Untold Ref Review: Arsenal 3 – Bolton 0

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

Untold Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal

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By Ref Reviewer 04

Ref Clattenburg was the ref for the game between Arsenal and Bolton. Arsenal won the game 3-0. But what was the score of the ref.

Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment points weight
1 OTHER Koscielny Ngog C Jumps in the back 1 1
5 OTHER Gibbs Pratley NC Trip 0 0
6 OTHER Gervinho C Handball 1 1
7 OTHER Pratley Ramsey C Pull 1 1
8 OTHER Wheater Walcott C Trip 1 1
8 OTHER C Ref calls back the free kick to be retaken as he is trying to sort out the wrestling players a bit 1 1
11 OFFSIDE Ngog C 1 1
12 OTHER Wheater RVP NC Ref let play continue no real advantage 0 0
14 OTHER Muamba Walcott NC Going through the man 0 0
18 OFFSIDE RVP C 1 1
21 OTHER Reo coker Ramsey C Trip 1 1
22 OTHER K. Davies Song C Push 1 1
23 OTHER Muamba Arteta NC Late challenge 0 0
27 OTHER Sagna ? C Illegal block 1 1
29 OTHER Muamba NC Handball – advantage given in the Arsenal half but Arsenal lose the ball after that 0 0
30 OTHER K. Davies Mertesacker C Push in the back with both hands 1 1
31 OTHER Koscielny K. Davies NC Push in the back before the ball arrives 0 0
32 OFFSIDE Walcott C 1 1
33 OFFSIDE Pratley C 1 1
40 OTHER Muamba Gervinho C Late tackle from behind 1 1
40 YELLOW Muamba NC Should have been a yellow card 0 0
43 OTHER Song Reo Cocker C Trip 1 1
44 OTHER RVP Reo Cocker NC Advantage given one shouldn’t do this in a defensive position 0 0
Half time 15 15
CORRECT 65,22% 62,50%
YELLOW 0 1 0,00
RED 0 0
PENALTY 0 0
GOAL 0 0
OTHER 2 2 100,00
2 3 66,67
OFFSIDE 4 4 100,00
Second half
46 OTHER Steinson Gervinho C Foul on Gervinho but as Arsenal keep possession and the space suddenly opens up the ref gives advantage. A great advantage this one as this leads to 1 1
46 GOAL RVP C Thanks to the advantage the ball comes to RVP who scores a correct goal 1 3
46 YELLOW Steinson C Tackle from behind going in the man. Correct card 1 2
50 OTHER RVP Steinson NC RVP uses his shoulder against the shoulder of the Bolton player but the ref stops play in the Bolton penalty area 0 0
51 OTHER Gervinho Reo cocker C Little trip 1 1
55 OTHER Wheater Walcott C Weather pulls Walcott by the shoulder when Walcott is through on goal 1 1
55 RED Wheater C It is a little foul itself but as Walcott was through on goal by himself the ref had to give him the red card 1 3
60 OTHER Ramsey Pratley C Little trip 1 1
61 OTHER Koscielny K. Davies NC Little push in the back not given 0 0
62 OTHER C Clattenburg restores peace after RVP took a shot with Robinson injured on the floor. The Bolton players seemed to forget that before RVP took his shot they were also not stopping play and had one their 3 shots on the Arsenal goal. It is the ref his responsability to stop the game if Bolton doesn’t play the ball out themselves. 1 1
71 GOAL RVP C Correct goal 1 3
73 OTHER Arteta Davies C Little trip 1 1
79 OTHER M. Davies RVP NC Didn’t see much wrong to be honest 0 0
81 OFFSIDE K. Davies C 1 1
89 GOAL Song C Correct goal 1 3
2nd half score
TOTAL 12 21
% CORRECT 80,00% 87,50%
YELLOW 1 1 100,00
RED 1 1 100,00
PENALTY 0 0
GOAL 3 3 100,00
OTHER 3 3 100,00
8 8 100,00
OFFSIDE 1 1 100,00
TOTAL SCORE
TOTAL 27 36
% CORRECT 75,00% 75,00%
YELLOW 1 2 50,00
RED 1 1 100,00
PENALTY 0 0
GOAL 3 3 100,00
OTHER 5 5 100,00
10 11 90,91
OFFSIDE 5 5 100,00
Correct calls For Arsenal 15 60,00%
For Bolton 10 40,00%
Total correct calls 25
Wrong calls Against Arsenal 6 54.55%
Against Bolton 5 45,45%
Total 10

In the first half the ref was a bit like the game. Not the highest quality.  He tried to play a few advantages but most of the time there was no advantage, just possession. But this is a method that a ref can go for if he does this for both teams. He did this in this match.

