Arsenal v Newcastle Saturday 2 January 2016 – The Match Officials
by Andrew Crawshaw
Following Usama and Walter’s latest two Referee reviews here is the Table of Shame updated to matchweek 16
| Wrong Important Decisions | Favouring Arsenal | Favouring Opponents |
| 2nd Yellow Cards | 0 | 19 |
| Red Cards | 1 | 9 |
| Penalties | 1 | 14 |
| Goals | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 2 | 47 |
| Possible Cost in Points | 0 | 11 |
Ref Review : Arsenal – Sunderland
Mr Madley made two mistakes in the whole game (both in the first half) scoring a magnificent 90%. We can effectively ignore bias. Unfortunately one of the errors was a not given penalty to us when Kaboul fouled Giroud but it cost us no points. If only all refereeing were to this standard Walter, Usama and I would have a lot more free time!
Ref Review: Aston Villa – Arsenal
Kevin Friend had an “iffy” start to the game, he somehow managed to get the penalty decision on Walcott correct in Minute 7, but failed to give Hutton the yellow card he deserved for the deliberate foul.
He failed to allow an advantage to Villa in minute 9 when Ayew evaded a foul from Ramsey and in Min10 should have given Ramsey a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Sanchez. After that he was exemplary until Min 45+1 when he was let down by his Assistant David Bryan who wrongly flagged Walcott offside as he scored a damn fine goal.
His second half was perfect 100%. but his overall scores were let down by the four first half errors only giving him 72% overall. The weighted bias score was 70/30. A refereeing performance better than the raw numbers suggest and something of a return to his historic good performances in Arsenal games. I have noted the error by Mr Bryan for future reference.
For Saturday the Match Officials are
- Referee – Anthony Taylor
- Assistants – S Burt and P Kirkup
- Fourth Official – S Martin
Mercifully only the second time we have the “pleasure” of Mr Taylor this season (mind you that is two times too many!)
| Ref Review : Arsenal – Man Utd, more of the same |
59% overall, bias against both teams 97/3 and five wrong Important Decisions (second yellow, red cards, penalties and goals).
Min 4 Not given penalty to Arsenal for foul by Schweinsteiger on Gabriel for which he should also have been booked, Min 45+1 Schweinsteiger should have second yellow for persistent fouling, Min 45+2 ditto, Min 73 Fellaini should have second yellow for persistent fouling and in Min 90 Fellaini is still at it with a fifth foul in 33 minutes. Despite Mr Taylor we won the game quite convincingly but he showed scant regard for the laws of the game and allowed United to foul us with impunity.
Last Season (2015/15) we had him in charge six times, five full games and as a substitute in our home game v West Ham.
| Ref review Leicester – Arsenal |
61% overall score (weighted), bias against the two teams 7/93 and three wrong Important Decisions (Second Yellow or Red cards, Penalties or Goals).
In Minute 50 Arsenal should have had a penalty when Hammond pushed Cazorla in the box, Minute 58 Moore should have had a second yellow card for a ‘professional foul’ against Sanogo (his first booking should have been in Min 35 when he dived looking for a penalty) and in Minute 84 Hammond should have had a straight red card for deliberately stepping on Ramsey’s legs as he was on the ground. Two points robbed.
| Untold ref Review: Stoke – Arsenal, the Anthony Taylor horror show. “Shockingly bad”. |
59% overall performance (weighted), bias against the two teams 0/100 (yes every wrong decision against Arsenal) four wrong Important Decisions.
In Minute 28 Crouch should have had a second yellow card for elbowing Mertesacker, or again in Minute 45 for another elbow (for which he got his first yellow card, Minute 77 Chambers was wrongly sent off (his first yellow card was incorrect in Min 60), Minute 83 Adams should have had a straight red card for impersonating a wrestler and applying a ‘sleeper’ hold on Alexis for which he was only awarded a yellow.
