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Referee Anthony Taylor Dropped By FA After Arsenal Horror Show

By on August 19, 2013

Referee Anthony Taylor has been dropped by the FA for this weekends Premier League fixtures after his horror show at the Emirates on Saturday.

While our 3-1 loss can’t be blamed solely on his inept performance, it certainly was a contributing factor as Taylor got several decisions wrong throughout the 90 minutes. As well as giving a number of contentious free-kicks for minor offences, Taylor also drew criticism for a few of the more decisive decisions.

He awarded Villa a penalty even though he had allowed advantage after Szczesny had brought down Agbonlahor in the area. There would have been no complaints had he pointed to the spot straight away but he waived play-on as the goal was at their mercy, but when the Villa player sent the ball wide he awarded a penalty giving the away side a second bite at the cherry.

This one still hasn’t been cleared up as I’m not sure what the exact ruling is, but it is many people’s understanding that once advantage has been played you can’t simply bring it back because Villa missed the chance.

Then of course there was the decision to award a second penalty when Koscielny played the ball. This one was a tough call as from his angle it was difficult to see the touch, but an incorrect call none-the-less and no doubt the game-changing moment. Koscielny was subsequently given a booking – which would not have been the case had the ref correctly awarded a corner instead of the spot kick.

Minutes later he confounded his error by giving Kos a second, and harsh, yellow card. So a goal and a man down due to the ineptitude of the official.

Taylor also completely lost control of the game at times and ended up dishing out four yellows and one red card to Arsenal and five yellow cards to Aston Villa in a game that could be described ‘spikey’ at best.

I’m sure there were other obvious errors from the referee that I haven’t mentioned but it was a truly diabolical display from the man in the middle and he’s rightly been demoted from Premier League duty for the upcoming fixtures.

Howard Webb has been handed our game away at Fulham, hopefully he’ll be able to do a little better.

162 Comments

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  1. Nizam

    August 19, 2013 at 10:22 pm

    Now Wenger could be vindicated when he complained of the ref’s display.
    The damage had been done.It’s of scant consolation.
    That’s why I say these mo ie match officials can influence the outcome of games and decide who gets relegated and are champs.I remember how a ref allowed a goal causing a team to be relegated when it was clearly a blatant foul.
    The FA should hit harder at incompetent mo by suspending them for periods of time with payment fees forfeited. Then only then will these guys think they are untouchable.

    • Chris

      August 19, 2013 at 11:24 pm

      That’s true but they also need more help. Most Pros spend the whole match trying to con them.

  2. echo6delta

    August 19, 2013 at 10:34 pm

    mac14, do you have a source for this? I want to believe you, but every other story on the web about Taylor being dropped points back to this page, and the FA have him listed as a 4th official for the coming weekend. http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2013-14/aug/match-officials-appointments-24-26-august.html

  3. Steve

    August 19, 2013 at 10:43 pm

    1. You can back the play if the advantage wasn’t in the teams best interest. It happened in tonight match, a free kick was awarded after the advantage was given.

    2. Your keeper should of been sent off.

    3. It was a pen. As indicated on MOTD contact was made with gabby before the ball was touched.

    • mattafc

      August 19, 2013 at 11:05 pm

      1) actually no you’re wrong. Playing a shot is the ultimate advantage when you take a shot you are too assume to have played your advantage. Advantage can only be cancelled if the ball was to have rolled into the opposition
      2)Nope wrong again, the ball was going away from goal it did not cause an issue with the obvious goalscoring opportunity as a shot was taken.
      3)The ref had no way of seeing the initial touch, he based his decision on the angle he could see and he made decided wrong with the info provided. He was lucky he was right it wasn’t good refereeing. It was lucky

      Cool story though

      • Ash

        August 20, 2013 at 1:52 am

        1) The shot came immediately after the tackle. How is the referee supposed to properly make a decision on advantage in that time? In this case the benefit of the doubt should go to the attacker in the spirit of keeping it an attacking game, regardless of whether the attacker plays for a Sky 4.

        2) He was referring to the first penalty. No shot was taken because Agbonlahor was taken out by Szczesny before he had a chance to shoot while he was clear through on goal. Clear ruling is that he should be awarded a red card. Imagine if Guzan had done the same to Giroud?

        3) So you’re saying the referee made the wrong decision based on his wrong information but it turned out that it was actually the right decision? Clutching at straws or you just don’t know what you’re talking about?