And then of course the ref scored his goal. Any ref will know the feeling of giving an advantage and seeing it turned in to a real advantage by having a goal scored. This is what I call a refs-goal. Believe me no bigger satisfaction for a ref to have this in your game.

So a very important call that advantage and vital for Arsenal. And he also booked Steinson for his tackle. This is the way to ref the game and to earn good points as a ref. 3 good decisions in a matter of seconds.

Another important decision was the red card against Wheater. He didn’t kick Walcott to pieces but he held him back by grabbing him on the shoulder and thus preventing Walcott to rush on to the ball which would have brought him in a one on one with the keeper. So it was a small foul but with a big impact. The ref had not option to give the red card as the foul itself prevented an open goal scoring opportunity. I must admit that when a player would tackle from behind, coming in like a madman and causing probable injury you most of the time have no difficulties on producing the red card. For such a small and more innocent foul you feel kind of sorry to give a red card. But the instructions are what they are and in this case the severity of the foul doesn’t really matter.

The first half I thought the ref wasn’t at his best but in the second half he lifted his game. Certainly on the important decisions a very good game. Overall a few lost points however certainly in the first half.

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25 Replies to “Untold Ref Review: Arsenal 3 – Bolton 0”

  1. I thought the foul of Wheater on Walcott was a bit soft and I’m not sure if it impeded Walcott in his run or if he went down easily. After all, it is a foul and therefore a red card. I have no problem with that. The only thing is that Wheater gets an automatic three match ban, while someone doing a Shawcross (or attempting, Torres?) gets the same punishment. A three match ban in this case is harsh.

    About the incident in the 62nd minute, it felt to me as if the ref took too long too intervene. Van Persie was surrounded by five Bolton players before the ref showed up. I didn’t see the incident back, so I don’t know how far away the ref was in the first and how long it did take him to step in. Any comment on that, Walter?

    Lastly, good to see that Arsenal got 60% of the correct calls and only 40% of the wrong calls. This is how it should be when playing at home (although ideally it is still 50-50).

  3. I thought that our first goal might have been offside. RVP was very close to the last man as I recall.

  4. Kentetsu,

    One of the problems we as ref reviewers face is the fact that we are dependable on what they show on TV.

    What I could see on Tv was what they showed (after a replay of the chance) Clattenburg blowing his whistle like a ref does when he sees players confronting each other. In some cases this is enough to stop the players. If that doesn’t help he came to the players and tried to sort things out.

    I must say that I was a bit pleased with the fact that he restored the calm on the field and didn’t need the cards to do this.

    But maybe in real time it took him too long to step in to the incident but this was not really visible on TV.

    I think the punishment for what Wheater did is a one game ban. Unless it was a violent attack then it is 3 games. I think. I seem to remember Koscielny last season only getting a one game ban for something similar.

  5. Eric

    just did a recount and you are right as our computer model let us down a bit as we had to enter additional lines and it didn’t take one wrong call in account. and then I messed it up completely when trying to publish it. I will adjust the numbers

    Wrong calls going against Arsenal 6 : fouls not given on RVP, Walcott, ARteta, handball Muamba, yellow card Muamba and foul given against RVP

    Wrong calls going against Bolton 5 : Foul on Pratley, Davies, Reo Coker, Davies and Davies

    Numbers after publishing this comment will be the correct numbers.

  6. Walter,
    I wanted to suggest that when the Ref team’s results are next summarized, or at some point, that you guys break out a category of game-changing calls and non-calls. Especially “last minute” calls that lead to the final result. You each could make a list of candidates for such a designation from what was reviewed and then have everyone reach consensus on which specific calls and non-calls were in fact game-changing and/or game-winning. To me, this would add a needed qualitative dimension to the project which would consist of a re-review of any such events and yields a consensual agreement on which calls/non-calls have mattered most, which ref called it, to which side’s benefit. Any patterns found among these would be most telling, of course. Anyway, my strong suggestion that you guys so consider it going forward.

  7. Forgive me if I misremember, but wasn’t there a penalty shout in this game for Arsenal? When RVP ran through and got to the ball before the keeper (or another player), and he then jumped to avoid the tackle.. Does anyone remember this?

    @Kentetsu

    Like Walter said. It is a one game ban, because the straight red was not for violent conduct.

