The long list: how Mike Dean’s activity has cost Arsenal points and players

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The Dean petition is now over 90,000 strong.  If you have not yet signed please do so at the end of the article.

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By Walter Broeckx

Mike Dean, the list is long. Too long. Toooooooooo long.

The day it all went wrong for me is :

23/02/2008: Birmingham – Arsenal 2-2: Taylor almost amputates the foot of Eduardo. Dean of course sends him off as he has no other choice after such a horrible tackle.

Dean then seems to take this as a personal insult from Arsenal for some reason. Invents a foul so that Birmingham can open the scoring. Arsenal get in front and in the last minutes of the match we see a real amazing set of events. Adebayor is pulled by a Birmingham defender in the Birmingham penalty area in the most blatant way. Dean ignores the blatant penalty foul even though he was close to the incident and not unsighted. Seconds later Dean puts the ball on the penalty spot when Clichy played the ball. Birmingham equalize and Arsenal who was top of the league never recover from the injury and injustice that season.

08/02/2009: Tottenham – Arsenal 0-0: Dean sends off Eboue in wat might now look a comical farce but was dead serious. It looked as if he was trying to get Eboue sent off no matter what. Eboue in his naivety allowed him the chance.

29/08/2009: Man U – Arsenal 2-1: In minute 39 Arshavin is tackled by a two footed tackle in the Man U penalty area. Dean ignores the foul and the fact that the United player also stopped the ball with his hand and then played on. Two penalty fouls and not one given in favour of Arsenal. Arsenal take the lead and dominate United. Till Dean steps up and …gives United a penalty. Minutes later an own goal leads to Arsenal losing.

16/12/2009: Burnley – Arsenal1-1 : Arsenal run riot at the start of the match and score. But again Dean ignores a blatant penalty foul on an Arsenal player and that would have made it 0-2. But in the other penalty area he uses the slightest of contacts between Vermaelen and a Burnley striker to give Burnley a penalty.

07/11/2010: Arsenal – Newcastle 0-1 : An Arsenal player being sent off (Koscielny) and Arsenal players being booked left, right and in the centre. Amazing time wasting and Dean inventing fouls against Arsenal and leaving Newcastle assaults unpunished. Amazing to see the difference what each team was allowed to do.

19/01/2011: Leeds – Arsenal 1-3. A rare win under Dean. But in the FA cup. But again the Leeds goal was a goal that never should have stood. Leeds kicking Arshavin blatantly in to the ground with a late tackle that Dean ignored and as a result Leeds won the ball and scored. A favorite tactic that he likes to use a lot against Arsenal.

27/02/2011: Arsenal – Birmingham 1-2: Carling cup final. Dean in his usual see nothing, hear nothing way of behaving. When blowing the final whistle you can see Dean jumping up with both arms in the air to celebrate our loss.

02/10/2011: Tottenham – Arsenal 2-1. Van der Vaart clearly controlled the ball with his arm and then scored. Dean didn’t see it. Surprise, surprise.

26/02/2012: Arsenal – Tottenham 5-2. The match of the dancing Dean when Tottenham open the score early in the match. But he danced too soon this time as Arsenal made a comeback from being 0-2 down after 34 minutes. Scott Parker was sent off late in the game after he should have been send off much earlier.

31/03/2012: QPR – Arsenal 2-1. I quote from our review: QPR were allowed to commit foul after foul without cards coming out. It seems that Arsenal players were in danger of getting another nasty injury. Take note that there only had been 4 matches between us having him against Tottenham and in this match. Arsenal wasn’t really great in this match but that is usually the case when the ref allows the opposition to play outside the laws of the game. Booking the home players early to set an example on where the line is drawn was missed.

21/04/2012: Arsenal – Chelsea 0-0: Now look only 21 days later we had Dean again. But to be fair he did very well this time! As we have said so in the ref review immediately after the match. But still having the same ref 3 times in the space of less than 2 months… amazing fact.

