The Arsenal referee today and Palace’s escapeds in Europe

 

 

• Arsenal v Palace: what’s going on in the background
• Arsenal face Crystal Palace away: the form and prognostications

By Tony Attwod

Thomas Bramall is the referee for the Arsenal game today.  It is his first Arsenal match.  Also having a first, but only a first of the season, is Chris Kavanagh on VAR.  In the table below we can see some of the ways in which referees differ.   The figures are all “per game.”

 

Referee	Games	Fouls pg	Pen pg	Yel pg
Anthony Taylor	8	18.38	0.25	2.75
Michael Oliver	7	21.86	0.14	2.14
Simon Hooper	7	26.29	0.00	4.71
Stuart Attwell	6	21.83	0.33	5.17
Jarred Gillett	6	19.50	0.33	3.33
Craig Pawson	5	24.20	0.40	2.00
Thomas Bramall	4	23.00	0	3.75

 

We can of course, also now compare Bramall with the extremes of other referees (given how PGMO referees love extremeses rather than being middle of the road).  Figures are per game

 

Issue	Brammel	Most	Least	Difference	Variance
Fouls	23	26.2	18.38	7.82	43%
Penalties	0	0.4	0.0	0.4	100%
Yellows	3.75	5.17	2.0	3.17	63%

 

The main point here is that which referee a team gets determines how many fouls the team is accused of committing, how many penalties are awarded and how many yellow cards are handed out.  And the figure in the “Variance” column tells us a lot here, since there is 43% difference between the regular Premier League referee seeing the most fouls and the one seeing the least.   Worse, there is a 63% variation in the yellow cards handed out.  As ever the conclusion is clear.  What happens in the game is as much, if not more, down to which referee the team gets, as down to the quality of the team.

In fact, if we take into account all the referees active in the Premier League this season, we can see that there are even greater differences.  Quite why Pawson sees over 24 fouls per game while Taylor see just over 18, only PGMO can tell us, although and as we know they not only never say a word, they don’t even have a website.  Why Pawson gives out two yellows a game on average and Barrott gives out 5.5 is another mystery for which no one will supply any sort of answer.

This would still matter, but would matter a lot less, if there was that regulation in place that we have been asking for, for years and years, that each referee can only oversee each team twice, once at home and once away, in a season.   Then although these mega variations between the referees in terms of what they do and don’t see might at least work themselves out in the averages.

But no, silent PGMO just continues.   And in fact I think to mark this we really out to rebrand them SPGMO, the S of course emphasising their silence.

If we compare Arsenal and Crystal Palace, we get some more interesting figures.  Palace have twice as many yellow cards as Arsenal (18 to 9).  The percentage difference line at the foot of the table shows us how much bigger or lower one team’s achievements is in relation to the other.

 

 

So what we are seeing here is an Arsenal team that not only scores more goals than Palace but also has more shots, gets only half the number of yellow cards, but has over one third more possession, and undertakes 10% more passes than Palace. Not only is this very encouraging for results but also makes for much more entertaining football.

Palace returned to the top division for the 2013/14 season after eight campaigns in the Championship, and since then have never come above halfway in the final table, which is what makes their appearance this season at fifth all the more remarkable.  They also won the Community Shield and are playing in the Conference League.

Given their lack of European experience, it will be interesting to see if these games against foreign teams have any impact on them.

 

Date	Match	Res	Score	Competition
21 Aug 25	Crystal Palace v Fredrikstad	W	1-0	Conference League
24 Aug 25	Crystal Palace v Nottingham F	D	1-1	Premier League
28 Aug 25	Fredrikstad v Crystal Palace	D	0-0	Conference League
31 Aug 25	Aston Villa v Crystal Palace	W	0-3	Premier League
02 Oct 2025	Dynamo Kyiv v Crystal Palace	W	0-2	Conference League
05 Oct 2025	Everton v Crystal Palace	L	2-1	Premier League
23 Oct 2025	Crystal Palace v AEK Larnaca	L	0-1	Conference League
26 Oct 2025	Arsenal v Crystal Palace			Premier League

 

So what we can see is that at first they got a result against Fredrikstad (described by Wiki as one of the “most successful clubs in Norwegian football” but only by one goal.   Dynamo Kiev were league winners and runners-up in the Ukrainian Cup.   

But we should also note that because of the Russian invasion in 2022, Dynamo Kyiv has been forced by Uefa to play home games outside of Ukraine.  This season, the Arena Lublin stadium in Poland.