Ref Watch – Manchester City v Arsenal – 24/10/2010
By DogFace
I’d like, if you good people of the Arsenal blogosphere are willing, to drop in occasionally to bring to your attention some Arsenal news of the ‘Untold’ variety. I warn you I’m an old cynic… but please bear with me as I mean well.
This is a new feature I’d like to call RefWatch – bit like BayWatch but with bigger tits… I jest – I’m actually attempting to sound a warning siren as to any shifty shenanigans and share with you any suspicious trends, I casually observe, that blight our beautiful game.
So where do I start with RefWatch this weekend… and why pick this particular weekend? Well – it’s a biggie as the City of Manchester (blue) face the mighty Arsenal – one might say that they [Citeh], having played last night, are going to need help were they to get a result… and I, for one (plus many a pro gambler), believe they could well get it.
If you recall the last time we faced Manchester City under Clattenberg’s watchful gaze he allowed the game to degenerate into a bit of the old ‘ultra violence’ thus removing such advantages like ‘skill’ and ‘creativity’ as relevant factors, for consideration, when ‘picking a winner’. To be honest – it could be (and I hope it is) that Marky C will get swapped out last minute by the PGMOB (which is their want and frequently happens) just to [coincidentally] screw up the spreadsheets of the aforementioned gambling fraternity – who knows?!
Anyhoo, let’s have a look at his profile:
Name: Mark Clattenberg
Date of birth: 13 March 1975
Place of birth: Consett, County Durham, England
Other occupation: Qualified electrician
Favourite Colour: Sky Blue
Ok – I made that last bit up… but it could be true and you’ll see why when we have a wee gander at Mr. Clattenberg’s record with the sky blues throughout his career:
13/11/2004 Manchester City 1 – 1 Blackburn Rovers
20/08/2005 Birmingham City 1 – 2 Manchester City
04/12/2006 Manchester City 0 – 0 Watford
26/12/2006 Sheffield United 0 – 1 Manchester City
19/08/2007 Manchester City 1 – 0 Manchester United
12/09/2009 Manchester City 4 – 2 Arsenal
12/12/2009 Bolton Wanderers 3 – 3 Manchester City
13/02/2010 Manchester City 1 – 1 Stoke City
01/05/2010 Manchester City 3 – 1 Aston Villa
23/08/2010 Manchester City 3 – 0 Liverpool
11/09/2010 Manchester City 1 – 1 Blackburn Rovers
So out of the 11 games that Mark Clattenberg has been involved with Manchester City; it seems that they have never lost a game:
Wins: 6
Draws: 5
Losses: 0
The more observant of you will have noticed that there is a little gap in his career – and those with longer memories than the average arm chair dwelling self-harming ‘fan’ will point out, to the more observant of you, that Mr. Clattenberg had to take a season off from the old refereeing lark as he was banned for… hmm – well it could have been the suggestion of violence in an email to a business partner’s family (to whom he allegedly owed money) – although the email isn’t alleged and here it is:
“Check you can use our companies (sic) money to fund your legal crusade against me. If not, taking me to court might cause your family some pain.”
Or it could be for the failure to explain adequately to the PGMOB why the police had found evidence of numerous visits to gambling websites on his computer when they confiscated it?
It was quite a fall from grace for Mr. Clattenberg who was at this time swanning around the pitch as the Air Asia poster boy… funnily enough, as an aside, Air Asia (who sponsored the PGMOB) was part owned by Shin Corp – which, in turn, was run by the alleged ‘corrupt to the core genocidal maniac’ or ‘Fit and Proper Person’ (depending on how you look at it) Thaksin Shinawatra who then, when the heat was on in Thailand, sold up Shin Corp and bought into… oh look, what a coincidence, Manchester City!
Stike a light – who’d ‘ave thunk it guvner?!
Still – he didn’t waste his year off (with full pay) – he got what appears to be some nice hair implants… and probably an all expenses paid Air Asia trip to Thailand for a back/sack/crack wax with a happy ending thrown in for good measure?
But forget all that – you don’t need to see his identification and these aren’t the droids you’re looking for, let’s all just trust and ‘Respect’ him like the campaign suggests we should and hope with our credulous working class hope that someone up there in the echelons of football and/or sports journalism is paying attention and perhaps had the good grace to tap him lightly on the shoulder make the suggestion that he might like to do a good job at the weekend.
On the bright side… and I like to end on a positive – Arsenal’s all about breaking records – we had the season unbeaten, we beat AC Milan on their own turf and we just got the most goals scored in the first 3 CL games ever… so maybe – just MAYBE we can break the unbeaten record held by Manchester City under Mark Clattenberg?
