Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion 04 May 2014 – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw

Referee – Michael Jones
Assistants – G Beswick & M Mullarkey
Fourth Official – P Dowd

Second time this year for Mr Jones and Arsenal – one home and one away as it should be.

 

In terms of bias, on the basis of last season’s reviews, he was firmly at the good end of the table third best with -18.5. Mind you last year Mike Dean was fourth with -19.25 so third place really isn’t saying a lot.

This year

Mr Jones was in charge for our away game at Stoke on 1st March, not our best performance of the year, in fact one of our worst as Walter commented in his, excellent as always, post game summary Home referee as predicted, bad day at the office not as predicted. Stoke won by the only goal of the game, an extremely soft penalty for handball against Kos, and Sanogo missed a good chance at the end to equalise.

Last year

We had Mr Jones twice, both home wins
Match Review: Michael Jones – Arsenal Vs West Bromwich Albion (2 – 0) [08/12/2012]
– 69% overall, bias against 52/48 and 2 wrong Important Decision (second yellow, red card, penalty or Goal). Key incidents were :-

• Min 2 – First Arsenal foul by Arteta correctly called and free kick awarded
• Min 4 – First W Brom foul called and free kick awarded
• Min 19 – First wrong call should have been a foul to W Brom, foul by Sagna nothing given
• Min 24 – Cazorla dived in the penalty area was wrongly awarded a penalty Wrong Important Decision he should have been booked for simulation
• Min 25 – Arteta scores a goal from the penalty spot (1-0) Wrong Important Decision, as penalty should not have been awarded goal shouldn’t count
• Min 39 – Sagna wrongly called for foul, got the ball cleanly
• Min 46 – Arteta penalised for being fouled by Gera
• Min 49 – Mert penalised for winning the ball cleanly
• Min 52 – Cazorla tripped outside penalty area, nothing given
• Min 52 – Olsson and Giroud both rightly booked for arguing
• Min 57 – Brunt rightly booked for dissent
• Min 62 – Penalty given against Chris Brunt for a foul on the Ox – rightly this time
• Min 63 – Arteta scores from the penalty spot (2-0)
• Min 65 – Mert rightly booked for dissent
• Min 77 – Reid receives yellow card for foul

A game which we won more comfortably than we should have. Two penalties given to Arsenal – unheard of in recent years, the first of which was a poor decision. Santi dived and should have been booked rather than getting the spot kick. The second decision Mr Jones got absolutely spot on. Mr Jones was consistent throughout in booking players for dissent, he also spotted and acted on the first fouls from both teams which was good refereeing. It was also the single game of the season with the least overall bias once the weighting of the individual decisions was taken into account so from that aspect as well a good performance. The first half bias was in favour of Arsenal thanks to the wrongly awarded penalty and goal, the second was well in favour of W Brom but he still had the balls to call the second penalty.

Match Review: Michael Jones – Arsenal Vs Norwich City (3 – 1) [13/04/2013] – 60% overall, bias against 73/27 and 4 wrong Important Decisions. Key incidents were :-

• Min 2 – First foul (handball) by Gibbs rightly called
• Min 7 – First Norwich foul by Snodgrass rightly called
• Min 11 – Johnson makes a sliding tackle from behind. Free kick given but should also have been a yellow card
• Min 15 – Ramsey clearly pushed in back when he tried to head the ball, nothing given
• Min 29 – Holt pulls Vermaelen back when he tries to turn away, nothing given
• Min 33 – Sagna rightly gets a yellow card for foul
• Min 39 – Martin commits needless foul as ball is running out of play, free kick given but this one warranted a yellow card as it was worse than the Sagna foul a few minutes earlier
• Minute 44 – Snodgrass throws his body in front of Wilshere, free kick given but another Norwich player who should by now be booked
• Minute 46 – Turner elbows Ramsey in the face just before a corner is taken – should have been a straight red card, he was given a yellow card only – Wrong Important Decision
• Minute 53 – Shout for handball penalty – correct non decision, defender had arms in front of his body and made no move towards ball
• Min 54 – Gibbs is punished for a foul when the Norwich player deliberately tripped himself up to win the free kick. Norwich player should have been booked for a dive
• Min 55 – Michael Turner scores a goal (0-1) directly from the free kick awarded for the dive. As the foul wasn’t the kick was wrong and so was the goal Wrong Important Decision
• Min 60 – Podolski wrongly called offside, he was level
• Min 64 – Snodgrass brings down Walcott who had gone past him, nothing given. This foul was in the penalty area and should have resulted in a spot kick. Wrong Important Decision
• Min 65 – Norwich keeper again wasting time (he had been doing this all game) should be a booking by now
• Min 82 – Penalty rightly given to Arsenal, Kamara foul on Giroud
• Min 82 – Bunn rightly gets yellow card for dissent
• Min 84 – Arteta scores from the penalty spot (1-1)
• Min 87 – Giroud scores a goal (2-1)
• Min 90+1 – Walcott scores a goal (3-1) but he was offside when Giroud headed the ball to him and so the goal shouldn’t have counted. Wrong Important Decision
• Min 90+2 – Snodgrass rightly gets a yellow card for a foul. He should have been booked in minute 44 and therefore sent off.

