Newcastle-Arsenal (R)

77th min, the game just blew up in Peter Walton's face. Walton decided a challenge by Joey Barton (it had to involve Barton, didn't it?) on Gervihno was not a foul. Barton screams at Gervihno for diving and drags him off the ground by his shirt. By the time Walton and the peacemakers arrive, Gervihno slaps Barton with an open hand to the side of the head, Barton collapses like somebody just plugged him with a nail gun.

Gervihno gets a red, Barton a yellow for the whole charade, which ultimately is pretty much handbags. Barton, of course, acts amazed that he was booked at all.

Again, I wish Walton or somebody would show some intestinal fortitude and deal with this kind of crap right. OK, the powers that be say Gervihno must go for VC for the slap. But the whole idiotic affair was started by Barton picking Gervihno up off the ground by his jersey and screaming at him, and then he collapsed to the ground like a pansy when he got bumped in the head. Dammit, Walton, give Barton two yellows and get him the hell out of there too.

Until somebody actually starts treating this kind of situation, the arguments about officials and the LOTG being screwed up by directives will persist. Somebody with some ingenuity needs to be clever and even these atrocious situations up. This won't end until some referee figures it out...

 

Re: Newcastle-Arsenal

If picking up a player and shaking him isn't violent conduct, I don't know what is. (And, on a note which perhaps oversteps the bounds of a ref, if you are gonna be so tuf as to pick the guy up like that, show some balls and stay on your feet when you get slapped.)

As for the refs...probably did the best they could with what they saw. One red for each team certainly would have felt better.....

 

Re: Newcastle-Arsenal

lol joey barton is an absolute ********. he literally molested gervinho. thank god gervinho wasn't underage.

that wasn't even a slap. more like a tap. what a puss-y barton. also how else would you react if someone came molesting you on the field like that

 

Re: Newcastle-Arsenal

Mods, just delete the thread I started.

Walton utterly blew this. I understand he may have his hands tied on the Gervihno slap, but if he's going to send off Gervihno, he has to dismiss Barton as well. That was ridiculous.

At first, I would have cautioned Barton for UB for picking Gervihno up by his jersey, then slapped him with a second yellow for simulating when Gervihno slapped him. But having watched the replay at least 3 times now, it's nonsense that Barton's actions aren't defined as violent conduct.

He picks Gervihno off the ground by his jersey and is shaking him. It's a simple 1 for 1. I concur with oldreferee, that has to be violent conduct in of itself. I cannot imagine he will get high grades from his assessor/inspector/whatever they call them in England...

 

IMHO Barton's conduct was violent as well. Should have been matching reds in my book.

 

Well, not surprised about this ref...he is weak. Matching yellow cards for Barton/Gervhino would have been the correct call. The fact that the ref needs to call Barton over to issue the card is a joke, just walk up to player and show the yellow.

Also, Barton should have had a yellow issued when he walked over to the 4th official and contested the foul by Song.

Rosicky a yellow on the break away.

 

Re: Newcastle-Arsenal

He went towards him, grabbed his shirt with both hands, picks him up and shakes him like a rag doll. I think that's enough for a red card.

Most plausible explanation is the Center Referee doesn't see the beginning of the trouble as he has his head turned and is depending on the AR/4th official for info who don't see the whole sequence of events. Otherwise, this is another long laundry list of plays where the instigator gets away it.

 

I think his hands are tied on Gervihno. Once he makes contact to the face in a provocative manner with the ball out of play, he has to send him off.

I understand your point. Referees perhaps should be able to decide for themselves whether the contact truly fits the concept of "violent conduct." But as it is, that's not what they are instructed to do.

That was actually the correct technique. You don't chase the player around the park, you make them come to you. This keeps Walton near the touchline with his back to the stands and the field (and more importantly, the players) in front of him so he can see further misconduct.

 

I see your points. I am not a ref, but wanted to jump in the forum to see your guys thoughts. It just appears that when refs make a big production of issuing cards it gives one the impression that they are grandstanding and it holds up the game.

 

What about Song leaving a foot print on the back of Barton? ESPN(UK)'s commentators were going on about it and saying it was a red card.