On The History Site – the newspaper report of our last game at Plumstead
In “Making The Arsenal” – how we got into the state reported on the History Site
On Untold Arsenal – everything you ever wanted to know and a lot more
Great Blog, i see you did your homework, but money talks son!!
wow! sharnt get me hopes up then. cheers mate.
i remember that game against stoke where they scored a last minute goal from one of their Delap “Menstrual Towel” throws. The goal was cancelled for a reason the replays could not find. Hmm… we just have to make it a victory without doubt/room for Mark The Cla’p’ttenburg to make his dodgy decisions…
I leave you with the immortal words of Capt Renault from the movie CASABLANCA “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
If such behavior, scandal and crime is accepted in football, then my fellow gunners, I have a solution… Why dont all Arsenal supporters pay me 1pound each, I will bring Mr. Clattenberg and rest of the PGMOB scums all around the world for a “joy” ride… Maybe then Arsenal FC will have some silverware… *I’m seriously considering it*…
We must not make excuses for ourselfs incase we lose, this is a must win match simple as. As long as he shows de jong red for any kung-fu attacks and blows fairly if any penatly arises either way i be happy. The rest will just have to be up to arsenal to win however negative man city are. Come on lets shut every journalists trap up!!!
JUST THOUGHT UP THE ANSWER
Wenger stated that he had the money to buy 2 more players in the transfer window, forget that buy a ref.
We could stage buy a ref day, or take a ref home for dinner, never go to the match without a ref in your pocket, drive a ref to the bookies, or the one refs would love the best good result get a shag
Knowing wenger he will buy a young ref from league 1 and say he got potential and fighting spirt!! LOL!!
when ever statistics go against arsenal,
we hard rise 2 the occassion………but Chamakh and Walcott can deliver.
Up Arsenal!!!
While were on the subject of dubious things that happen in sport, i thought i would report on this.
i am sitting watching the Korean Grand Pre we are at the stage where the race has started and the weather is throwing it down, the race started with the safety car out, they did 4 laps and had to stop conditions were to bad to continue, half hour later they restart, still with the safety car leading the race, i would like to point out at this stage that while the safety car is out you cant overtake, you can pit to change tyres and refill or even have a service if you should so wish, and then rejoin the race and take up the same possition. now the safety car has just come in after 17 laps and you are now raceing, i know you are probably wondering why i am writing all this crap, i just wanted to point out whats the point of raceing for 17 laps when you cant pass, makes me think about the start of the season and who the teams had to play, Chealsea went 6 or seven games befor they actually played a team which could beat them giving Chelsea the chance to open the gap at the top, ijust wondered if Abramovich has any ties in motor sport.
Thaksin, “genocidal maniac”. Apart from that little bit of ignorance, a reasonable read.
@bopalula
Hmmm… well I would say – it is a point of view from various segments of the Thai Muslim community, rightly or wrongly, where as the EPL regarded him as a fit and proper person – again rightly or wrongly – I fail to see how this can be labled ‘ignorance’ – more two extremes laid bare for consideration when trying to form a picture of his moral character and how that reflects on the character of the league who took him, his money and clear conflicts of interest with open arms?
Anyway – regardless of all that, it seems that the Arsenal have just smashed another record! There was fantastic pressure from Fabregas on Clattenburg after the foul on the last man was commited – after that it was game over.
We are shaping up to be something special!
It appears I was wrong about Clattenburg – well, not in that way as he ‘reverted to type’ this w/e to stuff MC’s CL spot rivals with some creative refereeing.
Anyway – for those that are interested (and probably nobody – this is just for the record).
I’ve been a bust doggie and decided to get my facts straight – therfore I hacked a few of the better known websites and leeched a bit of the old data in to a database thingamijig and then wrote a query to piviot results into a table based on team/ref (as I know you lot love your stats)… I run through… Mark Clattenburg/Manchester City (at home) as a test:
Season Competition Home Win Draw Away Win
2001/2002 Football League Championship 1 0 0
2004/2005 English Premier 0 1 0
2005/2006 English Premier 1 0 0
2006/2007 English FA Cup 1 0 0
2006/2007 English Premier 0 1 0
2007/2008 English FA Cup 1 0 0
2007/2008 English Premier 2 0 0
2008/2009 English Premier 1 0 0
2009/2010 English FA Cup 0 1 0
2009/2010 English Premier 2 0 0
2010/2011 English Premier 0 1 1
13 matches without loss at home before Arsenal!
now… I run away matches:
2005/2006 English Premier 0 0 1
2006/2007 English Premier 0 0 1
2009/2010 English Premier 0 1 0
we see a further 3 matches without loss!
So 16 matches with NO LOSS under Clattenburg until the mighty Arsenal do them… might check for matches where MarkyC is the 4th official if anyone is interested?
I reckon this database thingamijig could yeild some interesting results!
😀