Untold Arsenal is still being erratic so here is the post we would have posted this morning. It will transfer onto Untold Arsenal just as soon as I can do it. When we have problems there are always details on Twitter @UntoldArsenal and the piece is published here and on our Facebook site www.facebook.com/untoldarsenaltoday
Crystal Palace v Arsenal Sunday 16 August 2015 – The Match Officials
by Andrew Crawshaw
Referee – Lee Mason
Assistants – S Ledger and E Smart
Fourth Official – R Madley
Last week we had the referee with the worst competence scores from last season, this week we have Lee Mason who, whilst not a paragon of virtue, recorded the highest overall competence value (NB this table does not put weight on the decisions)
| Referee | Correct total | Wrong total |
| Lee Mason | 86.44% | 13.56% |
| Moss | 83.17% | 16.83% |
| Pawson | 80.82% | 19.18% |
| Clattenberg | 78.85% | 21.15% |
| Oliver | 78.18% | 21.82% |
| Dowd | 73.44% | 26.56% |
| Taylor | 72.88% | 27.12% |
| Friend | 70.59% | 29.41% |
| Marinner | 70.42% | 29.58% |
| Jones | 70.00% | 30.00% |
| East | 67.92% | 32.08% |
| Dean | 67.37% | 32.63% |
| Atkinson | 66.47% | 33.53% |
Last season he was in charge of two games for us, one at home and one away – exactly as it should be. The figures in the table above only reflect his performance in the home game v Newcastle as Walter was unable to do a review of our away game at Hull. I’m sure readers who were at the Hull Game will be able to add any thoughts on his performance in that game via the comments.
| Ref Review Arsenal – Newcastle |
Not bad overall scores but there were certainly some controversial decisions. Minute 6 Tiote kicks Alexis in the chest, referee poorly positioned should have been a red card, Minute 15 Wellbeck had a goal ruled out for a foul that our reviewer couldn’t see – no foul so goal should have stood, in Minute 38 Alexis puts himself between the ball and the Dummet who barges into the back of him in the penalty area. The foul was clearly indicated by the linesman. Mason puts the ball down for a free kick outside the penalty area.
In the second half The next controversial decision was in the lead up to the Newcastle goal, again Mr Mason was in a dreadful position yet somehow managed to call a minor foul from Giroud on Colback (your guess is as good as mine as to how he saw that one) It was a minor foul but the referee can’t call it if he hasn’t seen it!. Dummet should have been given a second yellow card in Min 87 for a ‘professional’ foul on Wellbeck (the penalty was given).
Overall there were only 8 wrong calls in the whole game which was good, unfortunately 6 of them were important and all of those were in favour of Newcastle so not so good from that point of view.
Hull 1 Arsenal 3 – 4 May – No full referee review but here is Walter’s post game piece.
Hull – Arsenal 1-3, yes it happened again! Sounds like a typical piece of one sided refereeing from Mason, every Arsenal foul called but hull allowed to do pretty much what they wanted. Another not given penalty for Arsenal and the Hull game came from a non-given foul.
In 2013-14 we were refereed by Mr Mason on 4 occasions, all away from home. I can’t find the full ref reviews but have referenced the post-match reviews by Walter.
6 October – West Brom v Arsenal (1-1). here are links to two post-match pieces including a detailed analysis of a non-given penalty for a poor challenge on Wilshere by Mulumbu.
Arsenal – WBA, the told you so game : The Mulumbu – Wilshere incident: penalty or not? How the English media stands alone
30 November – Cardiff v Arsenal (0-3)
Cardiff 0 – Aaronsenal 3 – No mention of the referee in this report so I will assume he had a reasonable game.
28 January – Southampton v Arsenal (2-2)
Southampton 2 – Arsenal 2 – Mason as predicted yet again –
Another biased performance where the strictest interpretation of the laws was applied against Arsenal whilst Southampton were allowed pretty much carte-blance. Southampton’s first goal came from a free kick for an imaginary foul by Mertesacker (a bit like last Sunday in fact, find an excuse to give Arsenal’s opponents a free kick in a dangerous area) to add insult to injury Fonte was using Monreal as a ladder to make his header, this of course is perfectly within the laws of the game as practiced by the PGMO.
11 May – Norwich v Arsenal (0-2)
Norwich – Arsenal, what a pair of goals! – another report that dosen’t mention the ref so an OK performance.
2012/13 – Going back a further season there were two games, again both away
Match Review: Lee Mason – Stoke City Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [26/08/2012]
80% overall score (weighted) bias against Arsenal 78%. 3 penalty decisions to make – all wrong, 2 red cards both wrong, match was goal less. Minute7 Wilkinson stopped a goalbound shot with an outstretched arm, penalty for Arsenal not given and Wilkinson should have been dismissed as he was the last defender. In Min38 there was a second incorrectly denied penalty for Arsenal. In Minute57 Gibbs should have been penalised for a push in the penalty area, non given penalty to Stoke. Minute52 Wilkinson was penalised and given a yellow card for a studs up challenge – should have been a straight red card (his second of the match).
Difficult to see that in any way other than Mr Mason denying Arsenal a win and three points. Stoke should have been both a man and a goal down in the 7th minute.
Match Review: Lee Mason – Aston Villa Vs Arsenal (0 – 0) [24/11/2012]
92% overall score (weighted), 11 wrong decisions all against Arsenal. A great first half with only one wrong offside decision against Gibbs,. only 5 fouls committed all called correctly and El Ahmadi rightly given a yellow card for a dive. In the second half his numbers weren’t quite so good but he really didn’t miss anything potentially game changing.
Conclusions
- Mr Mason is a referee we normally get away from home (1 home game and now 7 away games since the start of the 2012 season)
- His competence numbers are usually high but his judgement on Important Decisions (second yellow cards, red cards, penalties and goals) is nowhere near as good. He is another referee who seems incapable of recognising a really bad challenge when one is made in front of his nose and another referee where I will be glad when the game is over and we have no serious injuries.
- Mr Mason can, on occasions be OK as a referee. Unfortunately all too frequently he follows the lead of his bosses at the PGMO and exhibits a terrible anti-Arsenal bias, particularly with Important Decisions.
- Don’t expect to see an Arsenal Penalty.
- Don’t expect to see Crystal Palace players given yellow cards yet alone red.
- Do look out for a phantom foul called on Arsenal in a position where Palace can cross the ball into our area and then look out for non called fouls on our defenders. His other favourite trick is to ignore a foul by a palace player in a dangerous position.
- As with all referees out players will be given yellow cards at the earliest possible opportunity.
- Mr Mason is a typical PGMO employee, rabidly anti-Arsenal and capable of just about anything.
COYG
