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RefWatch – Arsenal v Sunderland (05/03/2011. 15:00)
By DogFace
- Referee: Anthony Taylor
- Assistant 1: Dave Bryan
- Assistant 2: Andy Garratt
- 4th Official: Peter Walton
Good morning stat-fans and welcome one and all to the now [im]famous RefWatch! This week is seems that the PGMOL (in their [in]finite wisdom) have rather mugged me off in terms of their appointment for this match, insomuch as we have a referee who has never taken charge of and Arsenal match and only officiated for one match involving our opponents [Sunderland]… that’ll stop Walter moaning that familiarity breeds contempt in the rather limited gene-puddle of the PGMOL Select group!
Alas, it seems that, for Sunderland, once was enough to foster contempt as Steve Bruce, at his Fergiesqe best, described young Anthony as “totally inadequate” for sending off Lee Cattermole (for a second bookable offence) and holding Sunderland to a 2-2 draw with Birmingham in August 2010 – the implication was that Anthony double-booked the poor, misunderstood, gentle desert flower of a man [Lee Cattermole] more on his reputation than the actual challenges he made. Ahem – So far so good then.
Let’s have a look at the referee:
- Full name: Anthony Taylor
- Date of birth: 20-Oct-1978 (Age 32)
- Place of birth: Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, England
- EPL Referee Since: 2009/2010
- EPL Games to date: 11
Wae’aye man don’t send us off – you really gone an’ hurt me feelings…
I have no graphs for Anthony Taylor as he’s been fast-tracked into the Select group and we have next to no data… so we’ll have to look at the only thing left to us – his rise through the ranks; and if we look at his professional career, we can see that he has gone through the leagues like shit through a veritable goose:
| Competition | Matches |
| Premier League | 11 |
| Championship | 45 |
| League One | 21 |
| League Two | 12 |
| League Cup | 7 |
| FA-Cup | 8 |
| J. League Division 1 | 2 |
| J. League Division 2 | 1 |
| Total: | 107 |
So – 107 full professional matches and already in the Select Group… he must have something about him; but where are all the rest of these dynamic young referee’s that should be breaking into the top flight and expanding their number? And while we are on the subject, where are all the perfectly good referee’s that get overlooked promotion.
I think the point I’m trying to make here is that this guy has been ear-marked for promotion at every turn… so presumably, this time next season (somewhere around the 130 game mark), he’ll be looking forward to getting his FIFA badge. He’s either very good at his job or very good at something else – a quick google reveals a number of debatable (quote “ridiculous”) decisions so we’ll be watching him closely today.
The only other thing worthy of note is that he did a stint in the J-League – but there’s nothing wrong with that, nothing at all – just ask Le Boss! Hey – maybe Steve Bruce could do a “He’s a novice and should keep his opinions to Japanese football” style rant about that?
So – what to expect from this referee..? I’ve absolutely no idea – sorry – but I won’t leave it there; as always, in these times of statistical famine, I cast doggie my eye further afield to the other games that might interest us and I see…
…hmm…
Liverpool Vs Manchester United
Under Phil Dowd you say? With his reputation and SAF effectively gagging himself après weekend mugging?! And Liverpool, with Manchester United’s next opponents [Bolton] snapping at their heels, really jolly well needing the points to get into Europa League now that Birmingham have spawned themselves a place?
I will assume that the Red Devils will face an uphill struggle there… incidentally I tweeted the result of the ‘Chelsea Vs Manchester United’ match a day before it kicked off… Martin Atkinson you see.
Blackpool Vs Chelsea
The dynamic duo take control of this one with Mike Dean at the whistle and Howard Webb on security detail… so it smells fishy already. What with Dean’s best mate ‘onest ‘arry coveting a Champions League place (with associated carte blanch to ‘bung’) we must assume the worst – in other words; what have Chelsea and a Hen night got in common?
They both travel up to Blackpool expecting to get screwed.
Narf narf.
Arsenal v Sunderland – the match preview
Why players from overseas get more cards than UK players
On a side note, I just looked up who’s the ref for Sunday’s Pool Manu clash. It’s Phil Dowd. While I do admit that I am quite paranoid and possibly indulge myself unhealthily into the whole “there’s a conspiracy with the EPL’s refereeing” idea, does anyone else feel that we can fairly confidently “predict” the outcome of that game? Just a thought.
