QPR v Arsenal 4th March 2015 – The Match Officials
by Andrew Crawshaw
With this game so soon after the weekend, I have not been able to update the table of shame so it remains the same as for Sunday.
| Wrong Important Decisions | Favouring Arsenal | Favouring Opponents |
| 2nd Yellow Cards | 0 | 15 |
| Red Cards | 3 | 14 |
| Penalties | 3 | 14 |
| Goals | 1 | 6 |
| Total | 7 | 49 |
| Possible Cost in Points | 2 | 23 |
We are currently in third place in the League table, four points behind City and nine behind Chelsea. How we could have done with some of the points robbed from us by the PGMO!
Anyway enough wishful thinking on to Wednesday night and we have :-
- Referee – Kevin Friend
- Assistants – M Mullarkey and M McDonough
- Fourth Official – L Probert
Third time this year with Mr Friend, all away games (now there’s a surprise as he is a ‘home’ referee). I have noted nothing against either Mssrs Mullarkey or McDonough. Mr Probert still restricted to Fourth Official duties as he recovers from a back injury that has prevented him refereeing so far this year.
We had him in Matchweek 2 for our trip to Everton and again in week 9 when we were in Sunderland
| Untold Ref Review: Everton/Arsenal. What is an advantage, and what’s wrong with assistant Garratt? |
A rotten example of refereeing barely getting 60% overall rating, Bias against both teams 11/89 and two wrong Important Decisions (second yellow, red cards, penalties or goals). In Min 44 assistant referee A Garratt failed to flag Naismith when clearly offside and scoring a ‘goal’.
In minute 53 Wilshere was given a yellow card for a late challenge on Barry, probably should have been a red. The referee made his intentions perfectly clear at the first foul from Everton when a deliberate late challenge from Osman on Wilshere that warranted a yellow card wasn’t even called as a foul.
Mertesacker committed his first foul in Minute 43 in midfield, barely a foul and certainly not the booking he got. Pathetic one sided refereeing. I added one point in the Arsenal Column as with 10 men we might not have got the equaliser, I also added 2 points in the Opponents column as Everton only scored one valid goal and we scored two.
| Untold Referee Review: Sunderland – Arsenal |
Marginally better with an overall rating of 65% (but still an appallingly low figure). Bias against the two teams 25/75 so again a little more even. One wrong Important Decision, in Min 19 Rodwell should have had a straight red card for fouling Chambers. Flamini was rightly sent off last year for a similar foul. Usual anti-Arsenal bias in booking Gibbs for a minor foul in Min 23 and Wellbeck booked for diving in Min 49 when clearly fouled by O’Shea.
This will be the second game for Mr Friend involving QPR, he was in charge of their 2 – 0 loss away at Swansea in week 14.
In 2013-14 we only had Mr Friend once at home to West Ham a game which we won 3 – 1.
Arsenal – West Ham, business as usual – One nil down to three one at full time with two from Podolski and one from Giroud. No mention of the ref so presume he was OK (as he has been historically at the Emirates – he is a different animal in away games this year though)
Going back to 2012-13 we have :-
| Match Review: Kevin Friend – Arsenal Vs Liverpool (2 – 2) [30/01/2013] |
An amazing refereeing performance 94% overall making bias figures irrelevant. needless to say no wrong Important Decisions. How low has he sunk since then – from 94 to 60%! One wonders why?
In summary
- I used to look forward to Mr Friend being in charge because he gave decent honest refereeing.
- Not now, he is currently piss poor, biased in his handling of the game, allowing our opponents to get away with challenges for which he books our players and regularly shows little appreciation of the laws of the game.
- On his recent form, we will have our players booked for first innocuous fouls, whilst having lumps kicked out of them by QPR.
- Come on Mr Friend, watch a video of how you refereed our Liverpool game in 2013/4 and follow that example, you know that’s how to do it.
COYG
If you like Bob Dylan you might also like Untold Dylan.
Our boys had better forget about the Everton game and knuckle down to QPR. We must somehow beat both the home team and the refs. So, an uphill task, but I think it’s doable. Please guys, don’t leave any room for some cheap ref to derail our run. We need those three points very badly, too badly.
We need something to taunt our detractors with and silence them from spewing dross on Ozil and the other great warriors in our team.
http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-ifab-four.html?m=1 this is worth a read.
To me ref. Friend is not a friend to Arsenal, but he forget that he is disgracing himself world over because of his hatred he has for Arsenal club. Did he ever think of refereeing in world cup, UEFA competion in his life time?
Thanks Gouresh for the link. Interesting and quite refreshing perspective. This issue will not go away no matter how much they suppress it.
I worry about the ref tomorrow. If QPR go down, they could be in real trouble…..or they might not be if FFP fudged again…
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/02/qpr-football-league-ffp-negotiations
We may need to be good enough to beat the team and ref I suspect
I think that one requirement of getting better officiating, is getting the managers to quit being homies themselves. Bruce and Hughes have a thing in the news: that is a criminal tackle, no its not, yes it is, no, yes, ad nauseum.
