Chelsea v Arsenal 19 September – The Match Officials
by Andrew Crawshaw
No referee reviews to report this week so straight into the business for the weekend
- Referee – Mike Dean
- Assistants – S Long & S Burt
- Fourth Official – M Oliver
All well known to us. Here is the table of last year’s decisions with Dean firmly in the unacceptable category, nearly a third of his decisions were wrong and that was before any weighting was applied to reflect the type of decision.
| Referee | Correct total | Wrong total |
| Lee Mason | 86.44% | 13.56% |
| Moss | 83.17% | 16.83% |
| Pawson | 80.82% | 19.18% |
| Clattenberg | 78.85% | 21.15% |
| Oliver | 78.18% | 21.82% |
| Dowd | 73.44% | 26.56% |
| Taylor | 72.88% | 27.12% |
| Friend | 70.59% | 29.41% |
| Marriner | 70.42% | 29.58% |
| Jones | 70.00% | 30.00% |
| East | 67.92% | 32.08% |
| Dean | 67.37% | 32.63% |
| Atkinson | 66.47% | 33.53% |
2014-15 Putting some ‘flesh” on the bones of the above table last year we had him in charge of four games, two at home and two away. There are full reviews for the first two, for the last two I have referenced post game pieces from our archives.
| Imagine a ref who only gets half his decisions right: Arsenal – MU ref review |
53% Overall score (weighted) bias against the two teams 80/20. 4 wrong Important Decisions) second yellow cards, red cards, penalties and Goals) all against Arsenal.
Min 15 Shaw first used his arms then tripped wilshere in the penalty area – nothing given, Min 50 McNair crippled Wilshere with a dreadful challenge, not even called a foul let alone the red card it deserved, Min 55 Fellaini (clearly offside) interferes with play by pushing Gibbs into Szcz – both offences ignored as Dean allowed the United goal to stand, and lastly late into time added on Di Maria having collapsed as if shot was helped to his feet by Chambers who is then elbowed for his trouble needless to say Dean who was right by the incident saw nothing and failed in his duty to send off the United Player for violent conduct.
An awful show of refereeing and one which robbed Arsenal of at least a draw.
| Ref Review : Manchester City – Arsenal: A master class performance! |
Overall performance 64% (weighted), bias 27/73 and only one wrong Important Decision when in Min 40 Kompany was rightly given a yellow card for a foul and/or dissent – it should have been his second as he should have had a first one in minute 22 for the foul on Monreal that was rightly called a penalty.
As we won the game for once the wrong Important Decision, and significant bias against us didn’t cost us any points. Dean’s first game for us in something like 5 or 6 seasons when he awarded a us a penalty.
Burnley – Arsenal, 0-1. Eight wins in a row now for Arsenal – An early goal to settle our nerves. Dean doing his best to help Burnley with free kicks and not booking their players. Ospina with a great goalkeeping performance. In the end a good win against both Burnley and Dean
Man U – Arsenal, 1-1 the point that brings us at least third place? – Dean back to his usual blind man when is comes to penalties in favour of Arsenal, a late equaliser to make it one all but the poor penalty decision again cost us points.
2013-14 – Again 4 games, three home and one away – There are no formal referee reviews for this season so again I’m referencing the post game reviews to give a flavour of Mr Dean’s work.
Arsenal 3 – 1 Stoke, the revenge of the Aaron, the assist-master doing his job and other enjoyable facts Dean for once not up to any tricks.
Dean useless as usual, Mourinho still the master in killing football pleasure – the title says it all really – Mikel should have seen red for an awful challenge on Arteta as should Ivanovic for a head high challenge on Özil, plus as usual a non-awarded penalty.
Arsenal score hattrick over the Totts : One nil to the Arsenal A Rosicky thunderbolt in the opening minute. Another not given penalty with Vertonghen pulled Kos down by the neck (Dean being Dean). Walter does say that overall he wasn’t too bad.
Arsenal – Man City the difference between home and away Another non-given penalty, Zabaleta tripping Rosicky and a goal kick given. Possibly the difference between a win and a draw.
All in all Dean was less bad for us than usual in 2013-14 and was actually quite decent in two out of the four games.
2012-13 again four games, City home and Away (loss and draw), United Away (loss naturally) and Wigan at home (easy win)
| Match Review: Mike Dean – Manchester City Vs Arsenal (1 – 1) [23/09/2012] |
83% overall rating (Weighted), bias against both teams 71/29 (yes an overall bias in favour of Arsenal!) and no wrong Important Decisions. An error free first half, and very little wrong in the second half either (if only he was always like this).
| Match Review: Mike Dean – Manchester United Vs Arsenal (2 – 1) [03/11/2012] |
80% overall, bias against both teams 15/85 and three wrong Important Decisions Min 44 Penalty wrongly awarded to United (there was no movement of hand to ball), Min 58 Cleverly should have second yellow card for a reckless challenge, Min 90 Arteta was awarded a yellow card (he should have had one in Min 30 and so should have been sent off). Nothing wrong with any of the three goals scored.
| Match Review: Mike Dean – Arsenal Vs Manchester City (0 – 2) [13/01/2013] |
67% overall, bias against both teams 84/16 and one wrong Important Decision when in Min 82 Dzeko should have been sent off for a second bookable offence.
| Match Review: Mike Dean – Arsenal Vs Wigan Athletic ( – ) [14/05/2013] |
An excellent piece of refereeing 90% overall (although all wrong decisions were against Arsenal) and no wrong Important Decisions. Correctly called 140 out of 147 decisions (again if only….)
