@ReverendGooner leads the congregation into the Feast of St Basil the Great
Well hello parishioners and welcome to 2018 hopefully a year full of promise and success for each and every one of you. I know I said I would not be back in the pulpit until mid-January but needs must & our Lord Gooner is a most severe task master & came to me in a vision telling me to write this 1st Psalm of 2018. Well actually id hit the communion wine a bit hard the night before and it dawned on me in my dishevelled and un-holy state to write about this topic. I guess we all sat there in total disbelief as that wretch of a referee Mike “Vlad The Impaler” Dean awarded West Brom a penalty for what can only be described as a decision which was ludicrous beyond belief. Not that I need remind you most learned of scholars but the rules for hand ball are very clear.
- the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
- the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
- the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement
- touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shin guard, etc.) counts as an infringement
Regarding this incident Callum Chamber 1stly was very close to Kieran Gibbs when the ball was struck and had no chance of avoiding contact. The ball clearly moved towards the hand and not hand towards the ball and lastly his body was not in an unnatural position so what in god’s green earth was Mike Dean thinking as this clearly was not a penalty. When Petr Cech attempted to ask the Dean about the incident at the end of the game Dean said nothing and simply booked the goalkeeper even though Cech was clearly polite and respectful in his approach & manner. Furthermore, Cech whilst being interviewed states that Mike Dean had clearly gone against the latest FA directive on what constitutes handball in awarding the penalty but this this nothing new is it. Mike Dean has made a name for himself in football by making the game about him and his erroneous decisions rather than about the game itself. The issue here though is not about Mike Dean who many Arsenal fans rightly or wrongly believe is a cheat and openly tries to influence games with his decision making Its about the FA & the professional Referees Association’s (PGMOB) almost inquisition like vigour & secrecy in protecting itself & its officials from any comment or scrutiny even after a match official has had an absolute shocker of a game. Any manger. club official or player who dares to question the almost holy and divine right of the match official’s refusal to comment of clarify on a poor or wrong decision is immediately sanctioned without impunity.
Mike Riley the chief inquisitor rarely speaks publicly and even more rarely acknowledges that his match officials have fouled up & this all leads to allegations of corruption, favouritism or incompetence from the attending press and fans alike. His case has not been helped in recent times either with retired referees like Mark Halsey stating in his book that he used to chat to Sir Alex Ferguson on the phone prior to a game or Clattenburg’s recent tell all about looking the other way during an important Spurs match. Accusations that Howard Webb played favourites and was very anti Liverpool & who can ever forget Graham Poll’s 3 yellow cards at the World Cup. Whether the FA likes it or not the monster they have created in the EPL has too much money in it and more importantly too much money at stake. Those 2 points dropped or should I say robbed from Arsenal could mean the difference between top 4 & CL football and missing out on Europe altogether, the cost of that could be staggering in terms of both financial loss and competitions that they cannot play in. Referees should never be the reason why teams fail but all too often we are seeing more and more of it which is at the absolute detriment of the Premier League. In the Everton Utd match there was an identical incident to the Callum Chambers penalty and the referee just waved it away and played on. Where is the consistency from the FA & PGMOB? How can one referee adhere to the current directive yet Mike Dean basically do as he pleases. The FA have proven with the Kane & Ali incidents that they rule the game & the rules of the game at their discretion and they are the ones that need calling to account over the state of the refereeing standards in the PL and as for Mike Dean I’ll leave the last word to Garth Crooks and his famous rant. “It’s not about you Mike the game is not about you so just ref the game & stop seeking attention”.
Positively Arsenal 
Timing is everything!
Good on Wenger if as it seems, he did have a go at Dean
Been a strange few days, I have always strongly suspected there is, at the very least, bias against our club/manager, but Deans actions, to me at least have made things that much clearer.
I will back the manager and players even more with what I am now sure is going on, but it will still feel strange forking out money for what is clearly a biased, corrupt, stage managed farce.
Get the feeling there is much more to come from our manager as well
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Well done GRev, and for your previous article too.
I was more “disappointed” than usual after WBA. I wrote/ranted long and hard – but decided against pressing the Send button. Fortunately, PA’s commentators cover most of what I’d rant.
