Match Review: Lee Mason – Stoke City Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [26/08/2012]

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Match Review: Lee Mason – Stoke City Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [26/08/2012]

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Today’s referee is Lee Mason

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Lee Mason (2012-08-26)
Period 1
Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment Weight
2 OTHER Wilkinson Cazorla C Trip 1
7 OFFSIDE Walters C Offside, goal correctly disallowed 1
8 PENALTY Wilkinson NC Threw himself head first in front of Podolski’s shot, blocked shot with arm 3
8 RED Wilkinson NC Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity 3
12 OFFSIDE Podolski C 1
15 OFFSIDE Walters C 1
16 OTHER Huth Podolski C Knocked him over whilst going towards goal 1
16 YELLOW Huth C Unsporting behaviour 2
19 OTHER Arteta Walters C Shove 1
19 OTHER Crouch C High boot 1
21 OTHER Diaby NC Trip, not given 1
23 OTHER Crouch Vermaelen C Trip, advantage played 1
30 OTHER Huth Giroud NC Held, not given 1
31 OTHER Wilson Cazorla C Late, studs to foot, ankle 1
31 YELLOW Wilson NC Should have been booked 2
34 OTHER Kightly Arteta C advantage played 1
35 OTHER Giroud Wilson C Foul 1
36 OTHER Podolski Pennant C Foul 1
38 PENALTY Shawcross Gervinho NC Used arm to stop Gervinho from going past, not given 3
45 OTHER Jenkinson Kightly NC Shove not given 1
Period 2
Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment Weight
46 OTHER Gibbs Pennant NC Holding, not given 1
48 OTHER Diaby Pennant C Trip 1
53 OTHER Walters Cazorla NC Shove, not given 1
56 OTHER Crouch Mertesacker C Used arm unfairly 1
58 PENALTY Gibbs Pennant NC Shoved, not given 0
59 OTHER Diaby Cameron C Holding 1
62 OTHER Walters Arteta C Shove 1
63 OTHER Wilkinson Vermaelen C Recklessly smashed through Vermaelen using excessive force 1
63 RED Wilkinson NC Should have been sent off but only got yellow card 3
69 OTHER Shawcross Giroud C Foul 1
71 OTHER Shawcross Giroud C Shove, not given 1
71 OTHER Jenkinson Kightly C Push 1
76 OTHER Begovic NC Keeper kept ball in his possession for a full 15 seconds (Rules say 6 seconds max), not given 1
77 OTHER Kightly Walcott NC Slid in recklessly both feet first so that Theo could not play ball, not given 1
78 OTHER Whelan Arteta NC Crashed into Arteta, not given 1
78 OTHER Crouch Gibbs C Shove 1
79 OTHER Cameron Giroud NC Shove, not given 1
80 OTHER Huth Giroud C High boot caught Giroud in the face 1
85 OTHER AOC Shotton C Shove 1
88 OTHER Arteta Kightly C Obstructed run 1
91 OTHER Vermaelen Walters C Not much in it, small foul 1
92 OTHER Walters Mertesacker NC Shove, not given 1
93 OTHER NC Mason only played 3 extra minutes which only accounts for 6 substitutions. Didn’t account for timewasting. 1

Despite Mason not out there to rip us off he surely did miss a lot of things. He will probably never give us a 50/50 call and that is his good right. IF he would do the same for the other teams.

Arsenal should have had a penalty when Wilkinson threw himself like a goalkeeper to block a shot from Podolski early in the game. Only Wilkinson is not a goalkeeper so he can’t throw himself like one.

There was another penalty incident or better said two. One where Shawcross blocked Gervinho. But also Stoke should have had a penalty when Gibbs pushed Pennant in the back.

And then there was the tackle from Wilkinson on Vermaelen. Wilkonson again escaped a red card.