Overall, not a bad year for Mr Dean, two well refereed matches and, in one game, a bias in favour of Arsenal (albeit with very few wrong decisions). His usual crap self in the other two games though.
In Conclusion
- We have had Mr Dean far too often, typically four and sometimes as many as six times a season. This is far too often, no club should have any referee more than twice in a season once at home and once away.
- Mr Dean has been a thorn in our side for many years, and has probably cost us more points than any other referee. At times his ability to award strange decisions against us has been breathtaking.
- He has failed to award us justified penalties for over five seasons until the one against City last year and many of us are still expecting him to rescind that decision. He did return to form later last year when we played Man United.
- Aside from penalties, his other major failing is his skewed understanding of what constituted a yellow or red card offence, he understands well enough when committed by an Arsenal player, but rarely sees them when committed against us. With a sly team such as Chelsea, I fear that he will allow them to kick the shit out of us on Saturday.
- He also has a rare sense of advantage, frequently calling inappropriately and is a master of the art of the ‘phantom foul’ to give an unfair advantage to one team (rarely Arsenal).
- Having put the negative points, he knows the rules forwards, backwards and sideways and on the occasions when he forgets it is Arsenal playing is capable of being a very good referee. Do I trust him to be that person on Saturday – HELL NO!
- I predict with confidence that we will be talking about two people after the game – Mr Dean and the Obnoxious one who will, hopefully, be getting sacked on Sunday.
COYG
- 18 September 1953: Tommy Lawton signed from Brentford. He played 38 games and scored 15 times before retiring but Tom Whittaker admitted in his autobiography that the signing was one of desperation on his part, and not a success.
- 18 September 1994: Arsenal’s fifth game in a row without a win ended Arsenal 2 Newcastle 3, But after four games without scoring Arsenal do at least get one from Adams and one from Wright.
The Untold Books
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
He’s such a smug referee.
This is half the problem really, these guys are so bloody aloof they think it’s all about them. My personal favourite is Clattenburg. The disgraceful way he was treated by Chelsea who virtually accused him of being a racist, could easily have left him tainted. I trust him, I am not sure I trust some of the others, especially Smug Dean.
Always a worry this ref, this game. It seems they are determined not to give us penalties this season, Jose will realise that.
As ever, our players will have to be careful…Coq especially
But hopefully, our luck may come in, we might stop hitting the woodwork and will hold out for a valuable win.
OT. While watching the Stoke game from the top tier, it appeared that both Stoke and the officials were wearing the same colour shorts and socks (black). My questions are a) Were they or was it just an incorrect perception? and b) is there some rule which prevents this happening?.
Let’s not bother ourselves with the sacking of anyone from his job. But rather should be concerned on how Arsenal will beat Chelsea to all the 3 points that are going to be at stake for collection or losing tomorrow at Stamford Bridge. I believe referee Mike Dean from the Pgmo will not jeopardize the ethnics of his profession by doing anything contrary to the rules and regulations guiding the officiating of the game on the field of play tomorrow. Which if not, can once again bring the game to serious disrupute. In this order, I change all Gunners on the field to be guided by the rules and regulations of playing the game to avoid getting into any act of ugliness during the game. I totally believe the Gunners will beat the Blues hands down tomorrow, come what may even before the very eyes of their partisan crowds, and in the presence of owner Abram Abramovich. The Blues will defend and park the bus. And sometimes go on the rampage too. But the Gunners can handle rampaging and have always found their ways through parked bus. And this time will not be an exemption to the status quo. When the Gunners does find their ways through the parked Chelsea’s bus, they should please put their chances away to kill the Blues game off. By so doing, victory will be theirs to claim at the end of the game. So be it.
Let’s not bother ourselves with the sacking of anyone from his job. But rather should be concerned on how Arsenal will beat Chelsea to all the 3 points that are going to be at stake for collection or losing tomorrow at Stamford Bridge. I believe referee Mike Dean from the Pgmo will not jeopardize the ethnics of his profession by doing anything contrary to the rules and regulations guiding the officiating of the game on the field of play tomorrow. Which if not, can once again bring the game to serious disrupute. In this order, I charge all Gunners on the field to be guided by the rules and regulations of playing the game to avoid getting into any act of ugliness during the game. I totally believe the Gunners will beat the Blues hands down tomorrow, come what may even before the very eyes of their partisan crowds, and in the presence of owner Abram Abramovich. The Blues will defend and park the bus. And sometimes go on the rampage too. But the Gunners can handle rampaging and have always found their ways through parked bus. And this time will not be an exemption to the status quo. When the Gunners does find their ways through the parked Chelsea’s bus, they should please put their chances away to kill the Blues game off. By so doing, victory will be theirs to claim at the end of the game. So be it.