I often fantasise about not seeing the patterns, appointments and the multi shenanigans surrounding football. It’d be like when I was a child. You watch footy on TV, the comms say stuff. You believe it. Job done. Can’t wait for the next highlights.
Watch Jimmy Hill arguing whether it should be pronounced “Storn-chon” or “Stan-chen”. All the important stuff, like, innit
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Regarding Deans appointments this week, thats very unfortunate for West Ham, guess Dele Alli gets another free rein .
The Hammers defence will have to watch out for low flying divers
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Arsene Wenger charged following West Brom match. Alleged his language/behaviour in match officials’ changing room after the game was abusive/improper and/or questioned the integrity of match referee. Has until 6pm Friday to respond
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Wenger got a 4 game ban last season, he could very well get longer this time. amazing.
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Jeri Moses
January 2, 2018 at 5:14 am
Yesterday’s game is an example of why Arsenal fan groups are a massive let down and lack any form of credibility.
If as Arsenal fans we are willing to watch our team suffer at the hands of incompetent officials season after season and choosing instead to attack the only man trying to stand up to this injustice on our behalf, then maybe we do deserve to be where we are as a club. We should be organizing protests against the PGMOL, the FA and the premier league itself and demanding better standards of officiating, better fixture schedules etc instead we are busy abusing our manager and players, dragging our club name through the mad for clicks and attention.
Sad really!
I have seen some attempt to analyze the game, but for me how we played becomes irrelevant when the ref decides the outcome of the game as the case with that game.
As an Arsenal fan and football enthusiast, I feel cheated.
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Jeri M is right to feel cheated, as are those who spent money going up to West Brom, City, Stoke, Watford, and thats just for this season.
Once the masses realise what is going on, that referees for whatever reason are taking it upon themselves to manage outcomes of games, the game is in real trouble.
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Some PGMOL vs Arsenal highlights this season
And Wenger is being charged??
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“The best league in the world” is unable to get 1 ref accepted for the world cup? Surely that’s a reason for a commission of enquiry?
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gf60 any commission of enquiry would only come up with the findings that the only solution to the problem is to pay the refs more,
17 years of pro refs and look at the mess they are. PGMOL is not fit for purpose
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lots of youths in first team training today, Krystian Bielik, Ben Sheaf, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Josh Dasilva, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah all involved.
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The FA statement reads as follows:
“Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been charged following the West Bromwich Albion game on Sunday [31/12/17]. It is alleged his language and/or behaviour in the match officials’ changing room after the game was abusive and/or improper and/or questioned the integrity of the match referee. He has until 6pm on Friday [05/01/18] to respond.”
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Wenger on Mike Dean: “I was not happy at all with the movement that the referee made to show why he gave the penalty, because that didn’t correspond at all with what happened. On that front, it’s a bit worrying.”
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“Worrying”?
Pffffft:
They call it “Theatre”, my darlings.
Nevermind the football
Or the cameras picking up and recording such bogus gestures.
Carry On?
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2 in 80 for the friendly and relatively even handed Mr.Friend.
Sounds mental, but there it is!
Who could’ve guessed that?
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Fins
That guy is clearly not made of the right stuff now is he!
If we try cast it from perspective that he is not chosen because he lacks the ability of those others, then it can only be that he is believed to make more mistakes, or bigger mistakes, or not control the game as well, or not cope with the increased pressure of big games. Whatever it may be, he has been judged not good enough.
We’re not talking a small gap in perceived quality either, but an absolutely gigantic one. With Dean seen as being so superior as to warrant nigh on two fifths (excluding merseyside teams) of our most important games over a long period, and Friend nowhere.
Is there any reason whatsoever to believe such a difference in ability, in that direction, is real?
He’ll have had his chances over the years, maybe those two were them, but a handful of decisions like not sending off Flamini that time for a two-footed action (which landed so short of the opposition player he was required to step forward to create the contact), oh, that’ll leave you with some real ground to recover.
Eventually, you’re done, but can stay to make up the numbers outside the trusted lieutenants.
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He wasn’t always the villain !
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Beam me up Scotty
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Chuba Akpom has been banned from driving for 17 Months and fined £9,350 and £85 costs, he crashed while twice the limit, after attending a 21st birthday party in a club.
his lawyer asked for him to not be banned as he was likely to go on loan and would need to be able to drive to get around at his new club, and a ban might scupper a loan move.
