Arsenal – Blackburn Rovers: we can expect the worst. The very worst.

65 Replies to “Arsenal – Blackburn Rovers: we can expect the worst. The very worst.”

1. Hoping the recent highlighting of his record against Arsenal in the press is why he was sent to this game that we should win, perhaps told to allow us to win a game while he is in charge to even it up a bit and get them off his back so he can screw us later in the PL.

   But I certainly wouldn’t bet on it.

2. Most bloggers and fans were saying that the FA Cup presented our best chance of winning a trophy this year. Well the appointment of Dean has completely put paid to that. If we win this game it will be a miracle. With even handed refereeing we would be favourites, with Dean in charge I have the most severe doubts. We do have Sian Massey running one touch line ans she is normally excellent and Kevin Friend as fourth official who is also normally unbiased. Perhaps they both need to be indoctrinated into the anti-arsenal way of refereeing or just maybe they will be strong enough to counter some of the worst of Deans excesses. Like you I expect the worst.

3. Grim reading Walter. Like you i was absolutely furious when i found out he is ref. How long is this going to continue? Any other country and im sure this would have been looked at but this the PL aka the league of saints and coincidences. Sad really

4. If i were a betting person i would make a lot money by putting a few quids for us not winning and events happening whenever he is ref. I mean its the literally free money given what a twat he is..

5. We will get through, but at a price. Dean will use this as a rehersal to give the worst diver in the league a pen at WHL.
   Ivan really should be doing something about this ref situation

6. Can’t you send this information to Arsenal, Surely they are aware of the stats because Arsene is a numbers man…………..surely they can see something is up, why don’t they bloody well do something about it instead of sitting on their hands whilst we consistently get shafted. I know it is about ‘proof’ but surely even circumstantial stuff like this raises some serious red flags. This truly should be looked into because at the end of the day this is just as bad as the other cheating scandals because this is cheating it is giving an advantage to other teams. When points are knocked off a team on purpose it has an effect to everyone else in the league or competition it opens gaps up for teams to run away with the league, teams that should be dropping points are gaining them so a team that should really be relegated for example are getting some points from dodgy games so some other poor sod of a team takes a fall instead, it totally screws up everything and what is the bloody point in playing the match anyway when you know what is coming.

7. 4. No penalty for Arsenal no matter the foul unless a player saves the ball with his hands like a goalkeeper full stretched making a real save.

   I don’t think you are right Walter. Last season at WHL, Walker was lying on his stomach, grabbed the ball with both arms and pulled it to his face, hugging and kissing the ball. No penalty!

8. Although he is an incompetent ref at best and corrupt at worst, I think we will have too much for Blackburn and Dean tomorrow. That isnt to say that the way the refs are allocated AND predominantly located in the north of England should not be a serious cause for concern and something that, if they really gave a monkeys about the fairness and transparency of their competition, the premier league and FA really need to be doing something about.

   But they are not arsed clearly and even if there is nothing underhand going on here with regards to the officiating of top flight games in England, then they ought to make those res[ponsible accountable and work in a manner that can be held up to scrutiny and not simply banal vacuous PR spiel on SSN.

9. For the first time in my life I’ll be putting several pre match bets on Arsenal losing a game. At least if we get screwed (causing me emotional upset) I’ll get some money out of it (financial happiness).

   I’ll be there tomorrow and I fully intend to get on the refs back from minute 1. The whole stadium need to let it be known via the power of TV coverage that we are all onto him and his bent ways.

   In the longer term, if the PGMOL or Dean isn’t going to be investigated, how can we sort him out once and for all?
   It’s clear that as long as he’s around we are going to be at a disadvantage.

   There comes a point where playing fair has to be abandoned and you have to play dirty.

10. Hi everyone I’m new on this site (and french so sorry for the mistakes) and I must admit it is the first time I hear about that kind of statistics. Is it a common phenomenon in english football? I never heard that kind of statistics concerning the Ligue 1… I might be misinformed but I’d like to know if it’s concerning only Arsenal FC or english/european/international football. The problem seems to be that it is not “regular” corruption which is about money, but kind of “local patriotic” corruption (sorry I just can’t find a proper way to express it…).
    Thanks for providing enlightenments.

