Sunderland v Arsenal 14 September 2013 – the Officials
By Andrew Crawshaw
Referee Martin Atkinson
Assistant referees R West & H Lennard
Fourth official K Friend
Martin Atkinson has been a Premier League Referee since 2005 when he started with the Manchester City v Birmingham City game, and has been an ever present since then. He if FIFA accredited since 2006 and with Howard Webb was the second English Referee at the Euro 2012 competition. He is a senior referee and recognised as being capable of taking charge of games at the highest level.
So far so good then – but how did he do for Arsenal and Sunderland last year? Walter’s team has reviews for three games for both Arsenal and Sunderland so that gives something to look at.
Taking Arsenal first – Arsenal v A Villa (2-1) 23/02/2013. Weighted overall performance 85%, bias against (42/58) yes a game where the bias swing was just in Arsenal’s favour!
Arsenal v Chelsea (1-2) 29/09/12. 71% overall rating and bias against of 65/35. In both of those games there were no key decisions (second yellows, reds, penalties or goals) wrong.
The third game was the reverse Chelsea fixture where from an Arsenal point of view he had a nightmare. 62% overall rating bias against 10/90 and six key wrong decisions, five against Arsenal including both Chelsea goals, Ramirez not being sent off three times the first in the 15th minute. To add insult to injury he was given the man of the match award. There were also two wrongly non awarded penalties to Chelsea in the opening minute and Arsenal in the 94th minute. Those two could be said to even out but nothing else he did in the game did.
Turning now to Sunderland. We have Sunderland v Spurs (1-2) on 29/12/2012. 72% weighted correct score and bias against of 50/50.
One key decision of a not given penalty to Spurs for a foul on Bale by Gardner. Sunderland v Newcastle (1-1) on 21/10/2012. 75% overall score bias against of 72/28. Again one key wrong decision when Cabaye should have been sent off for a second yellow in the 83rd minute. No favours to Sunderland in that game.
The last game was Sunderland v Liverpool (1-1) on 15/09/12 where he got the lowest score at 69% and bias against of 36/64 again one key wrong decision when Larsson pushed Shelvey in the penalty area in the 26th minute but the penalty wasn’t awarded. From the Sunderland point of view then relatively low scores in all three games – not acceptable from a referee with his experience and level of accreditation but the overall bias scores kind of balance out.
What can we expect tomorrow – difficult to predict, at his best he can do a first class job and neither team should be concerned. At his worst then Arsenal supporters and players should be very afraid. At least the game isn’t at Chelsea.
I’m just very glad to be alive to enjoy the game whatever the result and team performances.
COYG
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At present Untold is publishing a series of articles on the referees last year. Here’s the index
- 1. Who reviewed the games
- 2. What we did and what next
- 3. All the decisions in numbers
- 4. The first, at times astonishing, numbers
- 5. Home and away bias
- 6. It all evens out in the end – Wigan last season
- 7. West Ham: Life with a positive bias
- 8. West Brom and the Referees
- 9. Tottenham, penalties and some amusing comments
- 10. Swansea City and a change this year
- 11. Sunderland, a positive bias
- 12. Stoke, where refereeing is different.
- 13. Southampton – how did they ever survive?
- 14. QPR – a strange case
- 15. Norwich – more errors than acceptable
- 16. Newcastle United – again, more errors than there should be.
- 17. Manchester United: 70% of wrong decisions in their favour.
- 18. Manchester City: unlike their neighbours a very small bias.
- 19: Liverpool: you should blame the refs
- 20: Fulham – it all evens out in the end
- 21: Everton: a slight bias in favour
- 22: Chelsea: an occasional bias against
- 23: Aston Villa: a huge bias in favour
- 24: Refs give opposition freedom to kick Arsenal off the park.
- 25. The complete league bias table
- 26. Untold has said it for a long while, others follow
- 27. Andre Marriner; a good ref but 10% of his goal decisions are wrong!
- 28: Anthony Taylor: Disastrous when it comes to penalties
- 29. Chris Foy: Very bad on cards and fouls
- 30. Howard Webb, an amazing score
- 31: Jonathon Moss: Over 90% right.
Per out and Ozil sick.. what deity have we offended?
I heard both were sick. Eaten to many bratwursts??? Probably a bug from the German team I think. An international bug…
I hope that Sunderland does not model themselves on AV and become a battering ram to injure our players. This seems to be the way of teams to pressure Arsenal, but Sunderland seems to like to play proper football now, so should be a proper game.
Our lads are surely aware now of what they have to face week in week out, and that it is not always just 11 men.
So come on lads, let’s have another good win. Remember goal differences as well.
Where are those sickness reports? Have not seen them on AFC site. I doubt very much that the players really eat Bratwurst?
I think the sickness story came from David Ornstein (who broke the Ozil to Arsenal story so has credibility). These players do have delicate stomachs!