Arsenal v Sunderland 22/2/14 – The Match Officials. Expect 70% accuracy and no home bias

Arsenal v Sunderland 22 February 2014 – The Match Officials

Andrew Crawshaw

• Referee – Andre Marriner
• Assistants – M Perry, P Bankes
• Fourth Official – P Dowd

Second time this year for Mr Marriner, he was in charge of our home game v Hull on 4th December which we won two nil.  Mr Perry is something of a regular with Mr Marriner, this will be his twelfth game out of nineteen.  Mr Bankes was with Mr Marriner for the first two games of the season but not since.  We also saw Mr Perry with Jonathan Moss for our home game v Palace and the 1-1 draw at West Brom with Lee Mason.  Mr Bankes is new to us this season so we need to give him a hearty welcome.

Andre Marriner was born in 1971, his county FA is Birmingham and his first Premier League match was Charlton v Norwich on 13 November 2004 and was formally appointed to the select list in 2005.  Since then he has refereed 176 matches issuing 38 red and 554 yellow cards.  Do the referee statistics indicate he is any good though?

For 2012 he was OK(ish) Goal decisions 93%, Offsides 97%, Fouls 74%, Penalties 56%, Red cards 40% and yellow cards 59% correct.  Surprisingly the figure for red cards (60% wrong remember) was better than the league average, but still a rotten score.  Overall he had a home team bias.  How did that bias show against individual teams:-

 

No real surprise there, Arsenal at the bottom of the table.

What about 2013?  There are three relevant reviewed games

Match Review: Andre Marriner – Arsenal Vs West Ham United (5 – 1) [23/01/2013] – 67% overall, Bias against 69/31 and 1 wrong

Important Decision (Goal, penalty, red or second yellow card).

Key moments were:-

• Min 5 – First wrong decision – Collison pushes the ball too far, Wilshere steps in and Collison plants his studs on Wilshere’s foot.  Dangerous tackle should have been a yellow card but not even deemed a foul.
• Min 17 – Corner given to West Ham, disputed by Arsenal players but nothing to show conclusively that decision was wrong so given as correct.
• Min 17 – Collison scores a goal (0-1)
• Min 18 – West Ham given a free kick wrongly there was no foul from either Ramsey or Sagna
• Min 21 – Podolski scores a goal (1-1)
• Min 24 – when the ball runs out of play Vaz Te kicks Mertesacker on the Achilles, should have been a booking but nothing given
• Min 30 – Another phantom foul given against Arsenal, this time Podolski judged to be guilty.
• Min 38 – West Ham not given a free kick for a push by Arsenal
• Min 41 – Vaz Te wrongly flagged for offside and protests strongly enough to get a yellow card.  Had he properly been shown a first Yellow in minute 24 he should have been sent off – wrong Important Decision.
• Min 46 – Giroud scores a goal (2-1)
• Min 52 – Cazorla scores a goal (3-1)
• Min 53 – Theo scores a goal (4-1)
• Min 56 – Giroud scores a goal (5-1)
• Min 67 – Another phantom foul, Giroud wins the ball fairly but behind the back of the ref who seemingly has eyes in the back of his head (but they need glasses), foul awarded.
• Min 71 – Aerial duel between Sagna and Potts leaves Potts badly injured and needing to be stretchered off.  A long delay and neither team (or set of supporters) much interested after this.
• Min 89 – Diame plants his studs on Mert’s leg, instantly acknowledges his error but it still should have been a booking.

A comfortable win in the end for Arsenal with a ten minute spell of irresistible attacking at the start of the second half.  Before that the W Ham players allowed to foul Arsenal with impunity and only luck prevented a couple of nasty injuries.  The clash between Sagna and Potts was two players committed to an aerial challenge and completely accidental.