11. Personally I think the club should compile a massive dossier of Dean screw jobs against us.
    Documental and video evidence. Then go to the FA and PGMOL and threaten to take it all the way to the European courts if need be.

    Give them the ultamatum – Get your houses in order or we’ll push for criminal investigation.

12. Out of interest (and you may have covered it in a past article) who were our opponents for the games Dean has reffed? There’s always more to the story than the bare statistics and I seem to remember Dean being in charge of a lot of our bigger games against the Uniteds and Citys etc. Could it be that our win rate is so low because he is one of the higher profile refs and so is given the bigger games? It might be that those losses are down to better opposition rather than poor refereeing?

13. At sunderland, it was almost certain d ref did not want his efforts to help them tannise by an arsenal win. It frustrating 4 some of us outside england as we dont know what d motive of most ref hating arsenal is. All d same when we move our interest to other leagues it the english game that ll loss viewership. It funny they think they can fool people all the times. It dont work that way. Let them stop complaining about fifa when it dont favour them, birds of d same feathers

14. For me we are making too much of our terrible record when Dean is ref. Generally he refs our games against the best teams, who these days we have very little chance of beating anyway. I don’t recall him “screwing us over” in the Bradford match. we just didn’t turn up.

15. Sian Massey is one of the best, if not THE best assistant. Friend is pretty useful as well. But who has the other flag? Kirkup …just about as bad as the twat. So we are out voted for on field decisions. So, just go 6-0 up before half time playing as only we can play the game. Even Dean couldn’t turn that around without getting arrested.

16. so we have a legbreaker (Scott Dann)playing under an official who hates Arsenal, Not looking forward to this one, hope for a quick 3-0 lead, one can dream, can’t they?
    I do wonder if Diaby will play?

17. For the people who say Dean has always reffed our big matches have you actually saw those matches? he has been utter twat in all of them and if you havent seen it yet why not search his little dance he did when saha scored the goal that put spuds infront? Dont try to be his apologists. Fact is he is a massive twat who doesnt deserve to ref in blue square let alone the PL

18. @Walter:
    It gets ‘funnier’…
    My quick research suggests that ‘worst’ and ‘wurst’ have the same root: “to confuse, mix up” and “mixture” so your label is a good one.

    Sadly though ‘worst’ also has the meaning…

    “damage, inflict loss upon,”

    …which is what bratwurst obviously intends 🙁

19. Walter, he didn’t award us penalty at the toilet, regardless Fletcher taking down our player and then push the ball away using his hand.

20. While I think we should not overlook the statistics of this particular ref against us, I think we should take the challenge and play good and neat football. We should avoid hard tackles, silly fouls and beat Blackburn beyond reasonable doubts. All those back passing and wasting valuable time of the game passing the ball at our half should be stopped, at least not for this game. Nobody can stop a good team from winning.

21. @Stan, It is a statistic reserved especially for Arsenal. the referee known as Michael Leslie Dean seems to be as corrupt as they come, proving it is the problem.

22. There needs to be some sort of protest, as and when he does something in character.

    If it is televised live, a mass walkout of 45,000 Arsenal supporters would be quite impressive