The Stoke goal in Minute 45 should not have counted as Shawcross pushed the Ox with both arms, Crouch headed the ball against the Ox which fell to Walters to tap in. Clear foul on defender in penalty area goal shouldn’t have counted. The two linesmen on the day I Hussin and R East ruled out another Stoke ‘goal ‘ for offside and awarded Arsenal a penalty so well done to them both – Mr East is Fourth Official on Sunday. Taylor was diabolical and without doubt cost us three points on the day.
| Ref Review : Arsenal – Aston Villa. Arsenal commit two fouls in 45 minutes. |
A good performance from Taylor with an overall weighted score of 85%. Mind you all of the bias was against Arsenal 100/0 so not so good there. He missed a yellow card for Sanchez for an arnm in the face of Giroud but there were no wrong Important Decisions just a totally dominant display from Arsenal who doninated from the start and gave Taylor no opportunity to influence the game.
| Ref Review(s) : Arsenal – West Ham, two for the price of one |
73% Weighted score for the time he was on the pitch and a bias of 83/17 with no wrong Important Decisions. Again he missed giving a yellow card for Collins for a high foot into Giroud’s stomach.
Arsenal – Liverpool 4-1 another fine win in our run
Possibly handball in the Liverpool penalty area ignored in the opening exchanges, just a corner awarded. Bellerin opening the scoring in Min 36, Özil adding a second 2 minutes later from a correctly awarded free kick 5m outside the ‘Pool penalty area. Alexis made it three just before half time.
Sterling awarded a penalty on 75mins – three one. Arsenal wrapped up the scoring in the first minute of added time with Giroud. Could easily havebeen 5 but Wellbeck wrongly called offside when well placed. Our talisman the Belgian Gooners in town for another fine win. Taylor being his usual twattish self at times but again unable to tilt the field enough to affect the result.
Arsenal – Sunderland, 0-0 only a complete disaster can keep us away from 3rd place. Taylor typically myopic when it came to Sunderland fouls, Ramsey pulled back outside the Sunderland penalty area but on Taylor’s blind side, Defoe trying to take off Bellerin’s shirt. Cattermole making foul after foul with impunity. Arsenal dominant but Sunderland kept us out with last minute blocks and their keeper, Pantillimon as man of the match. No indication from the report that Taylor actually cost us points.
So six games that almost certainly cost us five points. Where we took control of the games early he was unable to affect the overall result.
Looking at his games from 2013-14 and (surprisingly we only had him once) – the opening game of the season v Aston Villa. Mind you that was enough for all Gooners!
Arsenal v Aston Villa 17 August 2013. If you really need to see how a biased referee operates then please go to the Arsenal Player on Arsenal.com and watch the game again. You might need to sign up as a Digital Member – but that’s free – and you then have access to all of the past matches on the site whenever you want them.
Arsenal 1 – Anthony Villa 3 A bent result from a totally biased referee almost certainly gifting the points to Villa. The club must have made serious representations because we didn’t have him in charge again that season.
Going back one more year to 2012/13 and there are reviews for Arsenal but not Newcastle
| Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Arsenal Vs Queens Park Rangers (1 – 0) [27/10/2012] |
71% overall score (weighted), bias against both teams 81/19 and 1 wrong Important Decision when in Minute 57 Granero should have had a second yellow card for a foul and dissent. Another game where Arsenal’s task was made a lot harder by Mr Taylor not properly applying the rules and failing to send off a player.
Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Reading Vs Arsenal (2 – 5) [17/12/2012] 70% overall score (weighted), bias against both teams 16/84 but no wrong Important Decisions
| Match Review: Anthony Taylor – Sunderland v Arsenal (0 – 1) [09/02/2013] |
58% overall score (weighted) bias against both teams 11/89 and 2 wrong Important Decisions with Mr Taylor failing to send off two Sunderland players Cattermole in Min 21 and Larsson in Min 62. No cost to Arsenal in terms of points but a pathetically low score
The two Assistants Mr Burt and Mr Kirkup are both from Northamptonshire and I have no flags against either of them, I suspect they will have to be alert and prepared to advise Mr Taylor when he gets things too wrong.
