The Untold ref Review MU – Arsenal

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

By Ref Reviewer 03

We went to Old Trafford and well did not get the result we hoped for.  Is there any blame we can give ref Howard Webb? Let us find out.

Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment points weight
5 OTHER Cleverley Ramsey C Cleverley tugged on Ramsey’s arm, could have played on 1 1
6 OTHER Welbeck Coquelin C Tripping – advantage played 1 1
7 OFFSIDE C Welbeck onside 1 1
8 OTHER Ramsey Welbeck C Tripping 1 1
9 YELLOW Young NC Simulation – this is the 2nd time that Ashley Young has thrown himself to ground in the penalty area in the past minute and a half  – should be a yellow 0 0
10 OTHER Rooney Koscielny C Pushing 1 1
11 OTHER Cleverley Ramsey C Tripping 1 1
13 OTHER Evans Van Persie NC Holding 0 0
15 OTHER Arshavin Jones C Arshavin is late and catches Jones above the ankle 1 1
15 YELLOW Arshavin C Bad tackle deserved a yellow, might have seen red 1 2
22 GOAL Welbeck C Goal okay 1 1
24 OFFSIDE Smalling NC Smalling was a foot or two offside, linesman missed it, Smalling had a shot wide of goal 0 0
26 PENALTY Evans Walcott C Evans pulled back Theo so he couldn’t play the ball.  A bit harsh perhaps, but it was a foul 1 3
26 YELLOW Evans C Unsporting behaviour 1 2
28 GOAL Young C Goal okay 1 3
32 OTHER Anderson Coquelin C Holding 1 1
34 OTHER Arshavin Young NC Arshavin slides in a bit rash on Ashley Young 0 0
34 RED Arshavin NC Replay shows Arshavin caught Young with his studs to his boot, should have been booked and sent off as he was already on a yellow 0 0
38 OTHER Djourou Young C Tripping 1 1
40 OTHER Jenkinson Young C Foul 1 1
40 YELLOW Jenkinson C Ashley goes down easily but there was contact 1 2
41 GOAL Rooney C Goal okay 1 3
45+1 OFFSIDE Chicharito C Assumed correct 1 1
45+3 GOAL Walcott C Goal okay 1 3
Half time 19 30
CORRECT 76,00% 78,95%
YELLOW 3 4 75,00
RED 0 1 0,00
PENALTY 1 1 100,00
GOAL 4 4 100,00
OTHER 1 2 50,00
9 12 75,00
OFFSIDE 2 3 66,67
Second half
46 OTHER Traore Chicharito NC Tripping 0 0
47 OTHER Rooney Djourou C Holding 1 1
48 OTHER Rooney Djourou NC Rooney is holding off Djourou by grabbing his shorts, not given 0 0
49 OTHER Jenkinson Young NC Jenkinson caught Young in the knee while attempting a swipe at the ball 0 0
51 OTHER Evra Walcott C Barged into the back of Theo throwing his shoulder into Theo’s head, could have been booked for it 1 1
56 OFFSIDE Chicharito C 1 1
57 OTHER Evans Van Persie NC Evans pushed Van Persie as he tried to receive a pass from Walcott, should have been a dangerous free kick to Arsenal – not given 0 0
63 OTHER Djourou Rooney C Djourou tried to impede Rooney as he was going past 1 1
63 YELLOW Djourou C Rooney went down easily but Djourou did try to slow him down, deserved yellow 1 2
64 GOAL Rooney C Goal okay 1 3
67 GOAL Nani C Goal okay 1 3
70 GOAL Park C Goal okay 1 3
73 OTHER Rosicky Chicharito C Pushing – advantage played 1 1
74 GOAL Van Persie C Goal okay 1 3
75 OTHER NC Arshavin dribbles the ball off of Phil Jones, Webb gives Man U a goal kick when it should have been a corner to Arsenal 0 0
76 OTHER Jenkinson Chicharito C Jenkinson runs into Chicharito knocking him down 1 1
76 YELLOW Jenkinson C Broke up a good scoring chance though not an obvious one because Djourou was getting back, 2nd Yellow and Jenkinson is off 1 2
80 PENALTY Walcott Evra C Harsh in my opinion as the contact seemed much more incidental than intentional, but Evra was tripped up 1 3
83 OFFSIDE Young C 1 1
85 OFFSIDE Young C 1 1
88 OFFSIDE Chicharito C 1 1
88 OTHER Evra Ramsey C Tripping 1 1
90+1 GOAL Young C Goal okay 1 3
2nd half score
TOTAL 18 32
% CORRECT 78,26% 86,49%
YELLOW 2 2 100,00
RED 0 0
PENALTY 1 1 100,00
GOAL 5 5 100,00
OTHER 1 2 50,00
9 10 90,00
OFFSIDE 4 4 100,00
TOTAL SCORE
TOTAL 37 62
% CORRECT 78,72% 82,67%
YELLOW 5 6 83,33
RED 0 1 0,00
PENALTY 2 2 100,00
GOAL 10 10 100,00
OTHER 2 4 50,00
19 23 82,61
OFFSIDE 6 7 85,71
Correct calls For Man U 19 54,29%
For Arsenal 16 45,71%
Total correct calls 35
Wrong calls Against Man U 4 40,00%
Against Arsenal 6 60,00%
Total 10