03/11/2012: Man U – Arsenal 2-1: Dean giving a penalty to United that was missed and then to make sure when Arsenal was pressurising to equalize he send off Wilshere. Cleverly minutes earlies was left off the hook. So business as usual one could say. Different standards for Arsenal players.

23/12/2013 : Arsenal – Chelsea 0-0: Dean to his usual antics. A clear penalty foul on an Arsenal player is not given. Some red card tackles from Chelsea players are gladly ignored. Another match in which Dean didn’t do his job in protecting the players properly. Certainly when they were Arsenal players.

22/11/2014: Arsenal – Man U 1-2. Dean again with missing some major incidents. Fellaini from an offside position pushes Gibbs with both hands in the back so he ends up colliding with Szczesny. As a result of Dean ignoring the fouls Man U could score the first goal. One of the old tricks from Dean is missing fouls on Arsenal defenders. United can score a second goal on the counter because Arsenal push forward with all players. In between Dean completely ignored a dead kick against Wilshere from McNair. A challenge that cost Wilshere the rest of the season and that he blatantly ignored.

And then followed a few matches in which you couldn’t recognise Dean and where he was as a ref should be: almost invisible. Mind you he did make mistakes but not as blatant as he had been doing for years. But alas it didn’t continue as we could see in the last match.

19/09/2015: Chelsea – Arsenal : Dean completely misses Costa assaulting Koscielny and sends Gabriel off for nothing after having failed to control the situation miserably himself. Invented a foul against Arsenal from which Chelsea could score their opening goal. The FA later rescinded the red card for Gabriel and banned Costa. As a result it is now certain that it should have been Arsenal playing with 11 man and not Chelsea.

How much did Dean cost us in terms of points over the seasons with his sometimes bizarre refereeing? Difficult to say. I do feel that he cost us the title in 2008. And he cost us on average something around 5-6 points per season usually.

But apart from the big talking points we see over and over again that Dean has the tendency to leave our players unprotected. We have suffered serious injury when he is around since 2008 from bad tackles. I think the players feel this and so maybe it will creep in the back of their head when Dean is around that they will get no protection whatsoever. And such things can make a difference because you have to play with a free mind to develop your game to perfection.

He also will not punish fouls on our defenders and that has led to a few goals against Arsenal. That is a point I have seen over and over again with Dean. I seem to remember Drogba taking advantage of that in a few matches but I thought the list was long enough already. And depressing enough.

Dean is however a master in knowing when to keep low profile. He knows the big decisions will be talking points so he is one that goes for the allow two different set of rules for some teams. Punish Arsenal players for coming near to their opponents and ignore the same thing when they are fouled. A very accurate way of disturbing players when you are the ref.

I didn’t include all the matches only the ones where I got good examples of his usual antics against Arsenal. Even when we won as I included a few wins, not many because well you know this is about Dean and when Dean is in town we usually don’t win. As the PGMO very well knows.

The petition “Prevent Mike Dean from refereeing another Arsenal game” now has over 90,000 signatures.  Please sign up if you agree.

55 Replies to “The long list: how Mike Dean’s activity has cost Arsenal points and players”

  1. The shameful list of MR mike BEANs incompetence.

    you could follow this up with a ‘Taylor’ list and an ‘Atkinson’ list.

  2. I entirely agree with your petition. Refs who clearly manipulate a professional game for whatever reason ought to be banned for life!

  3. Dean is an unmitigated cheat who should have his licence to referee football matches removed immediately. That his employers seem quite happy with his performance is a sad indictment of them as an organisation and were there any choice should lead people to remove their custom. That the FA and Premier League continue to use the PGMO is confirmation that the whole edifice that is Premier League is a crock of shit.

  4. An excellent article.

    The two footed challenge on Arshavin was by Fletcher.

    Walter, this excellent summation could be useful to Arsenal FC – could either you or Tony send it over to them (assuming you have not already done so).

  5. @Andy,
    We could but there really wouldn’t be much point as all of the others are nearly as bad. The last ref review of the Stoke game with a referee under whom we tend to win our games still shows two wrong Important Decisions, a penalty and sending off. There are no referees who are prepared to be fully honest in Arsenal matches which points to a corporate failure in their employing company at the very highest level.

