Arsenal v Liverpool match ref preview: It’s going to be tough.

Arsenal v Liverpool – 2 November 2013 – The Match Officials

• Referee – Martin Atkinson
• Assistants – S Burt and M McDonnough
• 4th Official – M Jones.

Mr Atkinson is 42 years old, he is a Yorkshireman, home county West Riding FA and has been Fifa accredited since 2006 and is one of three UK referees who is an Elite FIFA Referee.  His first Premier league game was Man. City v Birmingham on 20 April 2005

But…

In September he had to re-do his FIFA fitness tests which he passed at the second time of asking.

It is our second time this year with Mr Atkinson, although none of the other officials were with him then.  We had him for the away game at Sunderland on 14th September which we won 3-1, Sunderland 1 – Arsenal 3.  There were two contentious decisions (particularly from Sunderland supporters point of view).

1. The Sunderland goal came from a penalty given against Koscielny – rightly so according to Walter.
2. The incident between Altidore and Sagna that Sunderland and MOTD felt should have been a goal and probably a red card for Sagna.  This is covered extensively in Walter’s article which I have linked, again on balance the decision as given seems to have been the most appropriate one.  At the start of the incident both players had hold of each other’s shirt and a free kick outside the box seems an appropriate outcome.

Overall a game which we deserved to win and did win.

However his results for last year were not great overall – indeed, Walter titled his review – “This is not a FIFA Ref”.  He got half of his yellow cards and all of his second yellow cards wrong; 85% of his red cards, 62% of penalties over 20% of fouls and free kicks and even 15% of his goals weren’t right.

His bias graph for last year also shows why he shouldn’t be a FIFA referee as he clearly has favourites.

 

Last season we had him for three games – home and away against Chelsea (his most favoured team) and the home game against Aston Villa.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Arsenal Vs Chelsea (1 – 2) [29/09/2012] – Overall score (weighted) 71%, bias against 69/31, one wrong key decision (second yellow, red card, penalty or goal decision).  Main talking points :-

Minute 17 – Terry loses his footing and pushes Gervinho into Cole right on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area, Gervinho penalised rather than Terry.

Minute 19 – Chelsea Goal (0-1) Torres has both hands up and pushing Koscielny.  Clear foul, goal should be dis-allowed.

Minute 24 – Mikel jumped into the back of Arteta in penalty area, not given, no review to over-rule ref decision so assumed correct.

Minute 24 – Penalty shout for Torres/Koscielny contact – this was contact by Torres  so correct non penalty

Minute 26 – Luis clearly has arm round Gervinho, foul given but should also have been a booking.

Minute 34 – Ramsey correctly gets yellow card.

Minute 38 – Oscar correctly gets yellow card.

Minute 39 – Torres challenges Ramsey from behind and catches his ankle, ref is 5 yards away with unobstructed view, should be yellow card, doesn’t even see the foul.

Minute 41 – Gervinho scores for Arsenal (1-1)

Minute 47 – Luiz wrongly booked for diving – he went over but never appealed for penalty.

Minute 52 – Mata scores for Chelsea (1-2)

Minute 59 Koscielny should be booked, free kick awarded.

Minute 82 – Ramires catches Arteta on the ankle from behind should be booked, foul given.

Minute 92 – Ramires wrongly booked, just a foul no need for a yellow.

So a defeat that should have been a draw – thanks ref.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Chelsea Vs Arsenal (2 – 1) [20/01/2013]– Overall score 61%, bias against 10/90, 7 wrong key decisions, virtually all against Arsenal.  Main talking points :-

• Minute 0 – Diaby held his arms around Oscar, then stopped the ball with his feet.  Foul started outside the area but continued inside so penalty should have been called.
• Minute 5 – Ramires plants his studs on Coquelin’s foot in the centre circle, should have received a yellow card.  No foul given.  Directly from this not given foul Juan Mata scores a goal which shouldn’t have stood.
• Minute 15 – Penalty awarded to Chelsea as Ramires deliberately makes contact with Szcz who has spread himself.  Ramires should have received a second yellow card for a dive and should be sent off.  Szcz receives a yellow card and Chelsea score the awarded penalty.
• Minute 61 – Ramires (who should already have been sent off in minute 15) pulls Walcott back by the arm to stop a promising attack..Ref signals that he got the ball!
• Minute 77 – Ramires pushes Wilshere in the face, again the ref sees nothing wrong!
• Minute 94 – Cahill acting like a scarf to prevent Vermaelen jumping for a cross should be a penalty to Arsenal but (surprise surprise!) this is quite all right to do in Cahill’s own penalty area and nothing given.