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Google ‘Mike Dean Red cards” and it is like a stroll down 18 years of PL history
The man is prolific – it really has been all about him – I presume he must be far ahead of any other current official in despatching players for the early bath ?
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well anicol, just like his penalty for and against us stat, his sending off stats are similarly one sided, and just to point out that one of the pictures you use was indeed him sending off a city player, but if I’m not mistaken this was with city 2-0 up and with him already having sent off an Arsenal player, the stats also show that he issues yellow cards to Arsenal players, per number of fouls committed at a much higher ratio than to any other side.
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yes anicol, Dean hands out red cards at a greater rate than any other BPL ref, he has even had more Red cards over turned than any other BPL ref, he has been dropped from the BPL ref list a number of times for his poor displays, yet here we are with him still being treated like he is the very best the PGMOL have,
his stats for Arsenal games are way off the scale in so many respects, his ratio for reds, yellows, penalties, for/against AFC are massive, not only in comparison to the other big clubs, but even with his averages. For example on penalties, for AFC to get a penalty at his average rate of awarding a penalty, we would have to have gotten 9 more penalties from him, that is 3 times the amount we have got,
What is it he sees in AFC games that he does not see in others games,
He should never have been given another Arsenal game after that game at CFC when the FA overturned the Gabriel sending off, and banned Costa, and which seen the PGMOL drop Dean for a couple of weeks.
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If we were 2-0 down Eddy what do you expect him to do ?? Nod the ball in for us from a corner ?
Here is another of Mike at his erratic best;
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Sending keepers off is really, really bad form.
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I will admit that its not just against Arsenal that Mike Dean is an awful ref, he is an awful ref most of the time, just on average much poorer to Arsenal
for me Dean should not be reffing at all, but instead he is in fact one of the main go to guys of the PGMOL, 17 years of pro refs and he is a go to guy, says it all about the PGMOL
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So who should be the go-to guy eddy ! Are any of them less than utterly useless/corrupt ?
I have not been feeling the love for the refereeing fraternity of late tbh
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ah typical response from you anicol, imply I’m looking for something that I’m not, or asking for favors from the refs.
no I don’t expect dean to head the ball in for us, all I was pointing out was that your attempt to show Dean doing AFC as favor by sending off a city player was flawed, as game was already done, he had already put AFC down to 10 men.
Dean has stupid stats for so many things compared to the other refs, Reds, Penalties, Yellows, Ratio of them too, but then there is a complete anomaly in all of those when it comes to Arsenal with him. Do Arsenal play differently with him in charge, do they do things that they don’t in other games, or is Dean merely doing his job better than all the other Refs who turn a blind eye to much of Arsenal Red Card offences, Yellow Card offenses, Penalty fouls, and who get fooled by AFC con tricks to win penalties. Or has Mike Dean a problem with Arsenal.
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I would say each and every one of the PGMOL refs are better than Dean(and that is despite some of them being poor enough too), who for me is the worst ref on their list, and as I said earlier for me he is not fit to be reffing in the BPL.
as for not feeling the love for refs recently, well the amount of big calls they are getting wrong this season is amazing, and again not only in AFC games, but as they are they ones that I have most interest in I can recall a hell of a lot of pt costing or game pivotal decisions that they have got wrong so far, I think someone even posted a video of some of them earlier in this thread.
A couple of my mates(non Arsenal fans) have quit following the football, with the ref displays being the biggest reason, lesser reasons are the mega rich owners and all the bull spouted in the coverage of the game.
I have got to the point where it is actually only Arsenal that is keeping me interested in it, and I have come very close to packing it in, I honestly believe that there is something rotten at the heart of the English game. the hope that I am wrong and my love of Arsenal is all that is keeping me following it.
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Positively Arsenal (Blackburn George)
@arseblagger
2h2 hours ago
Positively Arsenal (Blackburn George) Retweeted D G
The PL is the only multi billion pound business in the history of the world, to have no corruption. Its a miracle if you ask me
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So if Mike Dean is the worst of all referees ever then who is the best eddy – that is all I asked ?