  6. If I were at stanford bridge on that saturday and I …

    This email has been cut because it include a threat of violence

  7. If I were at stanford bridge on that saturday and I had a gun,I would….

    I’ve cut the rest of this as it is a threat against an individual. Also taking a gun into a football ground would itself be an illegal act

  8. He doesn’t deserve any respect at all, especially on Eduardo’s career ending tackle and the jack wilshire tackle by mcnair

  9. Thanks Walter.

    I can imagine it would be quite painful to recall this list of matches and incidents. And this is from just one ref, and as you’ve written, there are other matches Deano has tilted against Arsenal.

    It’s also sickening to see the omissions and outright lies from the media in reporting on these matches. (I still have people saying to me, “It’ll all even out in the end”)! With this last match there was a clear bias from plundits towards Chelsea. They were sure chelsea would win. They were sure chelsea played correctly. They where sure Arsenal would love to have Costa. They refused to really question and understand why Costa should’ve been sent off. Chelsea were going to win anyway. Chelsea should’ve had a penalty. No mention of the visciouness of Costa’s tackle on the Ox, etc, etc, blah blah. They’re utterly hopeless.

    When people interview Moano they won’t follow up or “badger” him about significant questions which haven’t been answered. (“Jokes accepted).
    Last season, when the Matic thing happened, Moano had 45 mins on Sunday Supplement, to spout his club’s “innocence”.

    I must say though, I did see Deano go against Chelsea, who were playing at home. That was against spuds. (I can’t remember how that one ended, but it was amusing to see Vertonghen pulling someone’s shorts down and no foul being called).

    Funny how le Coq got smashed out of a game against Chelsea by Ramires, get the ball up the other end, score a goal, Chelsea lauded, Ramires MOTM. Haha, it’s all coincidental, innit?

  10. Great and succinct article, Walter. Yes, if you include obvious and blatant referee cheating against us from other referees, you see that we were prevented from at least 1 title. I reckon its more due largely to the Fergie latter years, when they got complete control over refereeing at Old Trafford and we were made to suffer in all the big games against the clubs who were allowed to challenge for titles (which was only United for a lot of those years for most referees). I am not knocking United here because they would have won titles without referee help.

    You are right that our players do not get the protection that they need and this has resulted in us being top of the injury table for many years. I hate the way our players are rotationally tackled week in, week out. They are brave and when this can of worms is finally opened there will be a sh1t-storm, with so many corrupt people squirming and trying to extricate themselves from the fallout. This whole thing is gold dust for journalists and it will be great to see what comes of it. I agree with everyone here that we must keep the pressure up and remain loyal to the manager, who, especially under these circumstances, is a hero and giant of the football world. Thank you!

  11. I do know le Coq’s assault was under a different ref. I haven’t seen again the tackle on Coq while he was in the air which led to him not returning to the field after half time. That’ll be interesting to see.

  12. 29/08/2009: Man U – Arsenal 2-1:

    Mike Dean sends Arsene Wenger into the stands at Old Trafford for kicking a water bottle into the air, in an act of pure frustration from the manager, following a last-minute equaliser that was correctly disallowed.

    Arsene Wenger got it wrong when he said Mike Dean was Naive on Saturday. Dean has become a master of deceit. Time and again he has screwed Arsenal FC and whilst I’ve signed the petition to rid him from Arsenal games lets not kid ourselves, Mike Dean is no more than an errand boy.

  13. Tasos, I left that bit out as it was the co-operation of Probert and Dean. Riley was even forced to apologise later on for Wenger. Can you imagine that!!!! Riley saying that both Probert and Dean were wrong at the time!

    And they you start to wonder how come we do bad under Dean and Probert???? Do you really wonder?

    Refs have big egos and they don’t like it to be openly told they handled it wrong. We are still paying the fall out from that day.

  14. In a previous Chelsea match Diaby was assaulted twice under Dean. I forgot that one. I had to be taken off at half time and didn’t appear again for the rest of that season I think. Two terrible tackles where his ankle was clipped in a terrible way (a bit like Wilshere against United) and no foul was given by Dean. Let alone the red card. My God, my list is not complete… sorry guys….

