Untold Ref Review: Bolton Wanderers 0 – 0 Arsenal

Posted on by DogFace

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Today’s referee is Chris Foy – A scoreless goal at the Reebok stadium between Bolton Wanderers and Arsenal. Only one person scored but was it the ref?

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Chris Foy (2012-02-01)
Period 1
Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment Weight
2 OTHER Walcott C Handball 1
11 OTHER Ngog Arteta C Attempted trip 1
15 OFFSIDE Bolton C Assumed correct 1
15 OTHER Muamba Arteta C Trip 1
16 OTHER Ngog Koscielny C Attempted trip, advantage given, RVP shoots wide 1
17 OFFSIDE Bolton C correct 1
19 OTHER Eagles Ox C Trip 1
22 OTHER Muamba Ox NC Trip not given 1
22 OTHER Vermaelen Eagles C Trip 1
29 OTHER Song M. Davies C Holding 1
29 YELLOW Song NC Should have been a yellow card for holding for a while 2
30 OTHER Muamba Ox NC Held him back, not given, ref could not see it from his angle 2
32 OTHER Ramsey M. Davies C Trip, advantage given 1
33 OTHER Bol? Walcott NC Pulled him back, not given 1
34 OFFSIDE Bolton C Assumed correct 1
37 OTHER Vermaelen M. Davies NC He just dived, Vermaelen not even close and he clearly jumped out of the way 1
37 YELLOW Vermaelen NC Not a foul, not a yellow card. Ref was wrong 2
37 YELLOW M. Davies NC Davies should have booked, a blatant dive is always a yellow not just in the penalty area 2
39 OTHER Steinsson Ox C Trip from behind 1
39 YELLOW Steinsson C Promising run brought to an end 2
42 OTHER Ngog Vermalen NC Push in the back not given 1
42 OTHER Arteta Eagles C Push 1
44 OTHER Ngog Mertesacker C Push 1
Period 2
Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment Weight
48 OTHER M. Davies Arteta C Planted his foot on the ankle 1
48 YELLOW M. Davies NC Should have been a yellow card 2
52 OFFSIDE Arsenal C Assumed correct 1
53 OFFSIDE Arsenal C correct 1
54 OTHER Ricketts? Sagna NC Two fouls a tip and holding, nothing given 1
55 OTHER Walcott Ngog C 1
57 OTHER NC assistant signals correct a throw to Arsenal, ref gives it the other way 1
58 OFFSIDE Bolton C Assumed correct 1
60 OFFSIDE Arsenal C just offside 0
62 PENALTY Vermaelen Ngog C As far as the angle allowed it there was an obstruction just outside the penalty area. An obstruction does not result in a direct free kick so even it was inside it should have been an indirect free kick and not a penalty 0
63 OTHER Sagna Ricketts C Trip 1
65 OTHER Muamba Song C Trip 1
70 OTHER Arteta Reo cocker C Trip 1
76 OTHER K. Davies Sagna C Trip 1
80 OTHER K. Davies Vermaelen C High foot 1
84 OTHER Knight Henry NC Push in the back not given 1
86 OTHER Koscielny Reo cocker NC Push in the back not given 1
86 OTHER Vermaelen K. Davies C Trip. It takes 40 seconds before the game is restared and no treatment needed at all. 1
88 OTHER Mertesacker K. Davies C Mertesacker pulls Davies OUTSIDE the penalty area ref plays advantage as Davies is through on goal 1
88 PENALTY Szczesny K. Davies C Szczesny pushed the ball away, correct no penalty given 0
89 OFFSIDE Arsenal C Assumed correct 1
92 OTHER Rosicky Eagles C Assumed correct 1
93 OTHER Henry Steinsson C Jumped in the back 1
94 OTHER K. Davies Mertesacker NC High foot not given 1

A few talking points as Bolton claimed two penalties. The first one could have been an instruction of Vermaelen who didn’t get out of the way when he and Ngog where chasing the same ball. Ngog ran in to the back of Vermaelen and went down. Unfortunately there was no replay where I could exactly see where they collided. Was it inside or outside was unclear. The only foul one could say was that Vermaelen made an obstruction. And the rules are clear to give a penalty you must make a foul that warrants a direct free kick. And an obstruction warrants only an indirect free kick. So if an obstruction would have been called it would have been an indirect free kick.

The other penalty claim was for me more clear. Mertesacker pulled Davies on the arm but this was outside the penalty area. As Davies continued his run and was no longer fouled by Mertesacker inside the penalty area the only thing that mattered was if Szczesny played the ball or not. For me he did and he pushed the ball away from the goal and then Davies fell over Szczesny. From the moment the keeper plays the ball in such a situation no ref will give a penalty.