Here is proof that this game in England is corrupt. Riley is chief of PGMO. Dean is appointed to officiate in an Arsenal game after showing his cheating bias & dancing on the field of play when Arsenal lost. I sincerely hope his gonads get hurt so that his dancing is enhanced.
Let’s not get over paranoid about Dean as referee tomorrow. During the latter half of last season, I got the impression that the bias against our great C lub was lessening.
At least we began to receive some of the decisions our way.
The dark influence of bully boy Ferguson was on the wain.
Let us keep an open mind about tomorrow.
I won’t mind too much about mistakes unless they are suspiciously deliberate. 😉
@nicky,
I wish I could see any evidence that your impression had any real basis. So far this year in the first four games we have reviewed there have been ten possible game changing decisions given wrongly against Arsenal and none for. Maybe slightly less than last season but still consistently wrong and consistently anti-Arsenal.
Down the years Dean has been in the forefront of the PGMO bias against Arsenal with only the occasional well refereed game to break the pattern. I would love to think that tomorrow would be one of those occasions but past experience doesn’t give me any confidence in that happening. My guess is that Mr Dean will find a way of screwing us in some way (although I am hard pressed to say in advance how he will do it, I just expect it to happen).
BrummieGooner
September 18, 2015 at 4:27 pm
If I remember correctly, the colours were black shorts & black stockings/socks.
The bibs used by the subs were yellow – same as the officials tops. I noticed that, commented to my neighbours in the stadium, but forgot to pick up on it after the game.
arsenal played away Wed, chelsea at home. EPL-match Sat 12.45. MU played away Tuesday, EPL Sunday.
Expect at least one penalty against us. Hazard and Costa were practising their penalty-winning technique on Wednesday night.
Expect fouls against us to be ignored.
Expect yellow cards for Arsenal players for trivial offences.
Hope that our players escape injury.
I know that there would be bad consequences, but part of me would love to see Arsene deck the odious one.
@Andrew C.,
You may well be right but I cannot ignore the feeling I have that refereeing generally is not quite as anti-Arsenal as it once was.
I sometimes think that these in-depth post mortems (in which you are often involved) are so minute in detail, that the results are inevitably a means to an end…..namely Arsenal are hard-done-by.
Our recent games with them were always a close run thing . Am hoping that we get our game together and win , to forever shut up those ostriches claims of AW never getting the best over Moanin’inho .
Up the Gunners !
‘When you feel good about the choices you make and everything falls into place with ease, you and the universe are working as one!’
Cheri Ann Revill
Expect Dean to give Chelsea all sorts of favours. Watch out for holding at corners from Terry The Crim not being punished. Watch out for Costa assaulting anyone who gets near him, not being punished. Watch out for Olympic level diving from Barca DNA Fabregas. Watch out for Hazard shifting the all onto his right side while stepping a yard outside the ball into an opponent to buy freekicks. Expect less than nothing from corrupt PGMO lackey bought by the Slav.
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is a set-up!!
Dean will shock us if he was to be fair.
We can expect Dean to be Chelseas 12th man and our nightmare.
We have to take care not to give him the slightest opportunity to penalize us and/or reduce us to 10 men!
COYG
I did say Giroud got punished for the sort of stuff Costa gets away with on a daily basis without even the slightest hint of a warning. Hope I’m not proven right today. I also suspect Gabriel may be targeted by Mourinho’s thugs knowing full well how the media will be quick to condemn him for not being used to the premiership nonsense. As Per hasn’t fully recovered, this is one area they’ll be looking to weaken us in, as there would be no cover or obvious partner to Koscielny.
I also can’t help observing how our team got slaughtered for relying on OG (own goals)to eke wins out against unlucky teams this season. Yet when we lose to an own goal we are useless, we were outthought by a resourceful Dinamo, etc etc. I don’t think I ever read or heard anything referring to Dinamo as being lucky and relying on an own goal to beat 10 men. One rule for Arsenal, and another for everyone else. Anyway, wishing the team all the best. COYG!!
Thanks for the preview.
–
Özil picked up an injury in this game last season?
Wilshere picked up a big injury during Dean’s transparent and indefensible performance/imitation of an official.
…< during the Utd home match/fixing that we all* witnessed before us.
*if you want to suggest that Deano was attempting to 'play the advantage' when Wilshere got hacked when through on goal, then please, go ahead!
If Dean unveils his Gollum alter ego as during the home game least season it won't be a surprise, but hopefully someone has been feeding him some raw little fishes and we'll get to see Smeagol.
Come on the Arsenal!
Dirty Costa hands in the face of Arsenal defender. TV ignores it just like the officials.
And we’re indeed talking about two people after the game – dean and that one who’s probably even worse than mou at this point in time, Costa.
The fact that you can predict the outcome of a game just by looking at who the ref is surely says something about the state of corruption in the game right?
I really don’t see this injustice stopping anytime soon at this rate. But really kudos to everyone at untold for persisting on in this quest to show the state of refereeing for all the world to see.