        But still, wasn’t the best display of refereeing, but ultimately had no impact on the result. Right decisions were made re: penalties, third goal Arsenal committed too many players forward, and Guzan kept out 2 certain goals with world class saves. UTV

        • blllleh

          August 20, 2013 at 9:42 am

          Taylor was the main reason we lost…another key issue this article forgot to mention was that vlaar shouldve seen red as his foul on rosicky was way worse than koscielny’s second yellow (although not complaining he didnt deserve the second yellow). but im sorry koscielny’s slide tackle was in my opinion perfectly executed and shouldve been a corner…if the view of the ref was in a difficult spot then he has absolutely no right to give it aand benefit of the doubt should be given to the defending side.

          • Bannatyne84

            August 20, 2013 at 11:48 am

            How disrespectful and condescending can you possibly get?!
            The main reason you lost was Aston Villa, who were excellent.
            Your ridiculous ticket prices don’t give you a divine right to victory. They probably ought you earn you a few signings though.
            Look a little closer to home before blaming all and sundry.

        • afcnor

          August 20, 2013 at 11:29 am

          Still dont agree on send off for sczezzer and second pen. But what is very clear is that koscielny should not have been sent off, vlaar should have and villa got away with incredible fouls throughout the game and should have been penalised 5-6 times more.

    • panther

      August 19, 2013 at 11:26 pm

      Shut up Taylor has been rightly demoted, he was the main reason Villa won that game..Also Taylor ALLOWED Villa players to CONSTANTLY foul Wilshere and Rosicky all first half. Your rose tinted glasses opinion is irrelevant, because the people who count, have demoted him because he was incompetent at best and a cheat at worse.

      • Steve

        August 20, 2013 at 8:44 am

        Bollocks. Such a one-eyed view.

        Arsenal were out fought and played extremely poorly, whilst Villa fought and harried them into making such mistakes, and fully deserved the victory.

        Both penalty decisions were correct – the referees manager and independent ex-ref, Dermot Gallagher have confirmed. There was no true advantage in the first instance as the shot was a very tight angle, defender covering and palyer int he way, Correct to bring it back.

        The second, Koscielny caught his back leg first. The ref’s angle and info as you state is irrelevant. The decision made between the ref and linesman was correct.

        Where Taylor was poor was incessant blowing of the whistle and not allowing some advantage elsewhere, bringing play back when he could easily have allowed it to go, for more minor offences that probably werent even fouls. This disrupted the flow of the game.

        No matter the result, it exposed Arsenal’s limitations and poor strength in depth. When Wilshere, Cazorla or Walcott dont fire, you look powder puff. WIthout 4-5 quality additions, Arsenal wont make Champions League and will have a battle for Europa qualification.

      • Bannatyne84

        August 20, 2013 at 11:49 am

        What a load of tripe you Arsenal fans speak.
        I had a degree of sympathy with you on Saturday evening, but reading this, frankly you lot got what you deserve.
        Unbelievable.

    • Dave

      August 20, 2013 at 8:56 am

      Ah yes, motd was so unbiased, the referee got all the decisions right according to (laugh when spuds beat us) shearer. Not a single av foul, injury or ref blowup shown in the highlight reel . A complete misrepresentation of the match in general.

  4. Joe

    August 19, 2013 at 10:59 pm

    @Steve: Did you actually watch the match? You are correct on the first point but dead wrong on the others! The referee was the most influential man on the pitch and that should never be the case. He was inconsistent in both addressing fouls and issuing cards. Poor game management all the way around.

  5. Popcorn

    August 19, 2013 at 11:05 pm

    We need a defensive midfielder (Jack Rodwell) A Centre Back (Adil Rami) A striker (Emmanuel Emenike) and an extra bit of width on the left/Right wing (Wakaso Mubarak)

  6. charles olssen bezue

    August 19, 2013 at 11:11 pm

    pa wenger should go nd buy playrs b4 somone would com out one day nd shoot him out of frustration nd nd anxiety. he.z cornieving wit mgt to deceive de fans who contribute so much.forgeting dat witout de fans they would not be there..ls enough is enough.we in nigeria ar tired..wish de fans would stop going to stadium to watch.

  7. Previgo

    August 19, 2013 at 11:23 pm

    1. You can back the play but not in such important situations, assuming the defender who tried to block the ball after the reff gave an advantage had collided with the bar and injured himself in the process what would that mean? He injured himself for nothing?
    2. Was shezney the last man? If yes he should have been sent off straight away and the advantage shouldn’t have been given, i would have pretty much loved for a keeper to be taken off rather than our best defender, and its clear if shezney had been taken off fabianski would have replaced with ease and we would just have to take off jack for fabianski and we would be balanced. And hey villa’s captain should have been off too.
    3. Only those with poor eye sights woul call koscielny’s tackle a foul, he was absolutely fantastic with the challenge and won the ball clearly even the reff @the post could confirm this. Koscielny’s second yellow was an absolute joke because there was absolutely no contact between the two players, the newcastle guy anticipated there would be a contact buh koscielny managed to pull himself away, it was exactly the same with torres in the hall match when he dived and was given a free kick which lampard scored.
    4. The ref was shit yea but i think he probably frustrated the man who wanted to frustrate us..”WENGER”

  8. Jp

    August 19, 2013 at 11:25 pm

    Match fixing??????