For Stephen Martin this will be his fourth time as Fourth Official this year and his first visit to the Emirates. He is from Staffordshire and is on the National Group of Referees normally refereeing in the Football League.
In Conclusion
- The Appearance of Mr Taylor in an Arsenal game is never a good sign. He is kind of a ‘light’ version of Dean.
- He does however have limits and if we can get a couple of goals quickly can then become relatively ‘honest’.
- Where a game remains tight then he is quite capable of fully influencing the outcome of a game by inventing reasons to send off Arsenal players or award penalties, awarding ‘phantom’ fouls giving attacking opportunities etc. He is not afraid of being quite blatant in his actions.
- He has an extremely well developed blind eye which he employs on the majority of fouls on our players. I am always glad at the end of his games if we have no-one injured and particularly fear for Özil as he will get absolutely no protection if Newcastle decide to kick him off the park.
- His competence numbers rarely rise above the minimum acceptable level of 70% and are frequently well below that level.
- His anti-Arsenal bias is legendary usually well above 80% against and frequently much higher.
- Penalties for Arsenal are not likely.
COYG
From the archives
- 2 January 1989: Arsène Wenger made his first visit to Highbury, dropping in to watch a match while returning to Monaco from watching a game in Turkey in preparation for a European tie. Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-0. It launched his friendship with David Dein.
- 2 January 1993: For the second time in 22 years, Arsenal were drawn against Yeovil away in 3rd round of FA Cup, and once again go on to win the cup. Ian wright scored a hat trick in what was Cup Match 5 of Arsenal’s Cup Double season
Splendid article.
I do think that why this season appears the ‘craziest’ ever is because there has been a significant improvement in officiating and FA bias. No longer do referees fear the likes of Fergie or Mourinho. ‘Smaller’ teams are hence getting fair calls and subsequently getting deserved results.
It is surprising that Arsenal is yet to concede a penalty this season…rightly but it hardly ever happens after 19 games…and even when we should have had at least six, we’ve already had two.
People attribute our recent big game successes to having come of age. RUBBISH. I attribute it to officiating. In a fairly officiated match, Arsenal will hardly lose to any EPL opposition or any opposition for that matter.
I’m sure the persistence of Andrew and the Untold crew have made surreptitious impact regarding huge officiating bias against Arsenal. It’s not yet perfect like disallowing Ramsey’s goal against Liverpool but believe me, there’s been a remarkable improvement this season.
The bet of the day is 4.5+ cards in this match. He is bound to card Arsenal players & will only card Toon where it is unavoidable.
Hoping for a 5 – 0 trouncing of these O’Dowd favourites.
Will expect a good northern performance from this Ref
Anthony Taylor is ref for today’s match. I hope he has noted the comments by the Wally with the Brolly that his team are going to be very aggressive against Arsenal – in particular Ozil.
Translated, that means kicking lumps out of the best player in the EPL, and the rest of our team.
We should expect Mr Taylor to penalise and card bad fouls, but we’ll probably get one of our players sent off for retaliating.
COYG
I am really worried about this match. The comments of McClaren with the appointment of Anthony Taylor make me afraid for the outcome of today’s match.
The home match against Aston-Villa in 2013/2014 immediately comes to mind when Aston-Villa kicked the sh*t out of our players and Anthony Taylor invented 2 penalties against us.
Are we such helpless to prevent this type of cheating?
Newcastle last penalty awarded boxing day 2014??? Perhaps long over due???
I too want to echo my concerns with regards to mclarens comments; how can a manager ask his players to be aggressive physically, and noone questions that? I hope he will be held responsible should any player suffer an injury.
The, Paul, this looks like the match Newcastle will get one, deserved or not.
Al
I think where one player seriously injures an opposition player, he should be banned for the period that player is out injured. So the punishment fits the crime.
Injuries to Debuchy, and Alexis (@ Norwich) come to mind.
Unfortunately that all depends on the man in black actually spotting the offence.