Let us have a look at his competence numbers in this game

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Lee Mason (2012-08-26)
Period 1 Called Total Correct %
OFFSIDE 3 3 100.00
OTHER 9 12 75.00
PENALTY 0 2 0.00
RED 0 1 0.00
YELLOW 1 2 50.00
TOTAL 13 20 65.00
WEIGHTED 14 28 50.00
Period 2 Called Total Correct %
OTHER 13 21 61.90
PENALTY 0 1 0.00
RED 0 1 0.00
TOTAL 13 23 56.52
WEIGHTED 13 27 48.15
Totals Called Total Correct %
OFFSIDE 3 3 100.00
OTHER 22 33 66.67
PENALTY 0 3 0.00
RED 0 2 0.00
YELLOW 1 2 50.00
TOTAL 26 43 60.47
WEIGHTED 27 55 49.09

Despite me having a good feeling after the game the numbers are shockingly low in fact. Maybe we are already satisfied with a ref that doesn’t give blatant wrong calls against us these days?

Let us see if it evens out in this game and have a look at the bias numbers

BIAS SUMMARY – Lee Mason (2012-08-26)
Period 1 Stoke City % Arsenal % Total
Correct For 4 30.77 9 69.23 13
Correct For Weighted 4 28.57 10 71.43 14
Incorrect Against 1 14.29 6 85.71 7
Incorrect Against Weighted 1 7.14 13 92.86 14
Fouls Commited 10 71.43 4 28.57 14
Fouls Penalised 6 60.00 3 75.00 9
Period 2 Stoke City % Arsenal % Total
Correct For 6 46.15 7 53.85 13
Correct For Weighted 6 46.15 7 53.85 13
Incorrect Against 1 11.11 8 88.89 9
Incorrect Against Weighted 1 9.09 10 90.91 11
Fouls Commited 12 63.16 7 36.84 19
Fouls Penalised 7 58.33 6 85.71 13
Totals Stoke City % Arsenal % Total
Correct For 10 38.46 16 61.54 26
Correct For Weighted 10 37.04 17 62.96 27
Incorrect Against 2 12.50 14 87.50 16
Incorrect Against Weighted 2 8.00 23 92.00 25
Fouls Commited 22 66.67 11 33.33 33
Fouls Penalised 13 59.09 9 81.82 22

Well the bias is largely in favour of Stoke City. I think we can stick to what we said about him in our year analysis. Even though he made some very good decisions at times he still let at lot of things go. Too many to be good in fact.

Please leave a comment!

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26 Replies to “Match Review: Lee Mason – Stoke City Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [26/08/2012]”

  1. I think the Wilkinson pen shout is a bit harsh on Mason? From his point of view he could not be sure it was ‘arm to ball’, other than gravity taking him to the deck. He may not have even been be sure it struck his arm, so harsh to give inless the assistant from afar signalled a foul?
    It looks like the big fouls were spread across their defenders – the ‘rotational fouling’ – although the Wilkinson one late on did deserve a red, but having let so much go beforehand would have looked out of character too?
    Not that I am sticking up for Mason, just trying to be objective.
    Keep up the good work.

  2. I disagree with the Gibbs-Pennant incident. There may have been some sort of push or ‘shove’ if you prefer, but that was not a penalty. Pennant’s feet stopped moving of their own accord as he just decided to go down.

    regarding the Shawcross on Gervinho, when I saw it I did scream penalty, but I thought of it as more of a blocking foul. Doesn’t a blocking foul mean an indirect free kick, even in the penalty box?

    I also agree with Gerry above when he says the Wilkinson pen hout was hard to spot, although of course that has nothing to do with the correctness or otherwise of the decision.

    One last thing. If you include the Pennant incident in this match, with the Mertesacker incident in the liverpool match (and diving cheat going down too) that’s a few incidents where referees had the opportunities to give penalties against us, but didn’t (and I would argue rightly so)

    I think they know they garnered a lot of attention last season, and are going to go back to their modus operandi of only blatantly influencing games late in the season, by which point they hope the furore would have died down, and people would become convinced of their good intentions and decisions.