  8. There was a penalty shout for a possible foul on RVP but no replays were shown so I could not but agree with the ref and leave it out of the review.
    At full speed it looked to be a foul but as I cannot be sure about it the ruling on the field stands

  9. Ok..So basically it was the lack of a replay that determines that Arsenal should not have had a penalty. I bet the broadcaster was Sky. And I bet that it was a penalty. This is a pattern I have seen for I think 4 years now. The ManU transgressions are not shown on replay. Penalty or offside decisions wrongly given against Arsenal are also not shown on replay. If it was Sky who was the broadcaster, even if the ref reviewer cannot include it, I am certain that it was a penalty then.

  10. I looked back on it, and RVP could well have been a shoulder offside. It’s VERY close because he runs back from an offside position just as ramsey plays the pass, and it’s not clear whether he makes it to an onside position. I can’t find a video where they slow it down to actually analyse it.

  11. wheater will only miss one game, because this is a professional foul and not violent conduct. please understand the rules before you start going on in shawcross.

  12. RVP first goal looked dubiously offside to Me. If we want credibility and not seen to be biased then a closer inspection of this decision is in order.

  13. Our first goal did seem to be offside, from the brief glance at the replay I saw yesterday. Bit surprised this wasn’t even mentioned in the review

  14. Yes, Robin did look offside for our opening goal.

    I’ve found it a bit interesting of late as there have been several goals I noticed where the player is perhaps an inch onside going at full speed. This is a very difficult call to make and the linesman will usually err in favour of the defense. In other words, he will usually disallow a good goal when the player was onside, as opposed to allowing a bad goal scored from an offside position.

    I’ve also noticed players being a yard or so offside still being ruled onside. It seems that they are getting loose with the rules in order to favour the attacking team.

    I think there was a directive a few years back saying that a linesman should see air or space between the attacking and defending player to judge offside. Not sure if that ever went into effect, but if it did it would throw up some bad results especially when you consider players’ feet to count for offside.

  15. walter,dogface and all have you heard the news? mike dean will be the referee for the north london derby this weekend…i have heard we havent won any matches he has been the ref is this true?

  16. We haven’t won any of our last 8 matches Mike Dean has reffed. Tottenham’s last 13 matches are 6W 5D 2L according to @Orbinho

  17. @Shard You are absolutely right about Sky’s bias. The referral to TV by the FA for off field bans is corrupt. It is selective and based on a liquid criteria. Sky is part of the News Corp organisation. Proven to be acting outside the law with NoW. Sky had shareholdings in some clubs and as a consequence are shown to be biased.
    In my opinion digital TV footage and camera angles are easily manipulated and the introduction of 3D might help but bias is still critical.

  18. I have no trust in Officials supplied by the monopoly PGMOL. THe FA are not being fair to the Game by using one supplier. I would advocate a minimum of 3 suppliers including officials from abroad. The officials should also be selected randomly – like the draw system for cup matches.

  19. After a meeting of the ref reviewers committee we have decided to kick ref reviewer 04 under his bottom and asked him to pay a bit more attention.

    The ruling of the committee is that RVP was offside for the first goal and it shouldn’t have stood.

    We will change this in the ref his score sheet and deduct points.
    The goal will be taken in the favourable decisions going the Arsenal way. It will be the first entry in this category.

  20. Glad to hear it’s been looked at. Did you find a clear video showing RVP was offside? I thought it was very close, and if it was a mistake from the officials, it is an understandable one – nonetheless harsh on Bolton, of course.

  21. I have looked myself at this and seen the images on the Arsenal player. It is hard to freeze the image at the moment of the pass because there always seem to be a bit of a delay between the click and the freezing.
    But on an image as close as I could get to it it looks as if Van Persie was one foot offside. But because he ran away from the goal and he immediately looked to be onside again it was very difficult to see.

    I also have seen that the assistant was not on the right line with the last defender. he was a few yards behind the line.

    The ref reviewer also missed it when reviewing the game because he was focusing on the foul on Gervinho too much to see who committed that foul and looking at the ref to see if he gave any signal which was also important to see if the ref signaled the advantage or not.

    The offside was also only slight visible from one camera angle.

  23. thanks for the picture Johhny, it was close but like someone said: we should be strict on this both when things go our way or go against us

    I did change the numbers in the database and will try to change the article itself if I can work it out because this is a bit tricky at times….

    But I will notify this in the article and comments when and what I changed

  24. Walter,
    I mention it above at length, but would you/the committee consider to specify game-changing calls/non-calls as a break out qualitative category in the ref reviews at some stage this season?

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