COYG
McLaren’s comments and Taylor’s appointment worries the hell out of me too.
It certainly is hightime that the comments by the likes of McLaren – Allardyce’s ‘soft German’ tells you how the North Eastern clubs will seek survival – and the refereeing of the game, are made subject to the same legislation that governs a person going to work.
Those fuckwits like McLaren should be forced to argue that aggression in football is justifiable because it makes men of us, and it’s just pure bad luck that it ruins someone for the rest of their life.
Everyone has to accept bad luck when they go to work, don’t they?
How can it be right that Wally McLaren makes these threats and gets away with it. How is it ever acceptable in any workplace to spout such aggression. His job is not safe, so he resorts to the ‘english-style 1970s’ cloggers. No doubt this appeals to the evil goblin Riley. Taylor, fast tracked because he looks like his leader. I worry if Tiote plays – known for fouling away, without being booked, until about minute 87.
We should win (I don’t believe thuggishness is normally in the Toon behaviour.) Wonderful Ozil, the best player this season is at risk of serious injury, due to idiot McLaren and an incompetent, but ambitious, official.
COYG!
Barry L
January 2, 2016 at 8:16 am
“Anthony Taylor is ref for today’s match. I hope he has noted the comments by the Wally with the Brolly that his team are going to be very aggressive against Arsenal – in particular Ozil.”
And where have you seen/heard this? In the media of course.
And can I ask was there one word from the media asking McClaren exactly what he means by ‘Aggression’ ? (That’s the word he used I believe). Of course not.
Lets have a look at exactly what McClaren is actually doing and saying here, and more to the point, why ?
By choosing to highlight the word ‘Aggression’ is he suggesting that ‘Aggression’ is something which his team would not usually use?
If not why not?
If it’s a valid tactic against Ozil/Arsenal, why is it not a valid tactic against say, Hazard, or Matta, or Mahrez, or any other creative player? And if it is a valid tactic against those players, and they do use it, why does McClaren feel the need to even mention it today?
I believe this is why:
a) What McClaren is actually saying is that Newcastle are going to use ‘aggression’ ABOVE AND BEYOND what they would normally use.
b) And I believe what he is doing is using the media to inform the footballing World, and that includes the Referee of course, of exactly what kind of ‘aggression’ they can expect to see from his team today.
c) And the reason he can use the media is because they do of course know EXACTLY what McClaren means by ‘Aggression’ and that they will be 100% behind him.
And of course by advertising his intent, in a compliant and supportive media, he ensures the entire footballing World (and as I say that crucially includes the officials), are aware of Newcastle’s game plan.
But perhaps most important of all it leaves Mr Taylor in absolutely no doubt as to the fact that, as the Referees sole judge and Jury, the Media are totally behind this tactic and will be watching his every move.
Do not expect justice on the football field where the chief justice is the bastard who robbed us of our 50th. Taylor should be behind bars together with Atkinson, Moss & Dean for allowing serious injury in the name of sport.
I will once again state that the FA & its officiating supplier PGMO are corrupt & do not represent sporting honesty in any form.
Despite all the sh1t that these people put the Arsenal through, we will succeed in winning the EPL.
In this year 2016 I am hoping that these chickens dare to challenge me in court. I will tear them apart together with their media colleagues.
The Lesser Dean
“Not fit to wear the shirt.”
Be interesting to keep tabs on the fouls to cards ratio and see if it follows the long established irregular and remarkable PGMOB pattern for AFC games. Hopefully not.
And thanks as always for the preview of the PGMOB officials. Much appreciated.
Repeat post!
Do not expect justice on the football field where the chief justice is the bastard who robbed us of our 50th. Taylor should be behind bars together with Atkinson, Moss & Dean for allowing serious injury in the name of sport.
I will once again state that the FA & its officiating supplier PGMO are corrupt & do not represent sporting honesty in any form.
Despite all the sh1t that these people put the Arsenal through, we will succeed in winning the EPL.