 

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-02-01)
Period 1 Called Total Correct %
OFFSIDE 3 3 100.00
OTHER 11 16 68.75
YELLOW 1 4 25.00
TOTAL 15 23 65.22
WEIGHTED 16 26 61.54
Period 2 Called Total Correct %
OFFSIDE 5 5 100.00
OTHER 11 16 68.75
PENALTY 2 2 100.00
YELLOW 0 1 0.00
TOTAL 18 24 75.00
WEIGHTED 22 29 75.86
Totals Called Total Correct %
OFFSIDE 8 8 100.00
OTHER 22 32 68.75
PENALTY 2 2 100.00
YELLOW 1 5 20.00
TOTAL 33 47 70.21
WEIGHTED 38 55 69.09

The final score of the ref is just around 70%.  This is close to his usual average in fact. So he just did his game in his own way. The good thing is that he didn’t get the important decisions very wrong. Apart from handing out the yellow cards. The Vermaelen yellow card was a joke as it was a clear dive from M. Davies who should have received a yellow card for his dive.

M. Davies also escaped another yellow card when he came in and planted his foot on the ankle of Arteta. He didn’t play the ball at that time and the ref rightly called the foul but should have been a card because it was dangerous.

BIAS SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-02-01)
Period 1 Bolton Wanderers % Arsenal % Total
Correct For 5 33.33 10 66.67 15
Correct For Weighted 5 31.25 11 68.75 16
Incorrect Against 2 25.00 6 75.00 8
Incorrect Against Weighted 4 33.33 8 66.67 12
Fouls Commited 15 75.00 5 25.00 20
Fouls Penalised 9 60.00 5 100.00 14
Period 2 Bolton Wanderers % Arsenal % Total
Correct For 11 73.33 4 26.67 15
Correct For Weighted 11 73.33 4 26.67 15
Incorrect Against 1 16.67 5 83.33 6
Incorrect Against Weighted 1 14.29 6 85.71 7
Fouls Commited 8 40.00 12 60.00 20
Fouls Penalised 5 62.50 11 91.67 16
Totals Bolton Wanderers % Arsenal % Total
Correct For 16 53.33 14 46.67 30
Correct For Weighted 16 51.61 15 48.39 31
Incorrect Against 3 21.43 11 78.57 14
Incorrect Against Weighted 5 26.32 14 73.68 19
Fouls Commited 23 57.50 17 42.50 40
Fouls Penalised 14 60.87 16 94.12 30

If we look at the incorrect calls we see that when he made a mistake it was largely against Arsenal. A few pulls and pushes went unnoticed but not something that raises too many eyebrows for the moment. It is just his style of refereeing that we are used to.

The ref wasn’t out to screw us completely, which is almost a relieve these days. So no real complaints about his performance from me.  I would say a regular Foy performance on the day and the score just above the limit.

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16 Replies to “Untold Ref Review: Bolton Wanderers 0 – 0 Arsenal”

  1. if you are reading this Mr. Foy I liked the foul you called in the 11th minute. An attempted trip as said on Arteta who was in defence just outside the penalty area. He didn’t go down but because of the little knock he was a bit unbalanced. And as he was a defender just outside his own penalty area with the whole field in front of him, no possible counter on, you stopped play.
    That was a classic example on how it should be done when a foul is made on a defender near his own penalty box. There is no advantage so you just give the foul.

  2. Also maybe mention the fact that I felt that Bolton was not really out to kick us to pieces. Robinson not playing will have helped a bit I think. Also K. Davies not starting but when he came on he just started his usual fouling.
    It felt as if Owen Coyle didn’t want to disturb the relation between him and Wenger and thus went for a more footballing approach. After all after Jack and now Ryo on loan a move that did and could benefit both clubs and the player.

  3. The refs don’t need to screw Arsenal these days as the team is very capable of doing that by themselves.
    This game was there to be won, we had the chances but didn’t take it.

  5. I reckon you got this one dead right. Couldn’t fault your analysis.
    Most Arsenal fans everywhere I speak to are feeling glum at the moment- somehow imagining that we are being judged by god for not beating Bolton- when Liverpool lost to them barely a week ago but are being talked about as automatic 4th placers. Yet there are others who incorrectly call themselves fans who are relieved every time we don’t win-because it means they can heap more abuse on our manager.
    Spurs fans think they are the dogs bollocks at the moment- yet think about it- they pay their manager over 6m per year and just listen to the bloke-he would not recognise the truth if it bit him on the arse. Would you pay a man over 6m per year who by his own admission can barely read or write?
    The longer he remains as manager at Spurs the greater the chance he will bankrupt them.

  6. Time for us to stop taking pleasure from the potential downfall of others (ManC, Everton, Sp@rs, financial fair play, PGMOL) and take a serious & honest look at where our club stands.

