Liverpool v Arsenal
In our last article How the referee will influence the result of Liverpool v Arsenal we showed that this weekend’s referee is one who is generally more favourable to away sides. However there’s more to the story of this weekend than just the general statistics… Hence we continue with…
Liverpool v Arsenal: with Tierney in charge we could be in trouble.
By Admir Pajic
I almost spat out my coffee today when I found out that Paul Tierney has been appointed for our game at Anfield on Sunday. “Holy crap“, I thought to myself, „we are so good they decided to up their game!“
Now, why did I react like that? You see, unlike our lovely Scottish full-back Kieran, Paul is one Tierney I don’t want to see available for our games.
Why?
Right before our FA Cup game at Etihad, I wrote to my good mate Walter that Tierney had been in charge in three of our last six league defeats. It may be a coincidence, of course, but it’s a bit odd that the same referee was in charge of 50% our one team’s defeats and that every single one of his games ended as that team’s defeat.
I was going through our recent history and the last time Paul Tierney was in charge of an Arsenal game that ended with our victory was in Premier League 2020-21. It was 28th February and we beat Leicester away 3-1.
In 2021-22, Tierney was in charge for three of our games.
Firstly, he was in charge of our game on Week 2 against Chelsea at home (a 0-2 defeat).
Secondly, he was in charge of our game in Week 28 against Crystal Palace away (a 0-3 defeat). He gave a penalty for Palace.
Finally, he was in charge of our 36th league game of the season – a rather controversial North London Derby in which Spurs were given the softest of soft penalties, Heung-min Son was allowed to make dirty moves (as Keith Hackett, a former head of PGMO and a long-time referee, wrote on his Twitter profile, Son should have been sent off) and Rob Holding was sent off once he tried to retaliate. As a result, Spurs won 3-0. Mind you, if that game ended as a draw, we would have finished fourth at the expense of Spurs.
When it comes to 2022-23, Tierney hasn’t been given too many Arsenal games so he made sure we remember him. He was in charge of our game at Old Trafford when he decided to chalk off Gabriel Martinelli’s goal after VAR Lee Mason had whispered something in his ear (“Paul, man, it’s Arsenal! If they win, they will have 6 out of 6! Stop them!“?) Our goal was disallowed at 0-0, Man United were allowed to kick Jesus like it’s 33 A.D. all over again and eventually they won the game.
Tierney has been in charge of just one of our games after that Old Trafford fiasco that even Howard Webb apologized for. Oddly, it was our FA Cup game against Man City at Etihad. We lost 1-0. Maybe he did his job well but you have to scratch your head a bit and think about it:
Arsenal have played 29 league games, one League Cup game and two FA Cup games this season. That’s 32 games with English referees being in charge.
Our record is: 24 wins, three draws and five defeats.
Tierney was in charge of two games and both ended as our defeats.
So, this season we have lost five out of 32 games (15.62%) in England, two out of two games when Tierney was in charge (100%) and our defeats in which Tierney was in charge make 40% of all our defeats.
(Maybe I should have mentioned it before but Tierney was born in Wigan and was still given two Manchester games to officiate.)
Now, let’s check his last season through the stats.
We played 38 league games. Tierney was in charge of three. We lost each one of those three. Overall we had 13 league defeats (34.21%), three out three games when Tierney was in charge (100%) and our defeats in which Tierney was in charge made 23.07% of all our league defeats.
Given that he wasn’t in charge of any of our cup games, that percentage naturally drops when games in all competitions are taken into account.
Now, let’s see how Tierney’s record looks comparing to other referees that were in charge of our games.
| Name | League 2021-22 | Cup 2021-22 | League 2022-23 | Cup 2022-23 |
| Wins-draws-defeats | Wins-draws-defeats | Wins-draws-defeats | Wins-draws-defeats | |
| Paul Tierney | 0-0-3 | 0 | 0-0-1 | 0-0-0 |
| Michael Oliver | 3-0-2 | 0-1-0 | 4-0-0 | 0-0-1 |
| Anthony Taylor | 3-0-0 | 0 | 4-0-1 | 0 |
| Craig Pawson | 4-0-0 | 0-0-1 | 3-0-0 | 0 |
| Darren England | 0-0-1 | 0 | 2-0-0 | 0 |
| David Coote | 0-1-1 | 0 | 2-0-1 | 1-0-0 |
| Jarred Gillett | 1-0-0 | 1-0-0 | 1-0-0 | 0-0-1 |
| Stuart Attwell | 1-0-1 | 0 | 2-0-0 | 0 |
| Andre Marriner | 2-0-1 | 1-0-0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andy Madley | 1-0-0 | 0 | 0-1-0 | 0 |
| Peter Bankes | 0-0-1 | 0 | 0-1-0 | 0 |
| Robert Jones | 0 | 1-0-0 | 1-1-0 | 0 |
| Chris Kavanagh | 1-0-0 | 0 | 2-0-0 | 0 |
| Simon Hooper | 0 | 0 | 2-0-0 | 0 |
| Mike Dean | 1-1-1 | 0 | ||
| Martin Atkinson | 1-0-2 | 0-0-1 | ||
| Jonathan Moss | 2-1-0 | 0 | ||
| Kevin Friend | 1-0-0 | 0 | ||
| Graham Scott | 1-0-0 | 0 | ||
| David Webb | 0 | 1-0-0 |
As you can see, Tierney really stands out among all the refs we have had in domestic games. Not for the good reasons, I’m afraid.
Clear stamp on a Brighton player, in the box, no call…How do you not call this? Even the commentators noted it was a poor decision.
Seems like the usual dirty, rotten scoundrel. Perhaps we will rise above him tomorrow.
Admir,
That is disheartening. I hope the team makes him work for it. Hope it’s not 33 AD again, LOL.
@Mike – you know, tomorrow is the first Easter game Jesus will play at since his arrival to England.
We have won 11 away league games, Liverpool have lost just two at home whole season (Leeds and Real Madrid).
Last time we lost with a four-goal margin to Liverpool and with a five-goal margin to a Manchester club that eventually became champions, we won the league the next season while beating both away from home.
If Saliba was fit, I’d put big money on us.