  3. Wow – there’s a surprise… I still don’t think Mason was out to get us in this one – just a bit weak… I didn’t feel any injustice during or after the match as there were no real inconsistancies – just one team defending out a point (so bound to commit more fouls than the attacking team).

    The score is much lower than I expected.

  4. Re the Gibbs Penant incident in minute 58 – why has this got a zero rating, should it not be three? I only spotted the Wilkinson handball on the replay, thought he headed it in real time. It looks a little as if the refs have decided to make sure it evens out this year by not giving us away penalties to go with the none at the Emirates last season.

  5. I agree with Shard about the referees being worried. If (or when) Arsenal are challenging for the title, Fergie will surely try to stop it.

  6. Suprisingly low score here. I didn’t think he had such a bad game. I did think the bad tackle was possibly a red but wasn’t shocked that it was just yellow. The Wilkinson penalty was just totally at the wrong angle for the ref to see – He made the correct decision on the basis that there is no way he could be certain that it hit his arm. In all honesty when watching the game I initially thought it was off his head and I had a much better angle than the ref. Also there, were no real appeals for a penalty from our players.

  7. I do agree with the posters that say you have judged the penalties too harshly.

    On the Wilkinson one, it was the second replay before I was shouting at the tv, also it wasn’t appealed by the Arsenal team.

    On Pennant, he wasn’t getting the ball and he played for it. Very harsh if it was given. Gervinho ditto.

    I think after that the Wilkinson tackle should have been a red but he gave a free-kick in a dangerous position and a yellow. There really shouldn’t be as high a weighting for a wrong decision there as if he had waved play on for example. The latter would be a worse decision. Your scoring system might need a tweak in that sense to show the difference between a ref letting something go completely when it should have been a red and a ref giving a free kick and a yellow or just a free kick. Differing levels of incompetence on show.

    With the penalties, it is harder to fix as again there are differences when a ref is two yards away and has a clear view and when those of us at home only see the foul after a replay.

    You guys are doing a great job and those are hard problems to fix in your system but some thought on it might be worthwhile.

  8. Let’s not forget the referees were pretty much fair in our games at the beginning of last season until we got close to the top 3 around January , then the usual horrendous decisions returned
    It was also the same 2 seasons ago. Not really too controversial until we became real contenders after Convincingly beating man city away, at which point again the horrendous decisions returned. I’m sure Walter remembers this as he mentioned so at the time

  10. Really think that these “decisions”/rating scores need to be looked at again:
    8 Ball to arm? Negative 6 in total
    31 (Wilson) NC 2 What for?
    38 What was given? NC 3
    58 NC = 0. Anything given
    71 C “shove not given” 1

  11. @godge The only way to quantify this data is on the to-the-letter rules – we cannot second guess what the ref can and cannot see and/or think it’s a bit harsh to mark someone down as it was tricky to call, this could be poor positioning and if not then these incidents will be statistically insignificant as, we all know, it all evens out at the end of the day.

  12. I agree with Dogface here: the way in which refs are judged throughout Uefa land is on accuracy, not accuracy on the bits that they saw.

    So when PGMOL claimed a 99% accuracy for offsides it was all offsides, not ones that assistants or refs could see. And when we speak of getting rid of refs who fall below a certain percentage, it is because of the whole match, not what they could see.

    Their job is to be able to get into the right position and see – of course there is never 100% but that is the way the system works. It is not us making this bit up, but the way PGMOL and Uefa insists it works.

  13. Good review. What we see here is a continuation of what the refs allowed Stoke to get away with last season. Basically Stoke should have lost this match on penalties, instead they contrived a point. No wonder putrid Pulis ran off smirking. (Last season, without ref help they would have close to the drop zone.)

    I also am not convinced on the Pennant-Gibbs penalty shout, Pennant dropped without any assistance – but if we had been playing the manures if would have been a stone wall penalty.