  7. That was a dirty tackle by that little prat Mark Davies. Could have broke Arteta’s ankle.

    Same idiot who tried to break Gallas’ leg and when Gallas showed a little sole instead of planting his foot and getting his leg broken, Davies was the one who got injured. Mind you it was Davies that flew in with both feet off the ground, and he only missed like one or two matches for it, but Gallas was tarred for life for not letting Davies break his leg.

  10. If an Arsenal player had taken the dive Davies did the press would still be talking about it. Just saying.

  11. @reviewers, DogFace

    I now have copies of all referee reviews downloaded from Untold Arsenal from this season (including this game). I have started to go through the HTML, to turn it into a database. So far, I am not quite done with 13737 (Arsenal vs Newcastle). What I am actually turning it into, is a Perl structure. From that, I can put it into something else. If nothing else, it is not a single table in SQL.

    For any given game, I will have ISO date, the opponent, the venue (home or away), the league, the reviewer, the referee, the two assistants, the fourth official. After that, I have an array of hashes, which constitutes a particular entry:
    time
    type OTHER, OFFSIDE, YELLOW, RED, PENALTY, CURIOSITY
    correct 0/1
    called 0/1
    perp_Team
    receive_Team
    perp
    receive
    comment
    points
    weight
    on
    period 1/2

    The above has some data which is not in your report. And perhaps I should explain what I have in terms of the entry at 75 minutes, which is of type PENALTY.

    How I read your entry, is that the call that could have been made, was PENALTY. The PENALTY was NOT called (hence called=0). And it is correct that the penalty was not called.

    I can see where it might be useful to have entries made when a substitution takes place, with perhaps the comment being how long it took the substitution to take place. Another entry which might be useful, is to note when injuries occur, and about how long play was stopped for the injury as a comment. That gets the two obvious sources of time added on for stoppages.

    In terms of cards (YELLOW or RED), I am not keeping track of who was fouled, as that was noted in the immediate entry before this anyway. Likewise OFFSIDE only has the perpetrator and the team he plays for.

    In terms of OFFSIDEs, while these records note when a player is correctly or incorrectly called OFFSIDE, it does not track how often the attacking team is onside. Which is probably a PITA for you to do anyway. But it is missing data that might go into PGMOL saying how good they are.

    I can see where the format changes slightly from this first game to the latest one. I am assuming that there has been no revisions to the data.

    Am I missing anything? Should I add anything? What does one do with these CURIOSITY items?

    It is possible the DogFace will have this in as many SQL tables as need be already. I’ve found that Perl structures are quite amenable to processing that is clumsy in SQL. It could be I just haven’t done enough SQL. But, once I get all this data in, do you want a copy of what I have? What format?

  12. Hi Gord,

    I’ve got a full dataset of these reviews – the HTML in these tables [above] is created dynamically and are entirely data driven from a database stored procedure… the main (immediate) issues I see at the moment relates to data clensing in particular to the names of the players i.e. shirt numbers would be easier to match with existing data I have. Past that I would say that the range of ‘Type’ could be expanded to include corner, throwin, foul etc.

  13. I want to adjust things, based on that 75 minute incident. Some cards have a person on the receiving end, and some don’t. In terms of that big incident, it looks like a foul is missing. It is the foul that should have been called (grabbing the shorts and …).

    PENALTY Tiote
    OTHER Barton (missing)
    RED Barton
    RED Gervinho
    RED Newcastle #4
    RED S.Taylor
    YELLOW Szczesny
    PENALTY BARTON

  14. Hi DogFace. It’s 2am there. What are you doing up? Among other things, I have every minute by minute report that was on the BBC website (just the minute by minute, not the rosters), because it was an easy way to get how much extra time was played in any period.

    Sure, adding corner, throwin, foul would be useful. But, that means someone needs to manually adjust all these OTHER entries. Usually you can tell from context.

    I think my newest upgrade to Xulrunner in firefox doesn’t like your javascript. Time to kill firefox and restart it again. I hate memory leaks.

  15. Another thing to keep track of, advantage. Is it given? Given properly? Giving advantage when it shouldn’t be, has correct=0, advantage=1.

  16. @Gord – In that review
    http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/13737

    the 75th penalty incident is marked Penalty because the referee had to make a decision as to whether or not to give a penalty and whether the ref was right or wrong. Often this is a judgment call, which I think is what the reviewer concluded – that there may have been a slight foul but not enough for Gervinho to fall how he did. Therefore the reviewer said the ref was okay in not giving the penalty.

    On some of those PENALTY, RED decisions, the foul has been combined with the entry. I suppose the reviewer could have put two separate entries, one for the foul, and one for the Penalty and/or card.

    For example:
    OTHER – Barton – Gervinho – NC – Violently grabbed Gervinho
    RED – Barton – – NC – Violent behavior
    PENALTY – – – NC – Ball was in play when foul occured in area

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