  9. panther

    August 19, 2013 at 11:36 pm

    Taylor deserves to be demoted his performance was very suspicious. He changed the course of that game 1-1 and 11 against 11,.Arsenal controlling the game, Taylor gives a penalty that NEVER was and Villa score Kocielny gets booked; GAME Taylor CHANGER.

  10. Therealfrem

    August 19, 2013 at 11:39 pm

    Arsenal fans – There is nothing to be ashamed about losing to a bigger club with better ground, training facilities, bigger fan base and history like Villa. Your a decent team and have been punching well above your weight for some time now. Give Arsene a break, to get you top 4 for so long is nothing short of a miricle.

    • chris

      August 20, 2013 at 4:52 am

      LMAO

      Worst. Troll. Ever.

      Still LMAO.

  11. highamsparkgunner

    August 20, 2013 at 12:07 am

    The ref fixed this game. The worst refereeing bi have seen since Mike riley at OT when we lost or unbeaten run. If you don’t believe me watch this
    http://touch.dailymotion.com/#/video/x13c1c9_arsenal-vs-aston-villa-bad-referee-decisions_sport
    That is truly shocking and he should be banned

    • davi

      August 20, 2013 at 9:10 am

      Well it was the worst since the 4-4 with newcastle but yeah it was awful. Glad the FA did this at least because usually these refs can get away with screwing us over, which makes it easier for them to do it again in the future. If we’re playing Utd or someone and there’s a possible penalty call, they’re obviously more likely to give it in Utd’s favour because the consequences of the ref getting it wrong in our favour are going to be far worse than getting it wrong in Utd’s favour.

      • Bannatyne84

        August 20, 2013 at 11:50 am

        They haven’t stood him down. He’s 4th official at the weekend.

  12. willy obis

    August 20, 2013 at 12:31 am

    wenger is to be blame,no 2 ways about that,he should have bring in some players b4 this time,we should;nt have been exposed,nevertheless he still on the right track,many days to go,he has to do something,if not humiliation await for him and his squad members,just within this period

  13. Villa

    August 20, 2013 at 1:20 am

    What a complete load of rubbish this article is…… The ref was not dropped by the FA.. Even the panel on match of the day said the two penalties were correct….. Get over it as if it was on you, you would be happy if the penalties were awarded to you….. UTV

    • davi

      August 20, 2013 at 9:14 am

      The first one was debateable, and I don’t think anyone would have been complaining were it not for the second. I don’t care what the geniuses on match of the day said, Koscielny made a clean tackle, any additional contact was totally minor and manufactured by Agbonlahor dragging his feet and trying to con the ref – which totally worked. Also conned motd as well apparently.
      Btw, if my arm lightly catches your arm in the box in the process or running, is that a penalty? Enough of the “all contact is a foul” bs.

      • Villa

        August 20, 2013 at 2:00 pm

        Like I said… If it was you you would not be complaining…. It’s football and if you don’t like it go watch ballet……. You should not worry about the result, but the mess wenger has put your team into….. All that money and not one player..????

    • knows

      August 20, 2013 at 9:56 am

      such a fool. the panel lmfao who the f are they ?? i suppose you will go to old trafford get gifted 2 pens and have 1 of there’s sent off…………………..no didnt think so.

  14. Abu Rahman

    August 20, 2013 at 1:45 am

    It was a show of shame from Referee Taylor. Sadly enough, apart from displaying the evil intent he has against Arsenal as a football club, he particlarly didn’t protect Wilshere and Rosicky who were victims of terrible tacklings in the past.

  15. Walter Sobchack

    August 20, 2013 at 5:28 am

    Szczęsny should of been sent off at 21’… So the first PK should of been against the second GK w/68′ of 10 v 11… Text book.

    The better team won… Better hope your side have the same attitude and are focused on the next fixture… I bet Villa are…

  16. hezbon kech

    August 20, 2013 at 6:30 am

    In spite of all that has been said by we arsenal fans, we have to accept that our squad is weaker than several epl clubs and we ate yet see worse performance. Miracles went with Jesus and Mohammed. Arsenal’s performance forced us to watch athletics instead, very baaaaaaaaaad! We hv to buy quality players. Money in de pocket is as good as that already spent. Wake up Wenger!