Howard Webb scored a respectable 78.72%.  He missed a few calls but he can’t be blamed for a naive and sometimes downright amateur defensive display by Arsenal.  Manchester were only slightly favoured by wrong or missed calls with Manchester receiving six in their favour compared to four for Arsenal.

Early in the match, Ashley Young was trying to win penalties by throwing himself to ground and should have been booked the 2nd time he did it.

Arshavin made a couple of bad challenges in the first half, the first on Phil Jones for which he was booked, and the second on Ashley Young which Howard Webb did not see.  The replay showed that Arshavin caught Young with his studs and he was lucky he didn’t get a second yellow and early marching orders.  Jenkinson on the other hand was not so lucky for he was booked twice and will miss the next fixture.

EDITORIAL NOTE from Walter Broeckx: I greatly appreciate the fact that our new ref reviewers have done such an excellent job in looking at two defeats. I know from my own experience how difficult it sometimes is to review a defeat. But on both occasions our ref reviewers managed to keep the required distance and gave the ref a respectable and deserved final result.  I think this is some very good news for the work we have started. Even in the most difficult circumstances our ref reviewers were like professionals.  So a big thanks to the refs  involved.

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25 Replies to “The Untold ref Review MU – Arsenal”

  1. I think we should all agree by now that our squad is week….

    I think Wenger and this site also has been very ignorant of the squad issues…

    Howard Webb didn’t even have to do anythin to help ManU this time….

    We were short of 3 players last year….now after departures of Clichy, Cesc, Nasri, we’re short of 6 players….

    If top quality experienced players are not brought then we will have to face another tragic year…maybe our worst in last 16yrs…

  2. Thank you Reviewer 3. Please comment on

    1. The Jenkinson foul on Young which led to a free kick and goal. Jenkinson was running towards where the dropping ball would land, looking over his shoulder at the ball. Young ran towards the same spot and stopped short of where the ball was to land. Jenkinson ran into him, falling well short of where the ball landed. Is it a free kick to Young or obstruction against him?

    2. About the penalty you say “Harsh in my opinion as the contact seemed much more incidental than intentional, but Evra was tripped up” I don’t think Evra dragged his foot, but Walcott ran next to him, and it was Evra who changed direction, not Walcott.

  3. Can we still speak of a Busacca-moment for Webb? Two minutes after United scored, he awarded a penalty to Arsenal. And two minutes after Van Persie scored, Jenkinson got sent off with a second yellow. Isn’t it possible that a referee unconsciously is helping a lending hand to the team that had just suffered a setback? Or perhaps the team that just scored becomes a bit overconfident and/or naive?

    Otherwise, a good score for the ref and a great review.

  4. Like the Ref Review on this site. A largely fair and professional review of the referees decision. I only wish the other editorials could keep the same distance and objectivity in their articles.

    I admire Wenger for all that he has done and is stil doing but I personally feel that our backroom staff needs more attention than our players. Sure we have a weak squad but the we’re sorely unable to make the most of what little we do have anyway and this needs to be urgently corrected.

  5. TwoLeftFeet,
    I think in the ref reviews we act as refs. In other articles I just think we act as the supporters we are. And well that is the way it should be I think.

  7. @DP,
    I think we are *currently* short on players, long term, not so much. I agree Webb had very little to do to ensure a ManU win, which will make this an interesting review to look back on the next time someone like Chelsea or City face ManU on his watch.

  8. For the Jenkinson second yellow I believe Chicharito moved into Jenkinson and it was not intentional. I won’t call it worth an yellow.

  9. @kantestu
    Listen dude, don’t be hysterical! Jenkinson deserved second yellow , there’s no sub-conscious ref helping opposition this time.