  15. i suggest that next time we play chelsea and that thug is playing, Flamini should be intoduced at some stage with express instructions to break costas legs and damn the consequences

  16. You forgot the most important one.when arsenal’s unbeaten run came to an end against Manchester United in 04.wasn’t Dean the referee then?

  17. Thats extensive!! Thats repulsive!!

    Walter…anyone; why is this person still a ref?? WHY??

    More importantly what can we do to rid of his kind?

  18. Still think we are going to surprise people this season, even though all this negative force is targeting Arsenal.

    Just look how Arsenal has already changed UK football. Arsenal is like the steady stream of water that carves a massive canyon. All the strong water torrents have/will lose their energy and end up as dried up river beds.

  19. Like para above ,I too am of the belief that we will have a good season despite the PGMOB’s efforts . There are always those slips by the others that they may not be able to control.
    Hope our younglings do well against the Spuds . That ought to get our smiles back!

  20. Walter

    Wasn’t Sagna another victim in a match between us and the totts, as their fans abused our injured player, I’m Dean was the ref

  21. No need of killing Mike Stupid Dean. Just a bullet in one of his knees will stop him referring ANY match whatsoever.
    I am sure Arsenal FC knows all these. why they refuse to take a legal action is what annoys me.

  22. Zedsaunt
    September 23, 2015 at 2:55 pm says it all:

    “The PGMOL has to go. The FA has to go. An independent authority has to take over the administration of football, its machinations fully transparent, membership elected and held accountable.
    Above all, the football fan has to be treated with the same respect that is given to tennis fans, cricket fans, rugby fans. What comes down from FIFA through every rung downwards to Dean last Saturday is the UTTER CONTEMPT for the people watching the game.”

  23. @soglorious

    Perhaps a two footer from that nice boy Cahill – would save the cost of a bullet! 🙂

  24. we don’t like mike dean to be in arsenal again. shame on FA that allow incompeteng,selfish, bias refree.

  25. Andrew Crawshaw, Always try to correct the worst bit first, then the less bad bids are easy. Refs will always make mistakes, this is really about getting the proportion of their mistakes down to a realistic level when comparing AFC with the other clubs.

  26. Sunnypa da Gooners – and indeed anyone else feeling very strongly about the ref…

    While I think it is important that we challenge the referee and PGMO, we cannot, must not, should not threaten violence, even if it is in a “I didn’t literally mean we should actually hurt him” kind of way.

    Untold never advocates violence and never condones violence or threats of violence.

    Perhaps it is a moment for me to re-iterate what the police have said to me when I have talked with them about threats of violence against myself – “if it is illegal to say it face to face, it is illegal to post it on line.”

    Although we only publish the user name of each person here, we do receive details which allow the police to identify the sender personally, so anyone posting threats is liable to get a visit from the boys in helmets.

  27. Fair and valid comment Tony…we do get carried away with the typing thing sometimes – it doesn’t make it right as far as the boys in blue are concerned. Not that I would imagine anyone on this site to actually go out there with an AK47 – we value (and I am sure I speak for all of us here) our families, and our freedom!

  28. Dan,
    you are right… Sagna another victim with Dean on the field. At Tottenham it was…. blimey…

    this just shows that after a while you even forget such things because so many things happened with him on the field….

  29. under mike dean from 2008 to date played 15 games we won 2 drown 5 and lost 8 then always send one or more of our play off the pitch i believed Dean is against us so let the EPL F A don’t give him game against Arsenal no more

  30. Sickening. Just in case it could all have been a bad series of coincidences, was there ever a game where Dean let an Arsenal player break an opposing team member’s leg? Or let an Arsenal player assault an opposing player and got away with it? Or awarded Arsenal a phantom penalty?

  31. As others have pointed out already, a lot of offences were committed by the chelski thugs and the media does not even mention it. The media is the biggest culprit in all this (where’s Jambug by the way 🙂 ) as they see monumental fraud going on under our very own noses and they put positive spin on it. Much in the same way the state controlled north korean media will glorify barbaric acts by its leader.

