eye.
Anode – To understand, as in “anode that was right”.
Atom – An un-neutered male cat.
Cathode – A poem to a girl named Cathy.
Cathodic Reaction – The kiss or slap following cathode.
Cation – To be watched closely by a feline.
Caustic – To be sharp tongued.
Concentration Cell – Solitary confinement.
Current Density – Today’s stupidity.
—-
So far no news, like the subway having problems. The BBC isn’t being too annoying about Arsenal (yet).
COYG!
Corrosion Dictionary
Electrical Balance – Motorized bathroom scales.
Electrode – a road for electric train.
Electrolyte – An incandescent of fluorescent light, as opposed to a kerosene lamp.
Electromotive – An electric train.
Embrittlement – To become hard-hearted.
Galvanic – Transportation of girls by car or bus.
Galvanic Series – Transportation of girls by 2 or more cars or buses.
Ground bed – A sleeping jail without a cot.
—-
Still no news. BBC expecting lineups in 10-15 minutes.
COYG!
Corrosion Dictionary
Half Cell – A narrow jail.
Inhibitors – Parents of girl being present.
Ion – To watch closely.
Molecular – A lawn infested by moles.
Neutralization – To castrate.
Oxidation – A primitive farming technique, using ox drawn plows.
Oxide – Hide or rug made from skin of an ox.
Polarize – Frozen eyeballs.
Precipitation – Falling down a steep hill.
Proton – In favour of heavy dates (male/female).
—-
The Possession bar is back in the BBC individual game coverage. It’s been gone for a couple of weeks.
> 1501: HITS THE WOODWORK- Cardiff 0-0 Arsenal
> Jack Wilshere scored after 14 seconds in midweek, and he’s nearly at it again! Aaron Ramsey touches the ball into his path and the England man smacks a wonderful curler against the post from the edge of the area! Great strike, the Gunners so unlucky…
14 seconds? I have seen a bunch of different times, this was the first I’ve seen less than 20. But where does one find official accounts?
COYG!
Corrosion Dictionary
Rectify – To tear up.
Reduction – A stocking area with mallards.
Solution – The answer to the problem.
Stagnation – A country with no women.
Stress Cracking – A nervous breakdown.
Valance – A rod to hang curtains from.
—-
> 1501: HITS THE WOODWORK- Cardiff 0-0 Arsenal
Is the BBC reading this? That entry is now edited to say 30-odd seconds.
COYG!
From the BBC:
> 1528: GOAL- Cardiff 0-1 Arsenal – Aaron Ramsey (29 mins)
> You don’t see this very often – the whole stadium rises to applaud as Aaron Ramsey heads Arsenal into the lead against his former club!
> Mesut Ozil’s cross from the left is perfect, and Ramsey thunders in a header before seeing his former fans applaud.
Congratulations Aaron! And good for the people of Cardiff!
COYG!
65 mins in. Mason tilting atm.
What a fabulous goal from Ozil& Flamini. Up yours Mr Mason!
What a classy place Cardiff is:
From the BBC:
> 1651: GOAL- Cardiff 0-3 Arsenal – Aaron Ramsey (90 mins)
> What scenes. Theo Walcott breaks away on the counter, lays it back for Aaron Ramsey who hammers a shot into the top corner. The Cardiff crowd serenade him ‘there’s only one Aaron Ramsey’ and he responds with the Cardiff ‘Ayatollah’ celebration. A love-in.
COYG!
What more can you say about this wonderful team! And Ramsey and well done the Cardiff fans. Looked to me that the ref did us few favours lots of little things against us but in the end we were just too clinical. Well played the keeper again our assist machine and the whole team. The end of november seven points clear and top of one of the worst groups of death in Europe I have ever seen. Who would have predicted that after Taylor defeated us in August? Hate to be pushy but come on and do the right thing arsene! You know you want to
Worth noting we are beating teams who are taking points off the big boys so net gain for us
All these cards are going to start biting at some point.
Szczesny gets another clean sheet, and we scored more than 2 (that stat has been in the news a bit lately).
COYG!
Mmmmmm…Mr. Mason? Meh!
Well played The Arsenal.
Cardiff too tbf.
Best performance of the season IMHO. To beat Mason as well was special. It looks like the boys have turned to men. 10/10 performance. Szczesny just gets better and better. F*uck the begrudgers. We love you Arsenal
Fantastic result, that Ramsey’s not bad is he!
Earth to sperez, sperez where are you.