Referee : Mike Jones
Match: Aston Villa – Arsenal
20/09/2014
In a way this was a walk in the park for the ref.
The two teams started with fair intentions and so we only got the first foul after some 10 minutes! Amazing and even then he could have let it go. Then things got a little bit busier for him.
The score in the first half is amazingly high but that is mostly down to him making good decisions and both teams playing it fair most of the time. So a high score well in to the 90%. Excellent work from the ref. In fact he only missed one handball from Clark in the entire half.
The second half was a little bit more difficult for the ref. Arsenal dominated the ball and Villa just tried to stop conceding. Sanchez made on his own half the fouls of all the players on the field and didn’t get booked. Mulitple fouls should also result in a yellow card ref.
Aston Villa claiming a second yellow card for a pull from Chambers deep in the Villa half, ref had a word that was more about the crowd reaction I think.
In the last 20 minutes the central defenders from Villa thought they had to show some tough tackling. Senderoz on Ozil with a tackle from behind that should have resulted in a yellow card. But the worst tackle from Clark on Podolski was dangerous and reckless. If Podolski would have had his feet stuck in the grass he would have lost his ankle I think. Ref gave a yellow but tackles like that are under a world wide ban in football. The ref losing some points there.
And as he had to make not many decisions in the second half they have a big impact on his score. In the second half he drops to an overall score of only 77,78% and a weighted score of only 68%. That is the problem for a ref when not much is happening. Each mistake has a bigger influence on your total result.
The total score for the ref seen over the full 90 minutes was still rather good. 85.71 overall and a weighted score of 81,63. On the important decisions he only got 63.64%. Not lucky with handing out the cards.
The bias index is rather fine. In the non-important decisions there was no bias as both errors cancelled each other. In the important decisions the score was completely in favour of Aston Villa. I think that is down to him usually being a home ref and avoiding controversial decisions against the home team.
There’s an index to today’s anniversaries on the home page, along with details of our books and stuff like that.
Thanks Walter. One of the few matches I wasn’t seething about the ref afterwards. Not just because of the scoreline, but the ref didn’t decide the outcome. I was not happy with Clarks tackle on Poldi and immediately said so after the match. Happy you confirmed it Walter.
Meanwhile, the Liverpool chairman had this to say about FFP;
”
“We really don’t have Financial Fair Play, or at least people are not abiding by it,” Henry said in April 2014. “I’d love to think that Uefa can do and will do what needs to be done, but we’ll see.”
Just makes one wonder what this guy has been smoking. Does this guy ever respect the laws of the game? Firstly he says we realise football contracts are not abided by, now he seems to be saying FFP is not being abided by too. A chairman bent on breaking all the rules in football.
Chambers should have had a second yellow, so busy claiming Villa players should have been sent off(Clark was 50/50, could have been either colour) but that tackle on Grealish was nasty, and if he hadn’t already been booked, he would have been for the tackle. Therefore it is a second yellow. The lad has just started his career yet defenders seem hell-bent on ending it early. If he was an Arsenal player(which he will never be) you would have expected a second yellow for the challenge.
Ant,
What nasty tackle are you talking about? Pulling him on his shoulder? Nasty tackles are the ones from behind, flying in like a madman on the blind side. Chambers just pulled Grealish, not even really holding on to him.
Yellow cards for pulling are only given when the pulling is for longer periods or when it stops a promising attack. Longer periods is holding on for many meters or many seconds. This was not the case. And as it was only some 10 meters from the Aston Villa penalty area you cannot talk about a promising attack.
I think Beachball Jones is gonna be sent to our games a lot this season. See how he totally fkd us up at Stoke last season! He therefore has proved his worth.
It’s not that Jones and others don’t see those tackles from behind, or lose track of players who commit multiple fouls that are designed to hurt our players – because, the same ref instantly gives fouls against Arsenal players – for Perceived fouls as well as actual fouls. The yellow cards for Arsenal players are brandished with some sort of pride, by these refs, usually followed by a friendly exchange with an opposition player, followed by 2 or 3 nasty, unpunished fouls from said opposition, I.e. Thugs!
Thanks for these reviews (and the previews too).
The ref was of the mild sort on Saturday. A little less biased against Arsenal. Aside from the scoreline (and the clean sheet), I like the stand-up-in-their-faces attitude of our players. Villa seemed to employed the gritty, physical, rough-them-up tactics usually employed to good effect by teams against us. They met a resolutely stubborn Arsenal team that refused to be intimidated. Our boys should keep this up. It’s time teams start to realise we can give as well as take the roughing up.
Our ref previewer concluded his excellent article like this:
1.Mr Jones tends to be a home referee : Bias was OK, except cards point 4
2.Mr Jones is not that good overall : He was rather good on this occasion
3.Mr Jones is particularly poor in judging penalties : No penalty decisions to make
4.Mr Jones is also poor at disciplinary offences, both yellow and red cards : confirmed in the review
5.As Walter said “Give me Jones any day of the week in a home match and I don’t fear him. Give him an away game against a footballing team and I don’t fear him. Give him in an away game against a kick the shit team and expect the worst. Remember this for the future.” see comment below
6.Lets just hope that Villa aren’t a ‘kick the shit’ team. Apart from two tackles I don’t think Villa came out to kick the shit out of us.
But a big well done must go to Wenger on finally discovering why a player costs 42.5 million, playing him in the position where he earned such a value. Congrats to Welbeck, the floodgates could open up for him now.
Thanks for your 10:54, Walter.
mika,
I note your congrats to DW23. However, it appears to me that you haven’t kept up with the articles on UA:
“playing him in the position where he earned such a value”???
And where was that position? Did MO11 merely stand around the centre circle being a classic No. 10?
I think not.
When TH14 was converted to centre forward, did he stand in the centre of the field waiting for the ball? NO!
Have you noticed the fluidity of Arsenal’s players, or the fact that all of Arsenal’s so called central midfielders have to play on the wings?
I suspect not. Ah well…
Nice report Walter.
I noticed Abonglahor went to the ground rather easily, either to get a free kick or to try to get our players booked. It is always disappointing when a player resorts to such tactics.
I think a lot article have covered the system that Arsene plays. Interchanging and a lot of movement. Total football. It makes no sense that the comments are bringing up the position that Arsenal players plays, again and again. It’s like reading a post from Goal.com.