  12. @ Cape Gooner – Regarding the foul on Young, while it is true that Jenkinson was trying to play the ball, Ashley Young had the better position, and the Arsenal defender came across him. Jenkinson also had his hand on Young’s shoulder while trying to head the ball, and moreover, I don’t feel that Ashley Young slowed down much more than a striker normally would in order to win the ball.
    @Cape Gooner -Regarding the penalty incident, you have a point, Theo didn’t stick out his foot and trip Patrice Evra, but at the end of the day, Evra was running with the ball in the area, and going on goal when he got tripped up. I’d say it was a 50-50 call and I had to respect the ref’s judgment on it. Did it have to be given with the home side leading 6-2 at the time? Probably not, but it was.

  13. @ Kentetsu – it should be noted that it was the linesman called the penalty decision in Arsenal’s favour.

  14. @Cape Gooner – You may be interested to know that there was an incident involving Evra and Van der Vaart in last week’s match between United and Spurs. Evra was driving on goal with the ball just outside the corner of the penalty area. He took a light touch and as Van der Vaart came in to try to kick the ball away, Evra stuck his foot out to the right in what looked to me like an attempt to shield the ball. Evra was late though and caught Van der Vaart in the leg with his studs. Evra took a tumble and it appeared that Van der Vaart had fouled Evra when actually it was Evra who fouled Van der Vaart.
    The free kick was given just outside the area, but it makes you wonder if Evra was doing this on purpose, just nudging the ball a little bit, waiting for the defender to come in, stick his leg out to protect the ball, wait for contact, and then go down.

  15. @ Prasanna Veeraraghavan – for the Jenkinson sending off, he came in at pretty good speed and more or less body-checked Chicharito to the ground. In one of the replay angles that is pretty obvious. The foul also took away a good scoring chance. Really there was no doubt about the booking in this instance.

  16. Excellent ref review. How you people do it I’ll never know. I can 100% guarantee I’ll never watch a minute of manUre on the football pitch again until they come for our revenge match at the Ems. But you guys put yourself through tirture for us and fair play to you I say.

  18. Steww, last year Feyenoord went to PSV and got beaten 10-0. The biggest humiliation of their history.
    In January came Ryo to Feyenoord and 3 matches (could be 2) PSV came to Feyenoord for the return game. Feyenoord had recovered and PSV had a must game to win the league. Feyenoord won 3-1 and PSV was out of the title race.

    Feyenoord had their revenge. And after the game PSV said that they had been stupid to humiliate Feyenoord like that on the day as Feyenoord really came out in the second leg to prove their point. And they did by pushing PSV out of the title race.

  19. An excellent Review, I too thought Webb had a decent match, long may it continue.

  20. Excellent review walter it will be interesting to see later on in the league how much Ref decisions are effecting the table.
    Perhaps a review after 19 matches the half way stage would be interesting.

  21. Good review, it must have been a painful review to work on.

    One question – towards the end of the match Arshavin had a good run into the United box and followed this with a low shot just off target. As he ran into the box he appeared to be pushed in the back twice by Jones – did anyone else notice this?

  22. @btgooner – I think you might be referring to the incident in the 75th minute (74:30) which is chronicled above. Van Persie laid the ball off for Arshavin who took it into the box and dribbled right into Phil Jones. Jones just stood his ground, but Arshavin was complaining afterwards because he rightly claimed that the ball had last come off Phil Jones and he wanted a corner kick for Arsenal. Howard Webb mistakenly awarded a goal kick to United.

  23. @ critic and Ref Reviewer 03:
    I am not disputing the decisions. I have seen the match and both decisions seemed fair to me. I think Webb had a good game.

    I am only continuing an earlier discussion about the Busacca-moment, whether it is a pre-meditated action by the referee (or linesmen) to assist the team that has his favour or whether those moments happen for another reason – possibly unconsciously trying to assist the team that had suffered a setback or maybe overconfidence or naivety from the team that just scored. In this match there were two major decisions two minutes after a goal scored. And in both cases the referee just followed the rules. So at least in these cases, referee interference (bias or otherwise) can be excluded. Which leaves overconfidence or naivety of the team that scored as a hypothesis. A goal scored gives the team a boost and they will feel empowered by it; they may be convinced that they are the better team – at least at that moment in the match – and become sloppy. The effect of a goal scored might differ from team to team or player to player, but I would not want to discredit a referee (or referees) on the basis of two contentious decisions (red for V. Persie vs. Barcelona, penalty for Udinese) within minutes after an Arsenal goal, whereas this review alone already shows to major moments in the match within minutes after a goal where the decisions were undisputable.

  24. The weekend showed how clubs like Valencia, Spuds and Arsenal are simply no longer competitive

    Welcome to the season of bigger free circuses and less free beer!

  25. Arsenal were still fairly competitive until 60 minutes or so into the match. Considering all the players that were missing due to being suspended or injured, plus the new signings made since then, and Arsenal should have a competitive team. Whether the refs will allow Arsenal to compete for the title is a different story.

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