Untold Ref Review: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 – 3 Arsenal

Today’s referee is Neil Swarbrick – We had a good impression after our first game at Sunderland from this relatively unknown ref for Arsenal. Did he lived up to the expectations?

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Neil Swarbrick (2012-04-11)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
8	PENALTY	Bassong	Walcott	C	Wrapped a leg around Walcott and bundled him over, catching his leg between his own legs	3
8	RED	Bassong		C	Bringing down a player on his way to the keeper as the last defender	3
9	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct goal	3
11	OTHER	Edwards	Arteta	C	trip	1
12	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct goal	3
12	YELLOW	Zubar		NC	came in with a flying tackle taking Theo completely off after he took his shot on goal, should have been given a yellow card. If Theo wouldn’t have a scored should have been another penalty and a red card	2
18	OTHER	Djourou	Doyle	NC	Push not given	1
18	OTHER	Doyle	Arteta	C	trip	1
25	OTHER	Stearman	RVP	NC	He blocks the path of RVP and brings him down without the ball even near, he moved in the direction of RVP so was an onbstruction. Not given	1
25	YELLOW	Stearman		NC	was a deliberate off the ball foul, should have been booked	2
33	OTHER			NC	ref gives a throw to Arsenal and should have gone to Wolves. Doyle furiously protests	1
35	OTHER	Kigthly	Arteta	C	came late again the Wolves player protest with gestures and shouting. Can’t understand why this time	1
40	OTHER	Zubar	Benayoun	NC	flying tackle from behind, ref let the play continue as Arsenal keep possession. Not the best solution	1
40	OTHER	Doyle	Arteta	C	flying tackle from behind that eventually lead to Doyle touchting the ball because Arteta took no risk and jumped up to avoid the complete impact	1
40	YELLOW	Doyle		C	ref is trying to stop those tackles, correct card	2
42	OFFSIDE	Wolves		C	correct decision	1
43	OTHER	Doyle	Santos	C	assumed correct not shown on TV	1
46	OFFSIDE	Wolves		C	as the ball goes to Szczesny the assistant and the ref let the game continue	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
46	OTHER	Wolves	Benayoun	NC	tripped him after the ball was played, no advantage signal given	1
52	OTHER	Sagna	Henry	C	Pull	1
56	OTHER	Zubar	Benayoun	C	wild challenge	1
56	YELLOW	Zubar		C	Dangerous attack on the ankle	2
58	OTHER	Kightly	Santos	C	Held him	1
58	YELLOW	Kightly		NC	Not much wrong with this one, or it should be that he took this chance to book him for an earlier dissent?	2
59	OTHER	Arteta	Doyle	C	High foot	1
62	OTHER	Benayoun	Stearman	C	trip on defender in his own penalto box	1
65	OFFSIDE	Wolves		C	Correct decision	1
69	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct goal	3
71	OFFSIDE	Wolves		C	assumed correct	1
73	OTHER	Djourou	Doyle	NC	Push in the back, not givenn no advantage signal	2
79	OTHER	Ramsey	Kightly	C	Push in the back, ref waited to see an advantage then came back to the foul	1
84	PENALTY	Milijas	Ramsey	NC	Milijas clips the ankle from Ramsey from behind. Ref gives no penalty. I think partly because Ramsey standing up on his feet and shooting at goal resulting in a corner	3
87	OTHER	Wolves	Vermaelen	C	Advantage given, Arsenal have the ball wiht no pressure, final minutes of the game,	1
91	PENALTY	Zubar	RVP	C	I give the ref the benefit of the doubt on this. It looked that he blocked the ball on the replay they showed. Not 100% frontal tackle and feet on the ground	3
93	OTHER	Jarvis	Arteta	NC	clear push in the back not given	1

He started very well and showed he was not afraid to  do what a ref has to do when needed.  Some refs would have backed away from the decision and given a penalty but not a red card. But as Theo was on his way to the keeper in front of goal and he had no option but the give the penalty and a red card.

The second goal he could and should have given Zubar a yellow for his late challenge on Theo. But I think he neglected it but still it was a strong, dangerous and very late tackle. Maybe he started to feel a bit sorry for Wolves?