  17. Atupele Mbobe

    August 20, 2013 at 7:04 am

    A big-up to FA officials,ref’s inept unprofessionalism isn’t purporsed to be demonstrated in such big games,that thrash wouldn’t hav been to our side but Anthony deployed a lot of stingy cautions against Arsenal the whole 90min hope it wanna giv a lesson to other refs

  18. ballou

    August 20, 2013 at 7:59 am

    oh my word. Stop Crying!

    You are embarrassing yourselves; you lost- not by just a single goal- by 2 clear goals.

    Villa outplayed you all over the pitch; and as for Wilshere- there was no bigger cheat on that pitch than him.

    Seriously, get over it, and stop looking for petty excuses….lose with some grace!

  19. Michael

    August 20, 2013 at 8:05 am

    I can understand the frustrations of Arsenal supporters, but we don’t have a god given right to make up information to suit our arguments. The first was a penalty, our keeper should have been red carded, the second in slow motion clearly shows first contact with Abonglahor’s back leg, so it is irrelevant whether Kosielny touches the ball first. Some fans need to get over themselves and look at the real issues with the club, Villa put it to us, and we bottled it!

  20. astonvilla1964

    August 20, 2013 at 8:33 am

    Will someone please explain whenever the sky 4 lose the managers imediately blame refereeing decisions to divert the attention from a very poor performance. I work with a Chelski season ticket holder who will never admit they were beaten by a better team, every excuse mostly refs decisions. Wiltshire wasnt kicked about, its a physical game they bottled it and lost their rags causing them to be completely disjointed which Villa exploited. Mouriniho did it to Barca and they moaned forever as they dont like players being allowed to tackle them and start leaping about to influence the ref to get more room, it didnt work for them nor the Gunners on sat. Get over it the sky 4 have had a lot more decisions for them than against over the years. Thank you the London media for complimenting the Villa for a great opening days performance as always they are distracted again taking away rightful limelight. To cap it off no doubt Wenger will say hes bidding for Benteke to try and upset us another way, just like the poaching and tapping up of Dan Crowley. You reap what you so Wenger bidding for Cabaye on match day , pathetic and desperate no one wants to play for you. Good luck Gunners in getting rid of a manager who has got above his station and who will win you nothing. The Villa are on the move again and just like the spuds and scousers are a threat to the chumps money the sky 4 are worried sick as they have had all the extra money for years and there is very great risk of losing out. In Lambert we trust, not this year or next but you better believe lads the Villa are coming.UTV

  21. McGregors Love child

    August 20, 2013 at 9:01 am

    “Herbert Chapman, George Graham, Tony Adams, Liam Brady, David Dean, Thierry Henry , Steve Bould we have beaten them all, we have beaten them all.
    Arsene Wenger, Arsene Wenger can you hear me? Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating

  22. Matt cayley

    August 20, 2013 at 9:13 am

    The fixtures for Refs and their duties is decided weeks in advance so he has not been dropped. Stop making excuses for your inept performance. You got beat by a team who wanted it more! I know it must hurt that you were well beaten by a team who showed more desire but that’s the way it is now move on.

    • Richard

      August 20, 2013 at 9:53 am

      Matt you are wrong they are decided on the Monday before the fixtures and depend on many factors. Whilst I agree it may be hard to say if he has been dropped because the fa thought his performance was poor. If however he fails to make week 3 and four officiating it is fair to presume the fa had issues with his standards.and yes we were beaten but well beaten stats tell different story. We had chances to get a result but didn’t take them and villa got a deserved three points

  23. naked goon

    August 20, 2013 at 9:28 am

    I do expect the refs to get tough calls wrong occasionally and that is part of the game I suppose but after all this time it took to get goalline techno, why the hell can’t we just have a bit of help for the ref on big decisions. In both penalty decisions the ball had gone out of play as with Kos’s second and Luna’s yellow card.
    What galls me with the performance was the denial of advantage on at least three occasions to Arsenal while playing it for Villa, and permission of persistent fouling. That is what make a bad ref.

    • naked goon

      August 20, 2013 at 9:35 am

      and yes Villa were the better team and deserved the win. I was fully expecting the third goal from about 75 onward

  24. Richard

    August 20, 2013 at 9:36 am

    Now the first decision Taylor got spot on penalty and rules state that after a few seconds of playing an advantage if no advantage comes a ref can pull it back and award a free-kick or penalty which Taylor did. The second is harder because every commentary and punditry other than motd and motd2 said it was not a penalty but ref made that decision. Where Taylor was at fault and here is my criticism of him is that both Westwood and vlaar after koscelny was sent off committed book able offences and had they been booked it would have resulted in them being sent off for second book able offences. Having said that arsenal still had three more good opportunities to score which they either missed or Guzman produced some good stops to deny them. Did the referee cost us the game not sure but being two one down with 30 mins to go go and 10 men on pitch meant we had to chase game and didn’t help but as pointed out before
    We still had chances to get a result from that match and either by poor finishing or by good keeping we didn’t. But hats off to villa they got the result and whilst its hard to take it isn’t the end of the season for us.

