The PGMO v Arsenal: the half time report part

This continues our series of articles reviewing the way referees have affected Arsenal games.  Part one of the review is here.

The PGMO v Arsenal – the Half Time Report

by Andrew Crawshaw

This is a series of articles that review the first 19 weeks of the season, who were the referees, were they Good, Bad or Downright Ugly and any other points I consider relevant.  I am using Walter’s referee reviews as my source document and will post links to then so that you can check further points yourselves.

Matchweek 10 – 1 November Arsenal v Burnley – Arsenal win three nil

• Referee – Craig Pawson
• Assistants – D Bryan and D Eaton
• Fourth Official – J Moss

Overall weighted referee score 72%; Bias against Arsenal 86%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 1 (Min 20 Boyd for handball in the penalty area)

Red Card – None

Penalties – 1 (Min20 Boyd)

Goals – None

With 70% as the minimum acceptable performance this just passes, still a terrible bias and two wrong Important Decisions arising from a missed deliberate handball/penalty in minute 20.  Fortunately it didn’t affect the overall result.  The assistant on that side Mr Bryan also gets a black mark for missing the incident.

Untold Referee Review : Arsenal – Burnley

Matchweek 11 – 9 November Swansea v Arsenal – Arsenal loose 2-1

• Referee – Phil Dowd
• Assistants – D Cann and S Ledger
• Fourth Official – R East

Overall weighted referee score 73%; Bias against Arsenal 88%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 2 (Min 47 Williams on Cazorla, could easily have been straight red, NB Williams had already entered the field of play before being waved on by the referee, that is also a yellow card offence so he should have had two second yellow cards)

Red Card – None

Penalties – 2 (Min 21 Chambers on Wilfried Min 69 Swansea 22 on Chambers)

Goals – None

Another barely acceptable performance, Three wrong Important Decisions, one penalty for both teams which (kind of) cancel out and (more importantly) the Swansea captain not being sent off in Minute 47.

Untold Referee Review : Swansea – Arsenal

 

Matchweek 12 – 22 November Arsenal v Man United – Arsenal lose 2-1

• Referee – Mike Dean
• Assistants – J Collin and D England
• Fourth Official – M Jones

Overall weighted referee score 53%; Bias against Arsenal 80%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – None

Red Card – 2 (Min50 McNair for studs up challenge on Wilshere, Min90+7 Di Maria for elbowing Chambers)

Penalties – 1 (Min15 Shaw on Wilshere First elbow then trip)

Goals – 1 (Min55 Fellaini standing offside but interfering with play pushes Gibbs into Szcz two separate fouls both ignored by referee).

What could possibly go wrong – Dean refereeing Arsenal v Man United (intended scrcasm).  A downright Ugly refereeing performance with Dean deciding the game in favour of United.  Four wrong Important Decisions all favouring United, a wrongly given goal, a not given penalty to Arsenal and two United players not sent off.

Imagine a ref who only gets half his decisions right: Arsenal – MU ref review

 

Matchweek 13 – 29 November West Brom v Arsenal – Arsenal win one nil

• Referee – Chris Foy
• Assistants – M McDonough and C Hatzikidas
• Fourth Official – N Swarbrick

Overall weighted referee score 70%; Bias against Arsenal 78%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – None

Red Card – None

Penalties – 1 (Min23 Lumumba on Giroud, Referee literally looked the other way)

Goals – None

A barely adequate performance, 70% overall, bias against Arsenal 78% and one wrong Important Decision (a not given penalty) making the Arsenal win far harder than it should have been.

Ref Review : WBA – Arsenal. Biased by circumstance more than by nature

 

Matchweek 14 – 3 December Arsenal v Southampton – Arsenal win one nil

• Referee Andre Marriner
• Assistants – P Kirkup and M Perry
• Fourth Official – A Taylor

Overall weighted referee score 59%; Bias against Arsenal 77%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 1 (Min 87 Dummett on Wellbeck in penalty area)

Red Card – None

Penalties – 2 (Min87 Southampton player punches the ball away from Giroud – luckily the ball falls to Ramsey who teed up Alexis to score so we can probably ignore this wrong call; Min 92 Alexis fouled in penalty area)

Goals – None

A downright ugly performance from one of the PGMO’s more senior and (on paper) better referees.  No excuses Mr Marriner you were piss poor.