He also let go when Stearman attacked RVP who came running past him to try to put pressure on another Wolves defender. A deliberate block on a player running by should have been punished with a free kick and a yellow card. Such off the ball fouls are disgusting I think. It cost him some points and a rather low score despite a good yellow card when Doyle came jumping in from behind.

Slightly better performance in the second half but at the end he seemed to let a few things go from Wolves. Feeling sorry is a human reflex but as a ref you don’t have to feel sorry you just have to call the fouls. And give another penalty when it is needed. It is your job as a ref to give the fouls and not to feel sorry.

If I can tell you this little story of a game I once did between two women’s teams. It was the team first in the league against the last one in the league. The last one was down to 10 players because of injury and was losing the game with something between 8 or 9 goals. The last placed team had been defending the whole game with hardly getting to the other goal.

But in the last minute of the game the team in first place threw all their players forward. And two players of the other team escaped towards the goal. Would they score a consolation goal? I think all of us hoped they would. The crowd, even the players of the winning team. So one girl ran with the ball at her feet and the other came rushing by and overtook here. The girl with the ball then played the ball forward to the faster running girl who was offside.  So I did what I had to do and blew my whistle to stop the attack for offside. I think  all present felt bad and sorry at that moment. I felt miserable and as it was the final minute I had to stop the game.

The coach of the winning team came up to me and said that I could have let them get away with it. I apologised to the coach of the losing team but he said that I had done what I should have done. I still felt sorry for the girls but I knew that I had done what I had to do. I was there to make sure the rules were applied and I was not there to help a team to a goal they did not deserve.

So I can understand the human reaction to feel sorry for the underdog, but it cannot get in the way with what you are doing on that field: make sure the rules are applied.

 

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Neil Swarbrick (2012-04-11)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	2	100.00
OTHER	5	9	55.56
PENALTY	1	1	100.00
RED	1	1	100.00
YELLOW	1	3	33.33
TOTAL	12	18	66.67
WEIGHTED	21	29	72.41
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	1	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	2	100.00
OTHER	7	10	70.00
PENALTY	1	2	50.00
YELLOW	1	2	50.00
TOTAL	12	17	70.59
WEIGHTED	17	25	68.00
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	3	100.00
OFFSIDE	4	4	100.00
OTHER	12	19	63.16
PENALTY	2	3	66.67
RED	1	1	100.00
YELLOW	2	5	40.00
TOTAL	24	35	68.57
WEIGHTED	38	54	70.37

An average score for the ref at the end of the game.  Good on the important decisions most of the time but still let a few things go.

BIAS SUMMARY – Neil Swarbrick (2012-04-11)
Period 1	Wolverhampton Wanderers	%	Arsenal	%	Total
Correct For	0	0.00	12	100.00	12
Correct For Weighted	0	0.00	21	100.00	21
Incorrect Against	2	33.33	4	66.67	6
Incorrect Against Weighted	2	25.00	6	75.00	8
Fouls Commited	10	90.91	1	9.09	11
Fouls Penalised	8	80.00	0	0.00	8
Period 2	Wolverhampton Wanderers	%	Arsenal	%	Total
Correct For	5	41.67	7	58.33	12
Correct For Weighted	7	41.18	10	58.82	17
Incorrect Against	2	40.00	3	60.00	5
Incorrect Against Weighted	4	44.44	5	55.56	9
Fouls Commited	8	61.54	5	38.46	13
Fouls Penalised	5	62.50	4	80.00	9
Totals	Wolverhampton Wanderers	%	Arsenal	%	Total
Correct For	5	20.83	19	79.17	24
Correct For Weighted	7	18.42	31	81.58	38
Incorrect Against	4	36.36	7	63.64	11
Incorrect Against Weighted	6	35.29	11	64.71	17
Fouls Commited	18	75.00	6	25.00	24
Fouls Penalised	13	72.22	4	66.67	17

The bias index is telling us that he just got the about normal home/away bias. So we are satisfied with that.

Final conclusion: if him feeling sorry hadn’t influenced his game he would have had a better score.