A travesty of a refereeing performance where Chelsea were allowed to do whatever they wanted with absolute impunity.  It could be argued that the not given penalties in the first and 94th minutes evened out but nothing else did.  That’s a loss that should have been a win – thanks a lot ref.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Arsenal Vs Aston Villa (2 – 1) [23/02/2013] – Overall score 85% bias against 47/63 and no wrong key decisions.  Main talking points :-

• Minute 5 – Cazorla scores a goal (1-0)
• Minute 24 – Weimann passed to Agbonglahor who shot at goal, parried by Szcz, the ball came back to Weimann who had been offside when the initial shot was made, error from linesman almost leading to incorrect goal.
• Minute 35/36 – yellow cards to both Lowton and Diaby
• Minute 67 – Weimann scores a goal (1-1)
• Minute 84 – Cazorla scores a goal (2-1).

At last he acted like a referee – no major talking points, very little wrong and an unbiased performance (Chelsea not involved).

Now looking at his performances last year for Liverpool

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Sunderland Vs Liverpool (1 – 1) [15/09/2012] – Overall score 69%, bias against 31/69 one wrong key decision.  Main talking points :-

Minute 26 – Larsson pushes Shelvey over in penalty area should be a Liverpool penalty – nothing given.

Minute 28 – Fletcher scores for Sunderland (1-0)

Minute 34 – Sunderland wall no more than 7 yards away – free kick should have been re-taken.

Minute 36 – Suarez booked for a dive (correctly)

Minute 62 – Skirtel booked for foul

Minute 70 – Suarez scores (1-1)

Minute 80 – Larsson booked for a foul

Minute 84 – Bramble should be booked for a foul on Suarez

Minute 85 – Gardner should be booked for foul on Sterling who avoids challenge by jumping over it.

So Liverpool should have had a penalty and can rightly feel that Mr Atkinson robbed them as well.

Match Review: Martin Atkinson – Wigan Athletic Vs Liverpool (0 – 4) [02/03/2013] – Overall score 84%, bias against 23/77 and again one key wrong decision.  Main talking points :-

Minute 1 – Downing scores a goal (0-1)

Minute 2 – Wigan player makes frontal tackle getting ball and player – always a foul but not given

Minute 17 – Suarez scores  (0-2)

Minute 20 – Boyce slaps McCarthy on the head and should have been sent off.  Ref had a word which was inappropriate.

Minute 29 – Lucas should be booked for third foul. Free kick given.

Minute 33 – Suarez scores (0-3)

Minute 46 – Lucas finally gets his yellow card for persistent fouling.

Minute 48 – Suarez scores his hat-trick (0-4)

Minute 58 – McArthur gets a yellow card.

A comprehensive win for Liverpool and not a bad game from the Referee apart from not sending off Boyce when he slapped his own team mate.

Going back to 2011/12

Atkinson was placed 10th overall out of 15 – so he wasn’t very good then either.  He got 13% of his goal decisions wrong as well as 25% of fouls/free kinks, 47% of penalties, 83% of red cards and 44% of yellow cards wrong, so not a lot of difference to last year.  Can someone please tell me why he is accredited to the highest level in FIFA?

His bias numbers that year were

 

So Arsenal still towards the bottom but Liverpool at the top.

Another referee who doesn’t fill me with confidence, he gets far too many decisions wrong.      Last year he probably cost us four points and Liverpool two.

Based on last tear’s performances the game is between his two least favourite teams which might make for an even performance, as we got against Villa.  If he reverts to his previous year though where we were at opposite ends of the spectrum it might be a hard evening.