Arsenal v Bournemouth Sunday 27 November 2016 – The Match Officials

by Andrew Crawshaw

Our Matchday Officials this week are  :-

Referee – Mike Jones Age 48 from Cheshire

• Assistant 1 – Adrian Holmes from West Yorkshire
• Assistant 2 – Mark Scholes from Buckinghamshire
• Fourth Official – Graham Scott Age 48 from Oxfordshire

This will be the first time this season that Mike Jones will have refereed either Arsenal or Bournemouth.  In fact this will be the first time this season for any of the Match Officials to have appeared in an Arsenal match.  Let’s hope that it is a pleasant surprise and a change from the usual suspects.

Surprisingly Adrain Holmes was not on the list of 27 Select Group Assistant Referees that was announced before the season started.  He has, however, been a regular with 11 appearances this season including four with Mr Jones.

In the Matchweek 11 refereeing report I noted that Mr Jones is currently the pick of the bunch as regards to the referees with the fewest wrong Important Decisions with 7 in six games (along with Neil Swarbrick)

Major Wrong Decisions by Referees

	Matchweek 11					Season to Date
Referee	2nd Yellow	Red	Pens	Goals	Total	Games	2nd Yellow	Red	Pens	Goals	Total	Avg
Roger East						4	2	2	7	1	12	3.0
Robert Madley	0	2	0	0	2	8	4	9	6	1	20	2.5
Craig Pawson	0	1	1	0	2	7	2	8	7	0	17	2.4
Mike Dean	0	3	0	0	3	9	2	8	7	4	21	2.3
Mark Clattenburg	2	0	0	0	2	7	7	3	4	1	15	2.1
Anthony Taylor	0	1	0	1	2	10	4	5	8	3	20	2.0
Graham Scott	0	1	1	0	2	2	0	2	2	0	4	2.0
Michael Oliver	0	2	2	0	4	10	5	6	7	2	20	2.0
Jon Moss						8	6	3	4	2	15	1.9
Andre Marriner	1	1	0	0	2	8	5	4	4	1	14	1.8
Kevin Friend	0	1	1	0	2	6	1	6	3	0	10	1.7
Martin Atkinson						9	4	9	2	0	15	1.7
Lee Mason						5	2	2	2	2	8	1.6
Paul Tierney						2	0	2	1	0	3	1.5
Stuart Attwell						3	1	1	2	0	4	1.3
Mike Jones						6	3	2	1	1	7	1.2
Neil Swarbrick	0	1	0	0	1	6	1	2	3	1	7	1.2

Mike has also made 4 correct Important Decisions in the 6 games we have analysed to date, all relating to penalties.  Of his wrong decisions 5 relate to sendings off, three second yellow cards and 2 straight red cards.

Last Season 2015-16 we had Mr Jones on three occasions, two wins and a draw.

17 October Watford v Arsenal (0 – 3)

Ref Review : Watford – Arsenal

68% overall weighted score, bias against the two teams of 10/90 and two wrong Important Decisions (second yellow cards, red cards, penalties and goals).  In Min 3 Prodl should have conceded a penalty as he was holding Mertesacker’s shirt and Min 36 Capoue should have had a straight red card for a slap against Alexis’ face.  Arsenal won th game so the decisions didn’t cost Arsenal any points

13 January Liverpool v Arsenal (3 – 3)

Ref Review : Liverpool – Arsenal and the push in the back

59% overall weighted score, bias against the two teams of 6/94 and again two wrong Important decisions Min 33 a not given penalty to Arsenal with Moreno pulling Campbell from behind and Min 70 Cline should have had a second yellow card for a kick to Campbell’s knee (the foul was given but not the second yellow card).  Here I counted this as two points taken from Arsenal.

30 April Arsenal v Norwich (1 – 0)

REF REVIEW ARSENAL – NORWICH: interesting observations or just coincidence

65% overall weighted score, bias against the two teams of 71/29 and no wrong decisions.  Not the best refereeing in the world but far from the worst and not costing us any points.

Going back another season to 2014-15 and another three games

20 September Aston Villa v Arsenal (0 – 3)

Ref Review Aston Villa – Arsenal

82% overall weighted score, bias against the two teams 20/80 and one wrong Important Decision when in Min 83 Clark should have had a straight red carder a challenge on Podolski.  Apart from that a good performance.

10 Feb Arsenal v Leicester (2 – 1)

Ref Review : Arsenal – Leicester

54% overall score, bias against the two teams of 90/10 and two wrong Important Decisions.  Min 28 Upson should have been dismissed for a two footed challenge on Alexis and Min 88 Simpson should have had a second yellow card for blocking Özil.

21 March Newcastle v Arsenal (1 – 2)

Ref Review : Newcastle – Arsenal: an overwhelming bias

58% overall weighted score, bias against the two teams of 5/95 and three wrong Important Decisions.  Min 62 Cabella should have been dismissed for a second yellow card after an elbow to Coquelin’s head, Min 81 Cabella should have had another yellow card for diving to try and win a penalty, Min 60 Newcastle should have had a penalty for handball by Chambers.  I noted this game as one where the referee gave us two points.

Summary

1. There has been nothing that we have seen in the last two seasons to suggest that Mike Jones would be featuring as one of the best referees in the Premier League yet that is currently where he is.
2. Up to Matchweek 11 this season Mr Jones has made 7 wrong Important Decisions in 6 games.  In the two previous seasons in Arsenal games he made 10 in six games so he seems to have ‘upped his game’ considerably this year.
3. His bias numbers against Arsenal are typical at 80% plus so in line with the rest of the PGMO.
4. He is quite good at recognising penalties (compared with the rest of the PGMO) but where he does make mistakes are in the disciplinary offences, yellow, second yellow and red cards.  Again this is typical of the PGMO.
5. It will be extremely interesting to see if he maintains his good numbers on Sunday, or if he reverts to the usual anti-Arsenal bias.  Ih he does maintain his season averages then there is a real chance that we will be talking about the football after the game rather than the referee.
6. I’m hoping that Walter and the Belgian Gooners coming over for the game will enjoy Arsenal back to their best, good football from both teams and an Arsenal win by more than a single goal.

COYG

 

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