23. Arsenal with M L DEAN as official since start of 09/10 season

    English Premier Su 13Jan 2013 Arsenal 0 – 2 Man City
    Capital One Cup Tu 11Dec 2012 Bradford 1 – 1 Arsenal
    English Premier Sa 03Nov 2012 Man Utd 2 – 1 Arsenal
    English Premier Su 23Sep 2012 Man City 1 – 1 Arsenal
    English Premier Sa 21Apr 2012 Arsenal 0 – 0 Chelsea
    English Premier Sa 31Mar 2012 QPR 2 – 1 Arsenal
    English Premier Su 26Feb 2012 Arsenal 5 – 2 Spurs
    English Premier Su 22Jan 2012 Arsenal 1 – 2 Man U
    English Premier Sa 26Nov 2011 Arsenal 1 – 1 Fulham
    Carling Cup Su 27Feb 2011 N Arsenal 1 – 2 B,ham
    English FA Cup We 19Jan 2011 Leeds 1 – 3 Arsenal
    Premier League Su 07Nov 2010 Arsenal 0 – 1 Newcastle
    Premier League Su 03Oct 2010 Chelsea 2 – 0 Arsenal
    Premier League Sa 24Apr 2010 Arsenal 0 – 0 Man City
    Premier League Su 07Feb 2010 Chelsea 2 – 0 Arsenal
    Premier League We 16Dec 2009 Burnley 1 – 1 Arsenal
    Premier League Sa 29Aug 2009 Man Utd 2 – 1 Arsenal

24. So what next with such a twat ?

25. @Adam wow so thats 2 wins in 4 years…why is no one looking into it?

26. Time for the fans at the stadium to give this ref who needs to be investigated by europol hell all game make the cunt think he’s at stadium he’d be lucky to get out alive.

27. Arsenals firt 12 fixtures under M L DEAN.

    Premiership Sa 16Sep 2000 Arsenal 2 – 1 Coventry
    Premiership Sa 09Dec 2000 Arsenal 5 – 0 Newcastle
    Premiership Sa 03Feb 2001 Coventry 0 – 1 Arsenal
    Premiership Sa 09Nov 2002 Arsenal 1 – 0 Newcastle
    Premiership Su 19Jan 2003 Arsenal 3 – 1 West Ham
    Premiership We 27Aug 2003 Arsenal 2 – 0 Aston Villa
    Premiership Sa 01Nov 2003 Leeds 1 – 4 Arsenal
    English FA Cup Sa 24Jan 2004 Arsenal 4 – 1 Middlesbro
    Premiership Su 09May 2004 Fulham 0 – 1 Arsenal
    Community Shield Su 08Aug 2004 N Arsenal 3 – 1 Man Utd
    Premiership Sa 02Oct 2004 Arsenal 4 – 0 Charlton
    Premiership Sa 06Nov 2004 C Palace 1 – 1 Arsenal

28. Mike Leslie Dean is either an Everton or Liverpool fan as hea has only ever officiated either once, Yet he has done 40 odd games for us now.

29. In the UK there is a Minister of Sport who must hold ultimate responsibility for the PGMOL, FA etc. I have little or no faith in any politician, but when Dean referees our matches the results deviate so dramatically from the statical norm that the said Minister of Sport should be asked for an explanation – after all – politicians do postulate their support for all things uncorrupted – there are no votes in being caught supporting corruption. Can the Minister survive if Dean’s antics continue?

30. Stan,
    We are doing these statistics in this form since few weeks now. We will take on every ref that will do an Arsenal game as they are appointed.

    These numbers from Dean are the worst possible for any team. I am planning to compare Dean with all the other PL teams in the next weeks and compare their overall average numbers with the numbers under Dean.

    If only the Arsenal numbers are out of line then we can assume that there must be something wrong in the relation between Dean and Arsenal.

    Don’t worry about your English by the way

31. Someone asked about Dean only doing the big games.
    No he hasn’t and but in both types of games (big and small) there are a few things that keep coming back. I mentioned them in the article.

    Also the fact that he refuses us to give the most blatant penalties (in both the games against the Manchester clubs this was happening and had a direct bad influence in our result)

    Also against the lesser clubs he did the same thing and awarded fouls and penalties against us that led to goals.

    Someone gave the games and 7 of those 17 games were against lesser teams. And only 2 wins in those 17 games mentioned. One in the FA cup by the way. Away at Leeds and the goal that Leeds scored was the direct result of Dean letting a tackle from behind unpunished.