  14. Most of the comments are pointing out the review was harsh on some of the calls. Your not taking into consideration that these reviews are done with Replays/different angles/ and even slow motion. Giving the reviewers time to make what they deem the correct calls.
    Personally I think it would have been a very brave ref to give the Wilkinson call as a penalty especially at Home.
    Definately wouldn’t have been Mason.
    I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had given the Gibbs penalty.
    The ref is always going to be swayed by the baying crowd.
    Afterall he’s only human.
    Isn’t he?
    Coming away from Stoke with a draw wasn’t that bad. Coming away from Stoke not getting done by the ref was Great.

  15. if a ref due to bad position cannot see a foul he deserves to lose points. He knows where he has to place himself to cover as much ground as possible.

    On the handball he was standing too central (it happened a few times with him in that game – Foy the same). So if it was hard to see for him was because he was standing in the wrong place. And thus deserves to lose points.

  16. @Walter

    Slightly off topic – sorry. But are we planning to do a media watch this season?

  17. @ Gerry Lennon,

    Maybe what this tells us is the referee set up is not working. Either way, it was wrong!

  18. We might say that Mason cannot be blamed for the penalty calls. He wasn’t certain and thus he erred on the side of caution. At least he was fair enough in that he didn’t gift Stoke their penalty after having denied Arsenal theirs.

    Like Paul mentioned above, we have the benefit to look at the replays several times sometimes from various angles and in slow motion. Everybody is human and no man can see everything at once. We don’t expect the refs to score 100%.

    I do however feel that Mason should have been tougher with the cards on dangerous tackles in two instances.

  19. There are far to many excuses for poor officials. These guys get paid to do a job. The job is detailed in two sets of documentation. Laws of The Game and Q&A and additional material for Refs. These are reasonably clear. The positioning of the officials is not an excuse to evade truth. They should be replaced by a younger group from another league.

    The bias of EPL officials in the shape of PGMOL and their FA counterparts is cheating at the highest level. I have seen and still see several cheats on the football pitch and nothing seems to be done to correct the problem.

    Suarez in the Liverpool match was constantly looking for a penalty, jsut like Pennant and Crouch were at Stoke. None of them got spoken to or carded.

    I am amazed at the racism displayed by the FA – they got at Suarez in a matter of weeks for his ‘racial’ abuse of St Evra. Terry (the English captain) has had over a year to evade their charms and will no doubt be given some lovely award to go with his Champions league medal (will this be forfeited if he is found guilty?). How his ‘reported speech’ abuse excuse was accepted by the Courts is quite comical.

    The next game at the Emirates will be interesting to see how the referee reacts.

  20. PGMOL must be off their heads if they find Lee Mason’s performances acceptable! Excellent work again Chaps! Time for Nellie Dean to make the first of his 6 annual appearances!!!!

  21. I dont buy the argument that he was badly positioned & the penalty shouts are harsh; he should have been in the correct position in the first place. Its a bit like saying a linesman who missed an offside is not to blame because he was behind the ball. These guys get paid to do their job, which I presume they receive some training for, and they are told how to position themselves in certain situations.

  22. strange that every single review on this site seems to show anti arsenal bias. Maybe every ref is against arsenal. Or maybe as arsenal fans we see things in a game which a neutral would see as 50-50 and see them as 51-49 to arsenal and so view the call as wrong

  23. Gary, you can always check debatable decisions website. They also conclude that Arsenal is on the receiving end most of all the teams.

  25. Mare St Gooner,
    A very interesting but flawed analysis. It again seems to rely on the data presented to it as being perfect when it so blatantly isn’t. The number of yellow/red card worthy fouls versus yellow/red cards awarded isn’t 1:1 and the number of clean tackles vs fouls isn’t the same as tackles/fouls called.

  26. About the link (thanks Mare St Gooner)

    I have posted a comment (don’t know if it will come on line) where I pointed at the fact that the article is based on the premise that all fouls are called correct. And I think nobody will believe such a thing. Certainly not when Arsenal and Stoke are involved.

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