Or are they all universally total and utter rubbish ?
Although it is not particularly you I love all this ‘high horse’ about no EPL refs at the World Cup – I cant recall any Arsenal fans singing the praises of the boss of FIFA referees Bussaca
And what about this star referee – do you recall him – he is on his way to Russia as one of the elite mob
http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/23/arsenal-fans-believe-referee-for-barcelona-match-is-actually-mike-dean-in-disguise-5714016/
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anicol I like Swabrick, Friend, Probert, even Pawson, for me the less high profile refs are doing a far better job than the big name refs like Dean, Oliver, Atkinson, Marriner. I think one of the biggest problems we have with refs is that too many of them want to be the stars of the show, and act like they think its them that the fans and cameras have come to see.
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on none of the english refs making the WC list, that would be less of a problem if English refs were not full time, the whole idea of setting up the PGMOL and going full time was that England would have the best of the best, guys able to devote the time and have the financial backing to make them the best. But here we are 17 years on and its worse they are getting. PGMOL are not fit for purpose.
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I think Oliver is good, so is Taylor, Pawson improving, Madeley reasonable, Friend sensible. I am not a Probert fan and Swarbrick is a bit erratic. Mike Jones is my least favourite with Deano.
If I want Arsenal to collect the the points though Mossy is still the man to rely on.
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I have a power cut so will have to log off, hope to be back on sooner rather than later.
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quote anicol
“If I want Arsenal to collect the the points though Mossy is still the man to rely on.”
but that is the point anicol, we shouldn’t have to hope for this or that ref to increase our chances of winning, if things were right with our refs, we would have the same chance regardless, but sadly we are a very long way from any sort of level playing field.
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A lack of referees at the top level, well below the level promised. Secrecy. Using refs with known biases accordingly, and, we do see rather a lot of Mike Dean…. our manager has certainly accused him of something so who are we to argue with The Man?
Sounds a bit like Italy a few years ago to me. Though I am not sure even the Italian ref fed at the time went as far as paying their refs a sum on retirement on the condition they stayed quiet about their careers, otherwise known as hush money
I am sure most refs are honest, but the way Mike Riley runs them stinks.
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Yes Moss who sends our players off for things no other ref has or will. We win despite the odious twat, not because of him.
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Seems the “Thou shalt not send off Spurs players” command is in place so far this evening
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That is exactly the point – the fan and the club and the manager should not rely on the referee to win them games (despite how v useful Mossy is)
And nor should they spend a billion words and a 100k siganatures on Dean ( poor though he is)
We can’t rely on James MacLean or Mossy – we have to do Chelsea on our own
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I am pleased Tottingham got a good chasing tonight and very wet. Hopefully the Ammers will give them more grief on Thursday.
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no anicol the point is you should never expect favors from the ref or have to overcome the ref,
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so anicol please enlighten us, how has mossy helped us win games, I know we have won games with him in charge, even games that he has seemed to make up a new rule, re Xhaka sending off, but what exactly have you see from him that could be described as him doing us a favor, or helping us.
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Lucky Spurs, offside goal,and D Sanchez spared a clear sending off for second yellow
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I was waiting confidently for the late penalty award that would gift Swansea a draw against Tottenham. Can’t understand why it never came.
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not offside
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With Moss in charge 2.86 points on average each game – PL winning form. He works quietly, subtley so that you don’t even realise he is there eddy – nudging us over the line
2.86 points = 108 points per season – it’s out there
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Very frustrating Merlot – Swansea performed well In the 2nd half – opened the visitors up but feeble finishing let them down, Fabianski was good (as usual)
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On that Tottingham offside eddy do you think the lino can actually see the ball or Eriksen kicking it ? He looks unsighted to me but the angles are a bit tight
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so no actual favors that you can tell us about, just the fact that despite his sending off of our players in his games we still managed to win those games. Or are you suggesting that it was actually his sending off players in these games that helped us win, very cunning of him to disguise his help, very smart guy is mr moss, everyone would think he is not trying to help us at all, genius of him.
Fuck, thinking about the clever mr moss, I have realized we have Mike Dean all wrong, he is just trying to help us win, but is trying the Moss trick of covering his tracks, Wenger owes the man an apology, as do most of us on here.
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