32. @Walter actually its 2 wins in 18 matches.. Adam forgot the Hand der vart match in his list

33. With such a track record, how come there are no known suspicious betting patterns when Dean refs Arsenal matches?

34. There is no more blatant example of referee bias than that shown by Dean in our matches in recent years. The man is a disgrace. If FA and PGMOL persist in allocating him to our fixtures, there is only one conclusion to be drawn.

    For the first time in my life, I am sadly coming to the view that football is fixed. This week’s examples: Juventus defenders assaulting Celtic players with impunity, Man Utd scoring against Real from a “corner” etc. etc.

35. @Walter, Just been looking at Chelsea’s win ratio under Dean and it sits at 81% over 49 games. Has it been noted before that he appears to favour Chelsea?
    played 49
    lost 8
    drawn 6
    won 38

    Have you ever seen figures swing so much from one club too another?

36. Sorry, got me figures wrong (above) 33 wins 70% win ratio. Still a big difference from other clubs?

37. @Adam

    What you need to compare to, is what fractions of games should have been won. If a referee has a slight problem with a specific club, and we examine how that referee performs with teams that are “near” the performance of “this” team, you may be able to guess at how that referee would treat a club of the same ability of “this” club, and then you compare this hypothetical club under this referee, to the real club with this referee. But, as I set things up, a paired T test would be something to use, as you have paired data. But, if one of these “nearby” comparison teams sees positive bias instead of neutral (and we are looking to show negative bias against “this” team), then you can’t use the data from the positively biased team (easily).

    I don’t know if people made odd bets based on Dean’s propensity to twist games. I think that if organized crime is going to take advantage of games, it is probably easier to do so when strange expectations are likely. Arsenal is not a physical side, one might not expect Arsenal to have a player carded. Dean is already warped, no bribe needs to be paid to get him to eject an Arsenal player with little or no cause. Putting a big bet on Dean ejecting Arsenal players gives them a way to launder money with no risk (no need to bribe Dean, he bribes himself). But, if bad betting statistics is something which can be picked up on, maybe some people need a heads up. As near as I can tell, Europol isn’t interested in hints like this. Of various better magazines who might be interested, I sent an anonymous note to The Economist. How many of their people are working late on a Friday? And the game is on Saturday. They might not have time to look into as much as they could.

38. This week Celtic sent video evidence of their Champions league match against Juventus to Fifa, Celtic’s manager was quite vocal in his assessment of the Spanish Ref, having watched the game the referees performance was suspect and not what should be delivered at this level. Surly at a club like Arsenal, Dean’s disgraceful behaviour should be brought to the attention of the authorities, English F.A. or in Fifa as I believe they untimely have control of their registered Referees, and not PGMOL who are a management company.

39. My guess, as perceiving Celtic as lower income than Juventus, is that the manager of Celtic ends up serving a 3 match ban.

    But, I wish Celtic the best in pursuing this.

40. @ Adam and Walter Broeckx thanks for your answers. The only thing I can do is giving you credit for the shadow job you’re achieving, hoping it will benefit to Arsenal.

41. We can also expect Mr Dean to allow Blackburn’s time-wasting to go unpunished, merely shrugging his shoulders when their goalkeeper takes an age to kick the ball.

    I hope that a majority of Arsenal fans inside the stadium are aware of Mike Dean by now and let him know we are onto him.

    Although I do think we will be too strong for Blackburn today, even with the Mike Dean bias.

    Lets wipe the “Cheshire cats” smile from his face today.

42. I haven’t seen the press conference yet but with last month even the national press having a look at the “strange” statistics of Arsenal under Dean I find it rather strange that not one of those “reporters” asked a question about Dean in the press conference yesterday.
    Maybe someone did ask the question but it wasn’t mentioned on the summary. But I rather think nobody really wanted to break the silence or “omerta”.

43. Oh and I will be doing a survey of each team and each ref in the PL and see how their statistics are different from the statistics under each ref.

