Officially Speaking with Keith Hackett
REVIEW OF PREMIER LEAGUE GAMES – WEDNESDAY 4TH DECEMBER
Wednesday 4 December Chelsea 2-1 Aston Villa
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistants: Daniel Cook, Sian Massey-Ellis
Fourth Official: Darren England
VAR: David Coote
Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 11 | 39 | 0 |
This referee is in his first season in the Premier League and demonstrated some positive refereeing techniques. He showed good movement, accurate decision-making and good management of players.
I feel however that this season to date, he needs to focus more and increase his physical effort. If he bench-marked himself against former top referees such as Webb, Clattenburg and Halsey then he would understand more of what is currently his lazy approach to officiating.
Referee Kavanagh really does need to sort out his movement on the field of play. He is slow and one paced, the referee frankly had little to do and the game passed without controversy
Wednesday 4 December Leicester City 2-0 Watford
Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistants: Lee Betts, Ian Hussin
Fourth Official: Anthony Backhouse
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Peter Kirkup
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 7 | 29 | 1 |
Pawson does have the ability to make sound decisions and reads the game quiet well. However, he is ‘one-paced’ and at times becomes detached from play and fails to “SEE, RECOGNISE, THINK and ACT”. This is the process of good officiating.
The big error for me from Pawson was cautioning Vardy for simulation when he was clearly tripped. How VAR confirmed what was a clear penalty-kick is mind boggling!
The award of the penalty kick in the second half that was confirmed by VAR was very harsh. Pawson’s movement just lets him down.
Wednesday 4 December Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Referee: Paul Tierney
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Harry Lennard
Fourth Official: Stuart Attwell
VAR: Michael Oliver
Assistant VAR: Stuart Burt
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 12 | 36 | 0 |
Well Tierney must be viewed by the PGMOL management team as one of the “in-form” referees. In this game he demonstrated that is the case. Rashford opened the scoring for the home team with a terrific strike, albeit that Spurs goalkeeper was at fault. Spurs scored an equaliser from Dele Alli that was confirmed after a VAR check for handball.
There was then an outstanding decision for a penalty-kick after a great demonstration of movement by the referee to be in a terrific position to correctly award a penalty.
Wednesday 4 December Southampton 2-1 Norwich City
Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistants: Mark Scholes
Adrian Holmes
Fourth Official: Lee Swabey
VAR: Simon Hooper
Assistant VAR: Andy Garratt
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 10 | 34 | 3 |
Southampton opened the scoring from a correctly awarded free-kick and then added a second before Norwich scored to bring the score to 2-1 Kevin Friend delivered an efficient performance.
Wednesday 4 December Wolves 2-0 West Ham United
Referee: Andre Marriner
Assistants: Scott Ledger, Simon Long
Fourth Official: John Brooks
VAR: Andy Madley
Assistant VAR: Stephen Child
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 10 | 23 | 2 |
Andre Marriner is having a good season and a visit to Wolves is a short journey for this Midlander. Wolves opened the scoring from a corner kick which was poorly defended by the away team. Wolves’ second came after a quick attack.
It was a game that Andre Marriner can be very happy with. He maintained a low key approach thanks to the good behaviour of both teams.
Wednesday 4 December Liverpool 5-2 Everton
Referee: Mike Dean
Assistants: Darren Cann, Dan Robathan
Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Martin Atkinson
Assistant VAR: Andy Halliday
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 12 | 53 | 2 |
I am sure that Managers/Coaches must be aware in their pre-game planning that Mike Dean is not a referee to be messed with.
Over recent years he has always had a consistently high average yellow card per game card count. Prior to this game it stood at 4.41 cards per game so you cannot question Dean’s consistency in the way he applies the law.
Having many years ago been appointed to the FA Cup Final that involved Liverpool and then having to endure the decision by the Football Association to remove him from the game, I guess that he stepped over the white line at Anfield to take control of a Merseyside derby with a wry smile on his face.
I still to this day remember the thrill and challenge of refereeing this encounter. It was always so important that in the early stages of those games that you do not jump in too early.
Like at Manchester United, there is no big screen available Anfield to be able to keep fans informed when VAR is going through the review process. Something which frankly is unacceptable to fans in stadiums across the country. They should like Rugby Union be able to see and hear the discussions between the Referee and the VAR.
Mike Dean had the experienced Martin Atkinson sitting in front of the screens at Stockley Park.
I thought that Robertson was lucky to escape a yellow card after the illegal use of the forearm on an opponent whilst on the ground. With the score at 2-1, Virgil Van Dijk should have had a penalty kick awarded against him and having committed a denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity a red card. This was a big error in a game that apart from this was well officiated by Mike Dean.
REVIEW OF PREMIER LEAGUE GAME THURSDAY 5TH DECEMBER
Thursday 5 December Sheffield United 0-2 Newcastle United
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Assistants: Richard West, Derek Eaton
Fourth Official: Jarred Gillett
VAR: Andre Marriner
Assistant VAR: Scott Ledger
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 8 | 29 | 1 |
The main talking-point in this game centred around Newcastle United’s second goal. The ball was played forward to Newcastle United’s Shelvey. The Assistant’s flag was raised to indicate offside. Shelvey did what was expected and played to the whistle. He continued towards goal and scored. I thought that United’s goalkeeper reduced his concentration expecting a whistle has the ball passed him into goal.
VAR intervened and from the pictures produced by Amazon the goal was correctly allowed.
Thursday 5 December Arsenal 1 -2 Brighton and Hove Abion
Referee: Graham Scott
Assistants: Simon Bennett, Neil Davies
Fourth official: Tim Robinson
VAR: Jonathan Moss
Assistant VAR: Marc Perry
| NUMBER OF GAMES | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 9 | 24 | 3 |
The main talking-point in this game was not about the referee or VAR but the performance of the Arsenal defence. Freddie Ljungberg was appointed interim manager after the departure of former manager Unai Emery and he has a big task on his hands.
KEITH HACKETT
www.keystoreferee.com
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