I am liking the cut of his jib already, anyone who sends cattermole off shows an understanding the rules of the game, there isn’t a match that blister plays without resorting to out and out thuggery.
with ref’s doing what they can to destroy our fairplay record this season, lets hope Mr. Taylor has a sense of justice and consistency. Assuming he was culturally curious(he he) while he lived in Japan, integrity, honour and duty might be concepts he could have at least a casual acquaintance with.
i think he will respect style and flair and crack down on brute force, that said, Sunderland have got a fair amount of flair in their ranks and we should expect them to try and express themselves, their defence in their game to everton was a shambles and i’ll be surprised if we don’t get a pen in this game, but all n all it should be a good game.
Also i think Alec macleish has set the benchmark on how to play arsenal from now on, i expect them to try and contain us for the first 60 or so minutes and then to try and runs us off the pitch with a barnstorming finish. it will depend on when we score and how many men they’ll have on at that point, chamack v John mensah should be interesting. also muntari v diaby.
enjoy the game wherever you watch it, come on Liverpool- or rather do your worst ref Dowd.
@dogface
mightn’t Dowd’s appointment be a sweetener for fergie? Dowd is a sucker for attention, he is the EPL’s errand boy when they need an atmosphere *electrified” and i am sure he believes ala blair that he was put on this earth to build himself a legacy.
we can expect controversy but can we expect the PGMOL to vindicate fergie by giving him something to moan about?
“The inventor of Hawk-Eye says the implementation of goal-line technology is unlikely to happen quickly.
The International FA Board (Ifab), which determines the laws of football, will discuss the issue on Saturday.
Paul Hawkins says his technology is available but with Ifab only meeting annually, progression will take time….”
The Ifab?
Did they just make that up?
‘We won’t be getting any of them there pesky ‘putas involved in our bootiful game. Oh no.
We’ll just call ourselves the I-Gimp or somefink like that. Should keep the ‘punters happy…’
Anthony Taylor has reffed 26 matches this season, sending off 10 players in 8 separate matches, so he does seem a bit of a disciplinarian.
I still can’t get over that of all the premier league refs, not one of them is from London.
@Johnny Deigh,
You might also find significant the fact that only five of the twenty premiership sides are from the south of england, all from london.
If there is a certain inertia in accepting that th game has moved on and maybe a northern flavour to refereeing, you go far wrong in analysing northern cultural attitudes to southerners.
i am sure i am going to get crucified (hanged and electrocuted as well, probably) for saying this but if you put all the PC shit to one side and think about it, there is a strong northern grip on the game that by passes most people until you map the teams on a map of England and then try it with the ref’s as well.
I was going to write an article about it but got sidetracked somewhat but try it and see what you think.
er,it should read “you WONT go far wrong”
But then doesn’t it seem strange then that 25% of the teams are from London, that Greater London makes up 15% of England’s population, yet not one of the 18 Premier League refs are from London?
And I wouldn’t say there is an inherent bias of northerners towards Londoners because Chelsea don’t seem to get screwed with the way we do. However, there may something to it in terms of controlling or managing the pool of referees.
@Johnny Deigh
i wouldn’t completely discount the perception that southerners are soft in any argument around administering justice, one truism in football is that the further north you go the harder the man climaxing in the barbarity that passes for football in Scotland.
If you listen only to the narrative around arsenal, you’d get the impression that we spent most of the games diving and our player were injury prone and we were just a bunch of tippy tappy prima donnas with no steel. I’d like to refer you to Sam Allardyce’s Bolton vs arsenal encounters, or stoke- We are supposed to accept that we play different versions of the same game and forget the rule book, they play rugby football league and we football, suck it oop and moove on, lad.
and on a human level, the fact that Westminster let them down badly in the last century is not to be taken lightly, this sort of bias is passed on their mothers milk. I am no basher of regional pride, but it is something that takes an oosz against them mentality to flourish, i put to you that it is alive and well oop noarth.
I reckon that the current mob from PGMOL aspire to Hollywood – all love the camera and want to be the centre of attention. (Still cant believe how well AW took the worst ever Dowd performance at toon.) Its the way Dowd roars, the way he flourishes the cards so theatrically and the pathetic way he and his MU ref mates call players back for a pointless headmasters rebuke, usually while the player is looking anywhere but at them or spitting. Arsenal players get no fifth & sixth chances, they get booked straight away. A friend said we need more jeff winter type refs, but wouldn’t they just be besmirched by SAF and therefore ineffective? Isn’t having half the ref list working for SAF enough? We are always up against it and I can only shudder at who will be ‘in charge’ for the manure game in may. My guess ‘Man Utd’s Howard Webb’.
Another match ruined by a bullshit referee. fixed.
So pissed off right now.
Dogface….you wondered why he had been fast-tracked…..orders from the top….
Full name: Anthony Taylor
Place of birth: Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, England
Just watched the game online. To not be awarded the penalty was criminal, to be followed soon after by an incorrectly disallowed goal for offside is painful.