    Now if anyone can lend me a few hours of time 😉 🙂

    Will be interesting I think

44. Yep, Mike ‘Shit’ Dean. We could not believe he was assigned to another of our games. How someone who was reprimanded for some dodgy betting allegiance several years ago, can produce such appalling stats v Arsenal and NOT ring major alarm bells, says it all. We can hardly imagine Frigginson putting up with anything like this. I fully expect 4 or 5 of Walters’ stat dreads to happen. It is the total smugness of the bloke, grinning like, ‘So, what can you do about my antics, then?’ The boys are up against OM Riley again.

45. @Walter, I have been separating Deans appointments into team & date order, do you want me to forward this on to you? Also do you want the cards as well? What I have been looking at is a refs journey up the pyramid especially how long it takes them to get a game at Old Trafford. Surprising how quick some refs get Arsenal home games but have to wait years to get a Man Utd home game.
    You have my e-mail so let me know what teams you want me to do to divide the work load and what info you want.

46. So Dean officiated over loads of victories at first and now he doesn’t. Odd. So when did he start hating Arsenal? Seems to me that the losses he presides over are usually, according to Adams recent roll call of games, against teams we rarely beat anyway, that is City, United and Chelsea. And then there’s the loss to Brum in the final in which we were pretty poor anyway.

    Dean may well favour other teams and if so why aren’t any of you confronting him? If he’s corrupt then accuse him openly, face to face.

    It may be nothing but the fact that Dean has presided over loads of Chelsea victories coincides with Chelsea being an extremely successful club.

    If Arsenal can’t beat Blackburn at home then the team need to ask themselves questions, Dean or no Dean. I expect us to win easily.

47. I actually did the numbers last time this comes up– around the time of the City game.

    The only justification anyone has given for Dean’s numbers was the idea he does the big games, so I looked at that. Not going to post the whole spreadsheet, but the highlights were:

    29 games VS City, United, Chelsea and Spurs since start 09/10.

    Dean got 11 of them –38% (By itself a scary stat since it means ‘randomly’ the ref that gives us the hardest time gets around 40% of our games against our nearest rivals). We won 1 of them.

    The results: 9% wins, 27% draws, 64% losses.

    No other ref got enough games to have meaningful stats (Clatenburg with 5 was next) but grouped together 18 games.– we won 7 of them.

    The results: 39% wins, 11% draws, 50% losses.

    OK these results are not wonderful, but considering the opponents, its around where you’d expect it. It is impressive however, just how much Dean’s results stand out.

    The moral of the story: We are 4-5 times as likely to win against the big boys if Dean is not the ref.

48. Urg, came up in the first line– only thing I dislike about this site is the no preview/edit.

    As to challenging Dean, Allardyce and Rednose in the last couple of weeks are just the most examples highlighting the FA’s attitude to questioning the refs. Has anyone ever complained about a ref and the result not been: ‘so and so is fined £lots and warned about their future behaviour’.

    Our only hope is that Dean’s record was highlighted recently so he may keep his head down, along with that it is a cup game.

49. Adam,

    I sent you a mail.

50. Gooner Pete, Walter, Tony,
    Exactly, Gooner Pete. Which begs questions like these:
    What about the fans bringing red placards to hold up at the games that The Dean officiates? Maybe the mere threat of that will be enough to lower his number of appearances. That would be, indeed IS a highly VISIBLE way to call attention to these (to be polite) disparities. When, if ever, will UA advocate that fans take (if not this, then) such an action at the Ems? And, if never, then why not, Walter? Mr. Attwood?

    Why is there no advocacy hereabouts to so tame an action that protests something so blatantly obvious and out-of-line as The Dean’s mendacity toward AFC? If anyone sneers and doubts fans/UA for this, well then there’s the record to reply with (along with other biases). What is the problem here? Is being a welcoming venue for crying foul, hand-wringing and furious typing as far as this website will ever go toward overcoming victimization with the mildest of fan protest?