Match Review: Andre Marriner – Fulham Vs Arsenal (0 – 1) [20/04/2013] – 75% overall, bias against 15/85 but no wrong Important Decisions.  Key moments were:-

• Min 1 – Theo rightly judged offside from a ball by Giroud, the ‘goal’ he scored rightly ruled out.
• Min 5 – Rosicky pulled back but managed to free himself – good advantage played
• Min 11 – Sidwell rightly given red card for stupid two footed challenge.
• Min 18 – Penalty shout for Arsenal, Giroud shot hit the arm of Hangerland, but arm was close to body and no movement towards ball.  Correct non decision.
• Min 42 – Mertesacker scores a goal (0-1)
• Min 51 – Arteta penalised but it was a clear dive by Emanuelson, should have been a foul against Fulham.  Arteta also got a yellow card which was wrong, the card should have gone to the Fulham player
• Min 75 – Ramsey rightly gets yellow card for foul.
• Min 77 – Mertesacker penalised for standing up, Fulham player lost his balance, fell over and got a foul
• Min 89 – Giroud slips and catches Fulham player, no replay available so have to accept red card as correct decision (Note I was at that end of the ground and he clearly lost his footing – the weather was appalling – and there was absolutely no intent to commit a foul but contact was made, it was a harsh decision but defensible).

The Ref had an excellent first half in awful weather, but made something of a ‘horlicks’ of the second half.  Arsenal deserved winners despite a very spirited performance from 10 man Fulham.  The Sidwell red card would have to be given by every referee it was that bad.  The Giroud one was harsh as he slipped but was technically correct so can’t really complain about it.

Match Review: Andre Marriner – Tottenham Hotspur Vs Sunderland ( – ) [19/05/2013] (1-0) 89% overall, bias against 100/0 and one wrong Important Decision.  Key moments were :-

• Min 19 – first (and only) wrong decisions, Bale was held by Larsson, who should have had a yellow card.  As the foul was inside the penalty area it should have resulted in a Penalty to Spurs – wrong Important Decision.
• Minute 37 – Penalty shout for Spurs, shot from 2m away hit Colback’s arm but it was in front of his body and no arm to ball movement, correct non decision.
• Minute 50 – Penalty shout for Spurs, ball hit arm, Cuellar slipped and fell to ground; ref could have given it either way, but reasonable doubt over if it was deliberate so correct non call.
• Minute 88 – Bale scores for Spurs (1-0)

Only one incident that Mr Marriner got wrong in the whole game, the not given penalty to Spurs in minute 19, apart from that an excellent game and with Spurs winning the wrong decision didn’t cause them to lose any points.  Why is it that Arsenal never get refereeing that good from any Referee?

Now to this year and the game against Hull which we totally dominated but only won 2-0.  Walter wrote the following article

Arsenal – Hull 2-0, may I present to you : the machine

The key incidents for me were:-

• Min 2 – Bendtner scores a headed goal (1-0) from a great Jenkinson cross
• Min 14 – Shout for penalty to Arsenal as Ramsey goes down in the box, not given
• Min 30 – Mertasacker called for foul when Hull player backed into him
• Min 32 – McGregor makes great save from Ramsey
• Min 47 – Ozil scores (2-0) from great through ball from Ramsey
• Min 53 – Poor challenge on Jenkinson, foul given but no card
• Min 57 – Ramsey fouled on edge of Hull area but nothing given
• Min 65 – Sagbo catches Szcz in the head, not intentional but still should have been a card.  sagbo was never going to get the ball and had committed himself to a sliding challenge.
• Min 85 – Penalty shout for Arsenal, Wilshere pushed in box

Summing up

1. Mr Marriner is not particularly good when in charge of Arsenal games, he typically scores at around 70% which is just about acceptable but only barely and his bias numbers are significantly against Arsenal
2. His judgement on Red cards is lamentable
3. He is not good at penalties, particularly when Arsenal are involved.
4. He loves to give phantom fouls against Arsenal
5. He is always prepared to allow Arsenal players to be kicked but quick to stop any retaliation.
6. Whilst he will normally favour a home team, that doesn’t apply at the Emirates
7. Given a fraction of a chance he will give a free kick against Arsenal in a dangerous position.

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