Must have been fastracked for a reason, they are on to you Walter!
The referee’s a corrupt, and have become dictators. We fans must go “Egyptian” on them..who’s with me?
Am i the only one who thinks the ref had a decent game, he was let down by his assistants but i thought he was consistent and allowed us to play.
There can be, there can only be one bloody view here. This referee is biased and this match was fixed. His single goddamn intention must have been to help Ferguson.
Somebody somewhere ought to take on this menace.
yes. he seemed to let the fouls against us ride. Lets hear what Walter has to say
am a Proud Gooner, We have the Best team, they fear us, thats why they go to darkpathetic ways
Ugandan Goon
March 5th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Am i the only one who thinks the ref had a decent game,
If I was to hazard a guess, I would say ‘Yes’
Oh dear! Taylor started well. Richardson was late on Nasri. Ref seemingly did nothing but at next stoppage had a quiet word. Richardson was then late into a challenge and was immediately cautioned. Excellent refereeing and I was impressed. This all happened in the first half. Thereafter, what an appalling performance from Taylor and from the assistant covering Sunderland’s defence in the second half. OK, as usual we missed too many chances but the standard of officiating is chronic. I pay nearly £100 to attend each game at home. For this money I expect to be entertained. I moan long and loud if the players are crap, but I expect decent officials. It is not only the fact that they got the ‘big’ decisions wrong today, the amount of timewasting that was allowed was shocking. Week after week I lament the demise of the standard of officaiting on the EPL. Taylor is supposed to be the new big hope. He was awful. Again I pose the question – just what is Riley doing to secure improvements?
The ‘foul throw’ moment against Clichy showed, at least, his creativity – lol.
The EPL is a total joke… the brand is damaged beyond repair in my eyes – if win the fucking thing all the players should celebrate by standing it in the middle of the field, form a circle and take a piss in it.
I agree with Red Jessie. Taylor started out okay, but in the second half he was poor. He wouldn’t book their players for bad, reckless, or intentional fouls, but he would book us for dissent.
Am I un H-A-P-P-Y?
Does a new born baby cry?
Did Little Red Riding wear a hood?
Did the three bears shit in the woods?
Was Humpty Dumpty fat?
Does the Pope wear a funny hat?
Is football fixed?
@ A Casual Observer,
lets hope we win it away. or we could just piss on the ball before handing it to the ref at the end.
In other news Ryo Miyaichi has been voted player of the month for February in the eredivise by a top dutch football fanzine.
For those of you pushing the ‘northerners with a chip on their shoulder’ line, try this:
the SE of England, that’s London, Oxford and Cambridge, were ruthlessly sharking the commercial prospects from Northern Universities the last decade. I’m a southerner who went to work in the North and I found out exactly what they were doing.
One thing they did was place a prominent Chancellor down south as a Chancellor Oop North.
Widespread electronic bugging goes on and they’ll let you do anything as long as they can steal it and pass it off as their own before it’s really valuable.
I won’t name any names but you lot would be really shocked if I did.
You can call it ‘competitive behaviour’ if you like.
But when it gets to the point of electronic bugging in someone’s home, I call it beyond the pale criminality.
You’ll find pretty much everyone at it though. The Scots were at it, the Manx were at it, the Scousers were at it. The Yanks are at it, the French are at it, the Russians are at it. The Chinese are at it.
When it comes down to it, you need to ask yourself one question: do I stoop to their level or do I blow it out of the water or do I try and win honest.
I decided to try and win honest, then I decided to blow it out of the water.
If any of you have children, I’d advise you all strongly to get them trained up in electronic surveillance.
Because without it, unless they become a footballer, they’ve no chance.
Come on Walter. Where’s that ref report that was finished at midnight? Or is Tony over-sleeping?
So the ref is from the Greater Manchester area.
Not a city fan it would appear.
I am growing weary of opposing goal keepers getting MOTM with the assistance of match officials.
“I am growing weary of opposing goal keepers getting MOTM with the assistance of match officials.”
Likewise Terence, if we had got the penalty and sending off, plus the offside goal and went on to win 2 or 3 to nil, would their keeper still have been getting MOTM?
Rhys is good entertainment isn’t he?
@Bollock-chops,
I don’t think he intends to be “entertaining”.
Ps. Are you Dogface in Disguise? Fucking hell, what next, Beef curtain gunner? lol
@Ugandan Goon.
I think you’ll find that I was right with regards to Dowd shafting SAF.
😉
I’m not sure why everyone on this site seems to think that all refs are pro-United. I have made it quite clear on several occasions that this is not the case but alas my words like silent raindrops fell.