 

OK, here's the winner comments of perhaps the year for this. This is courtesy Joey Barton's Twitter feed...

... and moments later...

So...

The ref got it right, don't blatantly try to con the ref, I went down easy, but you still shouldn't try to con the ref.

Ladies and gentlemen, the logic of Joey Barton.

(How long until he changes his name to Albert like the infamous Cleveland Indians outfielder?)

 

Song was lucky not to have been carded, the question really is how was the stamping missed?

 

For reasons like this, If I'm a coach, my players wouldn't be allowed to "tweet".

 

Great to see that we're starting off the season with consistently good refereeing.

I just don't understand how stuff like this continues to get missed. Let's think about the absurdity of this sequence, in which Walton faced four decisions and only got one right.

1. Gervinho dives in blatant fashion. No caution for simulation. Wrong decision.
2. Barton grabs Gervinho by the collar, drags him to his feet, and shakes him. No red card for VC. Wrong decision.
3. Gervinho slaps Barton. Red card for VC. Right decision.
4. Barton dives on the slap from Gervinho. No caution for simulation. Wrong decision. Wrong decision.

It's just not good enough. Not even close to good enough. If Walton had flown in and cautioned Gervinho for diving immediately, events 2-4 would never have even happened. Likewise, show red to Barton right away, and there's no slap from Gervinho. But not only did he let these things happen, he also handled them awfully.

 

No idea. He was already on a yellow so do you give him a second yellow or straight red?

 

Well on 1 Gervinho did get tripped, (barely) but there was contact. Though he did go down easy. But he did start to get back up (before Barton "helped" him) and he didn't look like he was starting to plead for the call from the ref.

 

At the end of the day, a lot of the blame falls on Walton's shoulders for not dealing with what he perceived to be a dive. Now several pundits are claimng it's actually a penalty, but to me it's a blatent dive. Having not given it, Barton is rightly annoyed but cannot take the law into his own hands as he did. Gervinho had to go for the slap. I don't think Barton should have been sent off for dragging Gervinho up, but should have already been on a YC for one of his numerous offences previously which would have seen him walk for a SBO. The other thing that didn't help it, other than Barton's ridiculous reaction, is the amount of time it took Walton to spot what was kicking off. Too slow to get involved. He also couldn't have seen the slap from Gervinho, so I hope he got some information from one of the ARs...

 

That was my thought. "Holding... excessive force."

 

I had the volume down and thought a PK had been awarded. The restart was a FK out of the back for Newcastle. To be honest, I have no idea how Walton arrived at that decision.

Technically, he could have opted to book Gervihno for the dive (which stopped play), then red for the slap. However, if he did do this, then he should have shown Gervihno a caution for the dive first, then pulled a straight red. He went straight to the red on the field.

He also could have said he stopped play for the slap (on the idea that this was when he decided to stop play) but that argument clearly did not coincide with how and when he intervened. The slap happened well into the confrontation, and Walton was on the scene well before it happened. This would have meant that he was allowing play to continue live with his back turned, which would have been even worse.

A technical mess, no doubt.

Ultimately, I think you need to come out of this even. Practically speaking, a pair of yellows probably would have accomplished as much. Walton would have likely been yelled at by his assessor for not sending off Gervinho for the slap, but the game would have seen appropriate justice.

Considering Barton as the instigator and his actions, I think a red-red situation would have been just as appropriate here. However, Walton makes this happen (VC to Barton/VC to Gervinho or UB+UB to Barton/VC to Gervihno) affects the suspension but not the game he is working.

 

Looks Barton's actions look pretty violent to me. If picking up a guy by his shirt to the effect of lifting him off the ground and then not letting go as three of your own teammates try to separate you isn't violent conduct I guess I do not know VC. Here's the video (NZ website but it's a longer highlight) and you can see the CR's positioning when the fight breaks out. Clearly his back was to the play which then leads you to ask what he heck was the AR watching? Also, appears that the ball was still in play at the time of the incident.

http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Fight-...01112/tabid/317/articleID/222105/Default.aspx