Stage 1) If at the end of a game, a player on the team “you” are managing commits a bad foul (we’ll start with called by referee), you admit in post-game interviews that your player commited a bad foul.
Stage 2) In post game interviews, “you” come and say that the player X on the other team who got a very soft yellow card, shouldn’t have been carded.
Stage 3) In post game interviews: “You” say, “We were lucky to not get a card when X tackled Y”.
Where we are now, it is every manager only looking to gain advantage for their team, and not being fair to football. We don’t need these arguments in the press over things that only because every manager is only looking out for “their turf”.
In the time of Wenger, have we had players which broke legs? Dislocated shoulders? Lacerated calves or thighs? Stomped? How does this compare to other teams?
I will guess that Arsenal has had players inflict injury to the team Arsene inherited from George. But I suspect that since those players moved on, new players (brought in by Arsene) have been involved in fewer and fewer incidences of inflicting injury in play. Consequently, no opposition manager has any problem with the next team up being Arsenal. They may have N injuries before the game, they are unlikely to have more than N players injured after the game.
Does this data exist? Can we go back and find all injuries that had a player out for more than 6 weeks? Can we find what caused the injury (the foul in question)?
—
I was thinking about Chelsea winning the League Cup against Spurs, and Mourinho. Well, I was also thinking about someone writing Aaron Lemon but I could not find Citrus puns. So, think of those 4 legged animals that provide milk, if you don’t understand.
Do you know why Abramovich finally decided on Jose for a manager?
Q: Where do Russians get their milk?
A: From Mos-cows
Two cows are together in a field. Cow1 is Hazard and Cow2 is Terry.
cow1 says: “moooooo”
cow2 says: “JERK,”i was gonna say that”
Philosophy. We read the football news, and so much about Chelsea seems to be the same:
Deja moo: The feeling that you’ve heard this bull before.
Dyslexic Chelsea players will never get attention:
Q: Have you heard of the dyslexic cow who attained enlightenment?
A: It kept on repeating OOOOMMM!
What do you call a Chelsea player who works on the grounds surrounding the club?
Q: What do you call a cow who works for a gardener?
A: A lawn moo-er.
Which Chelsea player is Phil Neville’s favorite?
Q: Which cow is the best dancer?
A: The one busts a moooooove. (moves to break a leg)
If the Chelsea manager is a Moo (cow), which makes the players cows:
Q: Does running out of a burning barn make a cow unusual?
A: No, only medium rare!
What is Moooooo’s philsophy?
Seize every opportunity and milk it for all its worth!
As Chelsea played Tottenham (and I am doing cow puns), this cow joke must have a lead in, I can’t invent one. Perhaps you can?
Q: What do you get if you cross a steer and a chicken?
A: Roost beef!
Another cow joke that needs a leed in:
Q: What do you get if you cross a cow with a spaniel, a poodle, and a rooster?
A: A cockerpoodlemoo!
And I will leave you with a cow joke that has nothing to do with Chelsea.
Q : A totally black cow was standing in the middle of the road. A man was cruising around a corner with no headlights on, no dome light, no lights on at all. He slams on the brakes at just the right time to miss the cow. How did the guy see the cow?
A : It was daytime.
—
Best wishes to Arsenal tomorrow.
COYG!
NotOverTheHill (and others).
There is an update on London Colney plans at Arsenal.com. And if I post it in this message, it will be hours before it comes up. Sorry.
Redevelopment plans unveiled
There is a wonderful interview with Wenger about Coquelin at Arsenal.com
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150303/wenger-coquelin-has-surprised-me
It does not present anything about his nose injury, or even mention it. That he is being considered for QPR means that surgery was not required. Surgery would have meant that bone had broken to the point where it needed to be dealt with. The structure of the nose is mostly cartilage, so it is possible to break a nose, and not break any bones.
The face in general has a much higher density of blood vessels per unit area than elsewhere on the body. The nose seems to be a focus. If there was no broken bone, most blood vessels leaking would just be due to being over stretched, not laceration. In the minutes between the initial injury and getting bonked in the nose again, there would be swelling. The second bonk could easily break more blood vessels.
In amateur sports, he would be expected to go home and deal with things as best as he could. And I really doubt he would get any sleep that night, as who can sleep when you are choking?
Whether he went home, stayed in the hospital, or went to Arsenal facilities is a detail. But, he could have been given treatment to try and open his nasal cavities and allow him to relax, and so maybe he did get sleep that night.
The big problem, is dealing with all the swelling. More blood vessels, more swelling. Nose damage, lots of blood vessels damaged.
To sleep alone, it is hard to do anything to reduce swelling around your nose. To have a nurse monitoring you, it could be that they could work at the swelling.