A game where Mr Jones had a bit of a nightmare despite a good start where he spotted and acted on the first fouls from both teams. He permitted Norwich players far too much leeway in fouling Arsenal and failed to issue a red card to Turner for an elbow to Ramsey’s face. He also fell for a Norwich dive in a dangerous area giving Turner the opportunity to score, which he took. Late in the game he again awarded a penalty to Arsenal which enabled Arteta to equalise the scores, perhaps he was mindful of the Snodgrass foul on Walcott which he didn’t give at the time and thought “OK this time I have to give it”. Giroud settled the game three minutes later. Walcott’s goal in injury time shouldn’t have counted as he was offside when he got the ball

The theme of wrong Important Decisions was continued in other reviewed games, nine games in total with 14 wrong major calls. Also consistent were his overall scores, in addition to the two with us he got sub 70% scores twice more and a 70% on one occasion, so half his games were below the minimum acceptance level and one at that level. Not good enough.

In the 2011 year his numbers were somewhat better and above the league averages in most categories.

What is his record with West Brom?

This year he hasn’t done a game with them so nothing to review.

Last year, in addition to the game with Arsenal covered above he was also in charge for
Match Review: Michael Jones – West Bromwich Albion Vs Queens Park Rangers (3 – 2) [06/10/2012]

His overall score was 90%, bias against 100/0 and no wrong Key decisions. Key moments were :-

• Min 4 – Morrison scores a goal for W Brom (1-0)
• Min 7 – First W Brom foul correctly spotted and free kick awarded to QPR
• Min 19 – First QPR foul correctly spotted and free kick awarded to W Brom
• Min – Taarabt catches the ball with both hands before it is out of play, deliberate handball and should have been a yellow card
• Min 21 – Gera scores for W Brom (2-0)
• Min 26 – Mbia takes out Mulumbu from behind, W Brom awarded free kick but should also have been a yellow card.
• Min 33 – another deliberate handball by QPR that should have (but didn’t) result in a yellow card
• Min 34 – Taarabt scores for QPR (2-1)
• Min 45 – Ji-Sung Park rightly gets a yellow card for foul
• Min 84 – Mulumbu scares for W Brom (3-1)
• Min 88 – Mackie rightly gets a yellow card for foul
• Min 90+1 – Granero scores a goal for QPR (3-2)
• Min 90+4 – Mulumbu rightly gets yellow card for time wasting.

Again spotted and acted on the first fouls committed by both teams, the three missed yellow cards for QPR players were the main things Mr Jones got wrong in this game, perhaps trying to lose the ‘home ref’ tag he got the previous year? Overall a much better performance than in the Arsenal game (another common theme amongst referees).

In conclusion

1. Historically a home referee but that was less evident from his figures last year.
2. Not disastrous for Arsenal but solidly follows the PGMOL line
3. Has awarded penalties to Arsenal in previous years, but unlikely to do so now (see point 2 above)
4. His refereeing against Arsenal is to a lower standard than games when we are not involved.
5. Expect uneven treatment of players committing fouls, Arsenal to get yellow cards, W Brom to avoid them and please Flamini and Rosicky no sliding challenges giving him an excuse for a red card, we need you available for the last games of the year.
6. He is good at acting on the first fouls in a game, but not always consistent from there on