REF REVIEW Arsenal – Southampton

 

Matchweek 15 – 6 December Stoke v Arsenal – Arsenal loose 3-2

• Referee – Anthony Taylor
• Assistants – J Collin and I Hussin
• Fourth Official – R East

Overall weighted referee score 59%; Bias against Arsenal 100%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 2 (Min28 Crouch for second elbow to Arsenal player first in Min14, he got his first yellow card for a third offence in Min45, Min77 Chambers wrongly given second yellow card, his first was wrong in context of fouls by Stoke players)

Red Card – 1(Min 83 for using a wrestling sleeper hold on Alexis)

Penalties – None

Goals – 1(Min 45 Shawcross foul on Ox in build up to goal)

A third downright Ugly refereeing performance of the season, Taylor single handedly treating Stoke to three points, it got that bad that both Assistants took matters into their own hands ruling out another illegal Stoke goal and awarding Arsenal a penalty.  These good decisions add to the positive score that Mr Taylor got, without them he would have been below 50%.

Untold ref Review: Stoke – Arsenal, the Anthony Taylor horror show. “Shockingly bad”.

 

Matchweek 16 – 13 December Arsenal v Newcastle – Arsenal win 4-1

• Referee – Lee Mason
• Assistants – S Burt and A Halliday
• Fourth Official – N Swarbrick

Overall weighted referee score 76%; Bias against Arsenal 100%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 1 (Min 87 Dummett on Wellbeck in penalty area)

Red Card – 1            (Min 8 Tiote for studs up challenge to Alexis’ chest)

Penalties – None

Goals – 1 (Min15 Wellbeck goal ruled out for imaginary foul)

With a score of more than 70%  the performance must be classed as adequate, but with a bias against Arsenal of 100% and three wrong Important Decisions, it cannot be regarded as anything better than barely adequate.  Failure to dismiss a player for a frontal studs up challenge to the chest in inexcusable.

Ref Review Arsenal – Newcastle

 

Matchweek 17 – 21 December Liverpool v Arsenal – draw two all

• Referee – Michael Oliver
• Assistants – S Long and L Betts
• Fourth Official – C Pawson

Overall weighted referee score 67%; Bias against Arsenal 100%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 1 (Min 61 Stirling for deliberate handball)

Red Card – 1            (Min91 Borini for kung-fu kick to cazorla’s Chest; OK he was given a second yellow card with a one game ban but it was an appalling challenge that warranted a red card and three game rest)

Penalties – None

Goals – None

Another bad refereeing performance, overall rating below 70%, two wrong Important Decisions, the first of which enabled Liverpool to stay at 11 men on the pitch, at 10 men with 30 minutes to play their ability to come back in the game would have been greatly reduced and Arsenal would probably have got all three points.

 

Matchweek 18 – 26 December Arsenal v QPR – Arsenal win two-one

• Referee – Martin Atkinson
• Assistants – M Mullarkey and P Kirkup
• Fourth Official – P Dowd

Overall weighted referee score 70%; Bias against Arsenal 87%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – 1 (Min 52 Ferdinand for grabbing Giroud by the neck already booked in Min26)

Red Card – None

Penalties – 4 (Min23 Onuoha for dragging Giroud to the ground, min75 Fer on Mertesacker, Min77 wrongly given penalty when Debuchy cleared the ball and Hoillet went down, Min 90 Gibbs on Zamora

Goals – 1 (Min77 the goal scored from the wrongly awarded penalty to QPR shouldn’t have stood)

A pretty poor performance from Atkinson, getting 70% only overall performance and a disaster over his penalty decision making.  Five wrong Important Decisions relating to penalties and a missed second yellow card for Ferdinand. He had four penalty decisions to make and he got every one wrong.  Two not given against Arsenal, one wrongly given in favour of QPR from which they scored and one not awarded to QPR at the end of the game.  87% bias against Arsenal.  Needs to go back to school to re-learn about penalties.  Can’t be awarded anything higher than Bad as there is no excuse for six wrong Important Decisions in one game.

Untold Ref Review: Arsenal – QPR

 

Matchweek 19 – 28 December West Ham v Arsenal – Arsenal win two-one

• Referee – Neil Swarbrick
• Assistants – S Ledger and M Wilkes
• Fourth Official K Stroud

Overall weighted referee score 80%; Bias against Arsenal 89%; Wrong Important Decisions :-

Second Yellow Card – None

Red Card – None

Penalties – None

Goals – None

Neil Swarbrick, you got all of the Important Decisions correct so thank you for that, you should have booked two West Ham players and gave a large number of minor fouls (some imaginary) in favour of West Ham so need to work harder on your balance.  Apart from that you did just enough for your performance to be judged good.

Ref review West Ham – Arsenal

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Football Betrayed: Incompetence or collusion 

Football Betrayed: It’s a numbers game unless you cheat

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