In this year 2016 I am hoping that these chickens dare to challenge me in court. I will tear them apart together with their media colleagues.
Menace
Because you repeat and regurgitate that nonesence that you post doesn’t make it any more believable.I know teams are physical with us but physicality and agression is still part of our game.When viera, petit adams and keown used to put it about did you moan then??
And are all refs against arsenal winning the league or is it a select few that have been chosen by the E.P.L to ruin it for us .
John
Are you calling Andrew a Liar with the stats above?
Jambug
Where have i called anyone a liar.And stats arent everything and can be misleading.What you might clas as a foul some might think is a fair challenge.And we know that everyone has a bias towards their own team.
John,
I started following Walter’s articles I refereeing six or seven years ago because he was the one commentator who’s writings actually were in accordance with what I was seeing on the pitch. Not everyone sees the same things or draws the same conclusions. I would ask you to pay particular attention to this afternoon’s game and note any decisions you agree or disagree with, together with a record of the time of the incident. I am more than happy, in due course when the ref review is published, to have a discussion with you over the validity of our review and your interpretations of the same events.
John
I didn’t say you did did I? I asked if you where.
“Stats can be misleading”?
a) Explain that please.
“What you might class as a foul some might think is a fair challenge”
b) Yes, a lot of decisions are subjective, but I am not a current or ex referee, as I doubt are you. Most, if not all of the guys that do the referee reviews are either current or ex referees, so are much more likely to evaluate each incident with a better perspective than you or I would, do you not agree? And lets be honest, subjective or not that hardly explains the enormous weight in bias against Arsenal does it? Or do you think Andrew and the others are really THAT biased? perhaps your next statement suggests you do.
“And we know that everyone has a bias towards their own team.”
c) So your not calling Andrew a liar, just biased, very biased, which is much the same thing is it not?
d) And by the way, as you may or may not be aware, a couple of years back untold used a selection of non Arsenal supporting ex and current Referees to do the assessments, and the bias against Arsenal was even worse. Can you explain that?
Just mark your answers a) b) c) and d) please.
“Oezil is on the ground from a rather robust challenge…but Taylor waves play on…oh, what’s that? Flamini has put in a delightful challenge on McClaren. The Newcastle gaffer is clutching his knee but Taylor waves play on…
Nah…
John
Come on mate.
You come on here shouting the odds and cant answer 4 simple questions.
Sad.
John
In case you have forgotten this is from yesterday.
To this statement of yours,
“Stats can be misleading”?
I asked:
a) Explain that please.
To this statement of yours,
“What you might class as a foul some might think is a fair challenge”
I asked:
b) Yes, a lot of decisions are subjective, but I am not a current or ex referee, as I doubt are you. Most, if not all of the guys that do the referee reviews are either current or ex referees, so are much more likely to evaluate each incident with a better perspective than you or I would, do you not agree? And lets be honest, subjective or not that hardly explains the enormous weight in bias against Arsenal does it? Or do you think Andrew and the others are really THAT biased? perhaps your next statement suggests you do.
To this statement of yours,
“And we know that everyone has a bias towards their own team.”
I asked this:
c) So your not calling Andrew a liar, just biased, very biased, which is much the same thing is it not?
And this:
d) And by the way, as you may or may not be aware, a couple of years back untold used a selection of non Arsenal supporting ex and current Referees to do the assessments, and the bias against Arsenal was even worse. Can you explain that?
Just mark your answers a) b) c) and d) please.
No rush.
And there was also this from Andrew:
“John,
I started following Walter’s articles I refereeing six or seven years ago because he was the one commentator who’s writings actually were in accordance with what I was seeing on the pitch. Not everyone sees the same things or draws the same conclusions. I would ask you to pay particular attention to this afternoon’s game and note any decisions you agree or disagree with, together with a record of the time of the incident. I am more than happy, in due course when the ref review is published, to have a discussion with you over the validity of our review and your interpretations of the same events.”
I look forward to seeing your answers and of course to reading your very own referee review.
Again, no rush.