  32. If the petition passes 100,000 can it be sent to an MP etc. with a request to have a look at the shocking state of the pgMOB/IFAB mob?

  33. @finsbury
    September 23, 2015 at 5:50 pm

    From what I have read with other petitions, 100k may get a hearing in parliament – I stand corrected of course as its only what I have read.

  34. It saddening to think how many times we have been done in by Dean and his brothers-at-arms; how many titles we could have won, how many of our ex-players we could have kept as a result of titles won, how much of the mud thrown in our faces (still being thrown) even from our own fans that we could have avoided, how much sleepless nights we could have avoided after unjust losses…..This man and his type have really cost us and are still out there to continue. But guess what? We are stronger than we used to be, in my opinion. We are still strong enough to make people like Mourinho nervous, even though he will die first before showing it!

    This team is still worth a big shout and I can’t stop being excited about our boys, Dean or no Dean. Let the guns boom tonight and let’s blow some arses out of the water!

  35. Indulge me/yourself,

    There are several heroes here at Untold. One of my favourites is Dogface.
    Read his preview from 2010, nearly 5 years ago.

    “how do I, as an Arsenal fan, possibly write up an article on Mike Dean in an unbiased manner without foaming at the mouth, shouting at the kids, kicking the dog and stamping on my laptop until the keys pop off?”

    http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/8797

    There are multiple links within the article to other shenanigan-itis.

  36. Al

    Jambug is a miss around here but I’m pretty sure he said a while back he planned on avoiding the media/internet in the wake of defeats and controversies. Aggravation with little or no real reward, was his take I think.

    I’ve taken similar oaths many a time so I just take my hat off to him for sticking to it.

  37. Here’s a 2012 Dogface Refwatch. Dean-ski v Ars:

    http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/18918

    Walter, I can’t see DF’s page on a different platform anymore and I understand why. Would you let DF know there are many of us still thinking of him, his great work, and his loss. I sincerely hope all is as good for him and his family as is possible.

  38. Rich
    Ah, ok. Have been wondering where he was. Like you, I’ve also vowed, on several occasions, never to watch, read or comment about anything football. But I find myself coming back. Who could blame him after what we’re put through week after week by these morally corrupt, soulless so and so’s.

  39. Many thanks for this article, Walter. I know it is a lot of hard work but we really appreciate it. Amazing that even in this long list there were a few missed out that were mentioned by other contributors!

  40. What I recall from our 5:2 victory against Spuds is the penalty Dean had given for them. It was a dive from Bale and no foul from Szczesny but Dean still pointed to the spot. Adebayor doubled their lead and Dean probably thought his job was done.

    We all know what happened later. 🙂

    However, it’s one of rare stories that involves Dean with the happy ending.

  41. Two seasons ago…
    Willian fouls Walcott in the surface, no penalty.
    What is worse is Dean’s defiant look when all eyes turn to him, expecting the indisputable penalty.
    PS: What about Gary Neville? He has applied to the job of Mou’s sycophantic cocksucker with aplomb!

  42. Due to the severity and complicated nature of this particular incident(s) would it not be appropriate for the PL to record the score as a 0-0 (the score at the time) and adjust the points accordingly.

    This top me would seem both fair to both clubs, and maybe appease some of the frustrations of the true fans.

  43. Tony.

    A comment related to comments involving violence. The NHL (ice hockey) now requires stadiums to have metal detectors, and that all spectators be processed by them. Just like airports, take all the metal out of your pockets, go through the detector, take back your metal stuff. Supposedly this adds about 20 minutes to the length of time it takes to get to your seat (on average).

  44. Tony, I suppose violence to mike dean would get the RSPCA involved and we really don’t want that….

  45. I’ll not be surprised if he doesn’t go and bet on arsenal to lose games Mike deen go on son put bet on arsenal to lose and I’ll send few plyars off and give a panalty to spuds and put my glasses on so I don’t see arsenal getting fouls wank–

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