Referee : Andre Marriner
Please note this is one of a large series of ref reviews – a series that started some four years ago, with the reviews undertaken by numerous qualified referees.
With ref Marinner we had one of the more experienced refs in the PL and one of the better. On paper. And one that I rate rather high from all the refs in the PL.
But I had the impression that he was not really focused from the start and missed a foul on Monreal when Long came in late and clipped the ankle of Monreal. Monreal played on in the match but after that match it became clear he was injured and only now is coming back.
Another bad miss was the not given offside when Pelle attacked Martinez and the ref ended up giving a corner to Southampton. That decision was wrong and also the decision from the assistant to not raise his flag when Pelle was clearly offside and attacked the keeper.
Last talking point from my part is the foul from Wanyama on Alexis where the first one kicked the latter on the calf with no chance of playing the ball. Ref should have booked him for that.
The first half score was rather low for a ref like Marinner. A score of only 66% and when we put weight on the decisions it goes down to 65%. Only one yellow card correct from the important decisions so a score of only 25% on that.
In the second half he missed a yellow card against Cazorla. Cazorla ended up on the foot of Tadic and should have been booked by the ref. Another miss was when he gave a handball against Chambers when the ball clearly hit his chest. But not really important fouls and his misses always almost on the same spot on the field. Bad positioning maybe?
But then we entered the final minutes. And suddenly it went completely wrong.
How on earth that the ref didn’t raise an eyebrow, let alone his whistle to his mouth when the Southampton defender clearly punched the ball away from Giroud with his hand is something I cannot understand. His hands were not in a natural positioning, he was not protecting his face or any other vulnerable part of his body. He just jumped and punched the ball away.
Now as a reviewer I then look at the ref and see if he has the intention to give it or not. And to my amazement he clearly never showed any signal that he wanted to blow a penalty. I really was amazed by that.
That really was beyond me. Lucky for Arsenal Ramsey got on to the ball and Alexis finished it off. Because otherwise that would have been one of the biggest errors made by a ref in an Arsenal match. And I have seen a few over the years.
It was as if Marinner was determined not to give a penalty to Arsenal as minutes later Alexis was fouled inside the penalty area and the ref gave a corner. It wasn’t a corner as Alexis played the ball. But that really was something to see two blatant penalties being denied by the ref within minutes.
And it is not because Arsenal won the match in the end that we shouldn’t mention such errors once again. We want good decisions and fair decisions. But Arsenal didn’t get them on the day. Once again.
The score of the ref in the second half was 65% and when we put weight on it it goes down to 55%. If we only look at the important decisions it drops to 28%. Very poor.
The total score over the whole 90 minutes gives the ref a score of 65% and when we put weight on it he only got 59%. When we look at the important decisions we only find a score of 27% correct.
And that for a ref who in general has high scores when it comes to important decisions. But this he really was piss poor on the important decisions. And that is very unlike the usual Marinner.
It sure does show that when a PGMO ref has to do an Arsenal match there seems to be something changing in them…..
The good thing was he didn’t wrongly sent off the wrong Arsenal player this time…
Hilarious summary of the ref. You obviously feel that ref gave Arsenal nothing, interesting. Arsenal got the benefit of pretty much any doubt the whole game and Arsenal feel hard done by? I presume you are for real and not a spoof. Either way, very entertainingly funny summary.
No, the funny stuff is written by you Smiffy. The article says at the top that there is a context, which you have ignored, you present no evidence and then find something else funny.
Actually, no, that’s not really very funny. It’s a bit sad.
In fact Smiffy if you would have read the article your second sentence “you obviously feel that the ref gave Arsenal nothing” is wrong as in the article it clearly states that the ref gave Arsenal 3 wrong decisions in their favour.
But hey lets not get facts in the way of your own feelings….
Smiffy, please do your referee review for this game so we can see how, in your opinion, the ref favoured Arsenal.
Anyway, this is the same Marriner that reffed the Everton-Man City game, where he missed two blatant kung-fu kicks on Everton players and gave City a soft penalty. It will be interesting to see his overall numbers at the end of the season. It looks like he’s hoping to climb the PGMO ladder.
All the performances from the refs so far doesn’t leave me very optomistic for the Liverpool game.
Walter,
How does the standard of refereeing in the Premier League compare with that experienced in the Champions League – or other European leagues, for that matter?
Have you – or your fellow reviewers – ever run the same assessment process for Arsenal’s (or others’) European matches?
Since England’s pool of referees is so small, as you have frequently noted, then if the standard elsewhere in Europe is noticeably higher, that would support the argument to expand the pool by importing more overseas referees to officiate at EPL games. Preferably on an exchange basis, to allow such (*cough*) “elite” English refs to gain greater international experience.
A good review and once again an incompetent performance by the PGMO representative – and once again the incompetence has been largely overlooked by the media.
Walter, the effort you put in to these reviews is much valued and appreciated.
Well done Walter – its a thankless task when the idiots of this world think they know better.
My take on PGMO is simple. It does not have independent assessors and does not come clean after matches by interview, so is hiding the truth. Thankfully some of the truth is visible in the UA reviews albeit from video that is available. So until they come clean, they are cheating.
Another two penalties missed. And so it goes on! That could have been minus two deserved points for Arsenal. And the injury to Monreal which has put additional pressure on our defence.
@Walter – Could you take another look at the Ramsey foul on Jack Cork in the 10th minute? In fairness to the Southampton fans, Ramsey might have been booked for that challenge from which Cork is out 6 weeks with ligament damage.
Overall, Marriner was really poor this match, but he missed calls against both teams.