If Coquelin is to play against QPR, he is probably still dealing with swelling. They will not make a mask for him until the last minute, as the mask needs to be designed for how the swelling is “now”. What needs the most protection, how to distribute forces elsewhere.
—
Best wishes to Arsenal tomorrow (I guess it is today for most readers, sorry)
COYG!
I love stats but I love opinions too. There’s no way we’ve been good enough to top the league, bad decisions or no. Fortunately, with the exception of Chelsea, our league rivals have been average which means we do have an outside chance of claiming second. QPR away is not an easy game, I have a horrible feeling this maybe a draw. Hope my intuition is way off and we thump them 4-0, gd could be crucial.
@ Gord – To my udder amazement , I found moo bad jokes!
Is there any trace left of the great Ancient Cow civilization?
Yes, many ruminants are left behind.
Tantric sex with bovines?
That’s a lot of bull-yoni.
Cows often regurgitate their own cud. It’s because they’re bullimic.
Those who invest in cattle futures must pay attention to the leather forecast.
Mother cow to uncouth calf: “Were you grazed in a barn?”
Misbehaving cows must sit in the corner wearing a dung’s cap.
The cow and bull mated in a heap of dung.
The next morning the cow said “man ‘ure great last night!”
The Secret Service surrounded the President with dozens of cows.
They were trying to beef up security.
Eat in the field where the grass is greener?
You gotta be grazy!
You shouldn’t tell jokes about cows.
Nobody likes a cattle-tale.
Q: Do you eat veal?
A: Of course not! Also, I’m trying to give up calfeine.
There are those cows who produce offspring and those who don’t.
It’s a case of the calves and calve-nots.
Q -When should you throw out your cow milk?
A – When it gives off a peculiar udder.
A farmer was milking his cow. He was just starting to get a good rhythm going when a bug flew into the barn and started circling his head. Suddenly, the bug flew into the cow’s ear. The farmer didn’t think much about it, until the bug squirted out into his bucket. It went in one ear and out the udder.
( Often on this site ‘THEY’ exhibit stupidity in the same way but it comes out of their arses ! Not at all surprising as their heads are a vacuum , without any grey matter ,nor sense !)
Am hoping that we start in the same way as we did against Everton and patiently probe and prod away and strike at the opportune time .
A clean sheet would be an added bonus . 1-0 to the Arsenal! Up the Gunners !
That ‘s bloody strange – sounds a lot like the PGMOB , UEFA , FUFA and the FA and…..well you get the point ! The silence is deafening !
Joe was a house keeper who had this habit of drinking from his boss’s wine bottle and replacing it with water. ?
The boss, Sam, did suspect him but tolerated it for a while..
But when this became a daily routine, Sam decided to do something to trap Joe.
So he shouted: “Joe?”
Joe answered from the kitchen: “Yes boss?”
Sam: “Who drank my wine and added water in the bottle?”
There was no answer from the kitchen.
The boss repeated the question, still no answer.
The angry boss marched to the kitchen and threatened Joe,
“What the hell is going on? When I call your name you respond with ‘Yes Boss’ and when I ask you a question, you remain silent. What is this !!!”
Joe said: “It is like this. In the kitchen, you can hear only your name being called..
You don’t hear anything else that is said, I swear.”
Sam: “How is that possible? All right, I will prove you wrong..
You stay right here in the hall with Madam,
I will go to the kitchen and you ask me a question, OK?”
So the boss went to the kitchen.
Joe shouted: “Boss?”
Boss: “Yes Joe?”
Joe: “Who becomes intimate with the maid in Madam’s absence?”
Silence – no reply.
Joe again: “Who made the maid pregnant?”
No reply.
Joe, yet again: “And who arranged for her abortion?”
Sam came running from the kitchen and said: “you are right Joe. When one is in kitchen, one can’t hear anything but one’s name. That’s bloody strange!”
Arsenal looked a bit jaded against Everton on Sunday and I think this could be a very tough fixture for us.
QPR have had 10 days rest since they last played compared to Arsenal’s 3 games in the last 7 days. Add Mr Friend into the equation and a difficult night looks in prospect.
Arsenal U18 5 – Leicester 3
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2015/03/04/promising-arsenal-teenager-scores-twice-in-5-3-victory-for-gunne/
Are fans racist in London? ITV has some poll results out:
http://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-03-04/chelsea-and-millwall-fans-rated-the-worst-in-london/
I resorted on positive impression:
. . . .Fan Impression
. . .Positive .Negative
Arsenal . 33 . . . 18
Fulham . .28 . . . 10
Spurs . . 24 . . . 21
CPal . . .23 . . . 15
Brentford 22 . . . .8
QPR . . . 22 . . . 11
Charlton .21 . . . 11
Leyton . .20 . . . 10
WHam . . .20 . . . 25
Chel . . .13 . . . 43
Mill . . . 7 . . . 45