51. I can not believe that there are some twats who believe that Dean is always good for Arsenal apart from a few games ?
    Anyway morons are morons and they will never change.Period

52. @Rupert, it’s also to do with the speed in which Dean has been promoted up the pyramid. It took him 3 years to get an Arsenal home game but 5 years to get a Man U home game? Its very much worth looking in to and we are not wasting your time if we cannot find anything only our own. But thank you for wishing us well in our endeavours.

    As for when Dean started hating Arsenal, Might be when we declined into competition with his beloved Liverpool/Everton.

53. Damn that was a lucky one,but i expect Szczesny to get that one easily.What was Dean shit talking to Kazim Richards after he scored???

54. Now what the fuck did that lady put up the flag???

55. Anyway this is gone and with Dean do not expect anything and the way we need to pass the ball into goal we are gone.

56. @Adam, I’m sure that Dean is corrupt. You’re sure he’s corrupt. So instead of moaning about it challenge him face to face. You’ve got the proof so call him out.

    Didn’t see the game but listened to it on the radio. All I could glean from it was a team with total domination unable to score and once again Gervinho is really poor.

    Anyway another year without a trophy.

57. I happened to watch the game.
    Arsenal had the majority of play but couldnt score. Blackburn played a very disciplined game but Arsenal quite simply didnt have the ability in the final 20 yards. When AW brought on the 3 subs the chances came and went as Blackburn dropped deeper but again no cutting edge.
    Dean was going to give the penaly but Walcott was flaged (wrong) for offside.
    Blackburn turned up with the intention of frustrating Arsenal and to see what happened. Their plan worked out 100%. AWs plan failed 100%

58. So Bayern next lets shoot them down,just wondering what Dean talked to Kazim after that goal? Any one having any idea!

59. Rupert, what proof?

    Didn’t see the game either, all I got was, bad finishing against a parked bus. Have to wait for others to comment who saw the game.
    Question for you and others;
    Mike Dean has only ever officiated over one Liverpool game and one Everton game, Do you think it fair that he can officiate in the same league as them?

60. No its Chris Foy that supports Everton and so cannot official Everton or Liverpool matches. I would argue that given the league positions this season that should be widened to include Arsenal and Tottenham.

    Back to Mike Dean. I suspect given his wikipedia page that Mr Mike “I hate Arsenal” Dean is in actual fact a Chelsea supporter.

    I would like to say to any Arsenal fan. where ever you may be in the world when you see that Mike Dean is officiating an Arsenal match…. bet AGAINST Arsenal.

61. This is just league matches so doesnt include the Bradford or Blackburn farces
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2262230/Arsenal-win-seven-cent-games-Mike-Dean-referees.html

62. @none, is that “NO”directed at me and if so why NO. It is possible for more than one person to support a club, is it not. If Dean does not follow Everton or Liverpool then who in your opinion does he follow? and why?

63. An example would be Andre Marriner, I cannot find a single Birmingham city game or Aston Villa game in his history but I can find Wolves games in his history?
    Conclusion he must support one of the Birmingham clubs, but why is he allowed to officiate Wolves?

64. @Adam, I thought you actually had proof that Dean was corrupt. Sorry if I jumped to conclusions but I thought this bias that Dean portrays was fact. If not then some of these allegations amount to slander.

    I’m not defending Dean. I certainly don’t want him officiating any Arsenal games.

    Anyway I don’t think Dean is the reason we lost today judging from what I heard on the radio and comments from those at the game.

    There is a pattern emerging this season. We lose to teams beginning with B in cup competitions. Bradford, Blackburn and who’s up next………Bayern Munich.

65. Rupert Cook,
    Two sets of questions:
    Specifically why wouldn’t you want Dean to officiate at our games?

    And, whatever your reason on the above, you do bring up (insinuate) slander in Adam’s posting. As a non-lawyer, I have some actual questions for you about limits: is it slander in the UK for someone to say that they “suspect” another public person of corruption? Or to say that there “seems” to be no legal explanation for something that a public figure has been observed to be doing? Can you specify the specific limit on allowable limits here? Is there a difference between specific allegation and rhetorical speech? Also, are you a lawyer?