  25. Rafi

    August 20, 2013 at 10:38 am

    Wikipedia stats show games reffed by Taylor have a 20% chance of a red card. Contension goes with a lot of games he referees and various managers have had issues with his officiating over the years. What surprises me is that he also continues o rise(be promoted) inspite of his record. may be he knows someone FA ‘echelons’.

    When it comes to teams they dont really like, refs tend to employ tricks not disimmilar to news paper editors who can either bury a news item deep inside of make it front page dependent not on its importance, but on the contempt or otherwise of the paper to the issue.
    what I have noticed most with arsenal games is refs who ditch out yellow cards to ‘influential’ arsenal very early on. that scare those players of tackles, hence allows the opposining team to build a stranglehold on the game. should said arsenal players not hid the warning and want to get stuck in to get the team going, any innocous shenanigan is punished with a yellow and thats them gone. To ‘level things off, very late on the other teams hatchet man are then yellow carded – perhaps one or two ‘unlucky ones’. So in the view of the neutral, yellow cards were well detributed. so the game was fair. what they quickly overlook is the usually dagerous fouls by the other team that would have been ignored by the ref through out the match.

  26. glyn

    August 20, 2013 at 10:44 am

    Greetings,
    As a Villa fan I do hope this isn’t true.. Sounds awfully bitter Arsenal blaming a referee for Wenger’s ineptness at getting more than 11 fit players into a squad, even though he got all the big decisions mostly correct. If anything you should feel grateful your keeper wasn’t sent off- Don’t give the bullsh*t of he was moving away from the goal.. If that was the case no goalkeeper would be given a straight red card ever, as to go around the keeper, here’s some news, you have to move the ball around him, which obviously would result in one moving away from goal! Even decided to give Luna a yellow card for chamberlain’s foul, which unfortunately has resulted in him injured. Okay Vlaar should have gone, but the effort of the arsenal players was to blame more, having allowed our left back to run free from a corner with nobody tracking him (looking at Lord Wilshire here and Walcott)

  27. jeff wright

    August 20, 2013 at 10:48 am

    It’s best to get your own facts right before commenting on someone else being incompetent.

  28. Arsene wenger8yrstruphyles

    August 20, 2013 at 10:54 am

    Hmmmmmmm i will not sign anyone coz the money is in my account and no witch can take that off my bank.you these foolish fans coming to the emirate stadium to become laughing stuck…..in arsene you must trust foolish people

  29. Arsene wenger8yrstruphyles

    August 20, 2013 at 10:58 am

    Loooooools hush hash gash hash kash lolz haahahhahahhahahahahah top ten awaiting our dear team

  30. Chux

    August 20, 2013 at 11:07 am

    The truth that almost everybody including the Referees and FA is developing internal burning hatred for Arsernal bcos of the way Wenger and the Board are running the club. Many people are nt happy the way things are going in Arsernal. How can you want the whole world to look foolish. Hw can the world be seeing something wrong in the team and you’r indirectly telling them that they are fools. You wont buy players, if you want to buy, you start doing secret things and playing all sort antics with the deal. People hate those that are not straight forward, if Arsernal was straight forward with Suarez bid, believe me, Liverpool would have sold, they only rejected the first bid, they didnt say they wont sell until Wenger and Gazidis came up with that their highly annoying “Plus £1 Madness”. Gazidis is a Disaster! The worst is that I even heard, they put the transfer money in a Fixed Deposit in order to make interest from it: peanut interest, poverty mentality. After making the peanut interest, towards the close of transfer window, they end up buying the wrong players at high price bcos no serious club wil sell their best players at a time when they cant get proper replacement.
    Arsernal have the best, most patient, most persevearing, most tolerating and most discipline fans in the world, bt if Wenger and the board continue to punish the emotions and loyalty, honestly very soon, they will realize the difference between John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Dont be suprise if these fans burn down Emirate stadium bcos they being push to the wall, their hearts have been agonizingly tormented for over 3years. They will soon wreck havoc and I wont blame them, bcos they have been provoked beyond elastic limit. It’s either Wenger has gone mad or he has sold his concience to the devil.

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