- Stop complaining, try smiling instead
- Why refereeing in the PL is so utterly different from refereeing elsewhere: the answer
By Nitram
How come Arsenal get all this abuse as soon as one poor penalty goes in our favour… ….yet as we have witnessed again at the weekend, when it goes against us the excuses just keep rolling in.
It happens EVERY time, yet, as I say, it is actually Arsenal that are hard done by when it comes to penalties, both for and against.
Now, as you may know I have done similar penalty stats to what is to follow few times before, usually regarding the traditional top 5 of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool and ourselves, but today I’m just going to do a slightly more in depth look at how we compare with Liverpool.
The reason for this is that on the back of that poor call at Anfield that went in our favour, and it was a poor call, the accusations of Arsenal getting their USUAL favours from referees went mad. Cheats, dark arts, paying refs, it’s all out there. Yet on Saturday when we were denied a clear penalty, not for the first time this year, it is brushed under the carpet. In fact as I have mensioned elswhere, apparently it would of been ‘morally wrong’ to of awarded us a penalty, if you can believe that!
So, that would be okay if us getting favours is the norm. But if referees are bent in our favour, how comes we didn’t get the penalty on Saturday? How come we have only been awarded one penalty this season when we clearly should of had more? And if we are indeed favoured then surely over the seasons our penalties both for and against would show a marked bias in our favour. I mean that should go without saying.
Well as I will demonstrate this is clearly not the case. So, as all the ruckus about Arsenal being cheats and getting all the favours from the officials reared it’s head again following the incident at Anfield I thought I would do a penalties FOR and AGAINST comparison solely with them.
A couple of things before I do some numbers. I posted a very brief version of the numbers that are to follow in an on line post match newspaper article. It didn’t go down too well. “Grow Up” I was told! For putting up a few stats? “Get a Life” I was told by somebody that had nothing better to do themselves than read my ramblings on a Sunday night. The usual “You can make numbers say anything”, came up, which clearly you can’t or you would be able to turn Liverpool’s stats at Anfield into a victory. Oh, well. And this made me laugh: “It’s because we’ve (Liverpool) have had such a better attack than Arsenal over the years”. Hmm, well we’ll see if that is true and justifies these wonky penalty stats later shall we.
I’m going to do the 17 years since Mike Riley took charge of the PGMOL in June 2009, because that is when the numbers went haywire for us. So, here goes:
Penalties FOR
- Arsenal = 85; Liverpool = 102. Liverpool have received 20% MORE FOR than Arsenal.
Penalties AGAINST
- Arsenal = 86; Liverpool = 63. Arsenal recieve 30 % MORE AGAINST than Liverpool.
So over 17 years, Arsenal have actually received 1 penalty FEWER than penalties AGAINST, which is mad for a top team. Yet Liverpool get almost 40% more penalties in their favour than against.
Thus all these stats massively favour Liverpool.
And do you remember the accusations of referee bias last season because we received four penalties FOR and none AGAINST? You might have thought the Earth had stopped turning!
Well, in season 2021/22 Liverpool received eight penalties in their favour and none against. They’ve also had a 9/1, 12/4 and a 9/2 season! I certainly don’t recall any accusations flying around those seasons!!
Over the 17 seasons….:
- Arsenal conceded more penalties than they received in 10 seasons.
- Liverpool conceded more penalties than they received in 5 seasons.
And here is another stat that favours liverpool, this time by 100%:
Differentials between received/conceded:
- Liverpool had PLUS 8 three times, PLUS 7 once and PLUS 6 once
- Arsenal had PLUS 7 just once and no other season went above PLUS 4
So, no matter how you look at, over the years penalty statistics massively favour Liverpool, and not Arsenal as the Liverpool fans would have you believe. And thus one has to ask, who have referees REALLY been favouring?
Now for the excuses. Have Liverpool been that much better than Arsenal over those 17 years, with a proportionately better attack, that would justify those ridiculous statistics? Lets see:
- Arsenal average finishing position = 3.9
- Liverpools average finishing position = 4.3
Arsenal’s average finishing position is actually circa 10% BETTER than Liverpool’s, so no, Liverpool haven’t been a better team than Arsenal over those years.
- Arsenal’s average goals for = 71.7 per season
- Liverpool’s average goals for = 74.4 per season
Okay, so Liverpool’s ‘World Class’ attack scores on average 3.9% more goals than Arsenal per season.
I would suggest neither of those sets of numbers can justify the massive disparity in those penalty stats. In other words, despite us getting away with one against Liverpool a week or so ago, it is actually Liverpool that have been getting away with it for almost two decades. The big difference is, whenever Liverpool get a dodgy penalty in their favour, or away with a stonewaller against them, very little, if anything, is made of it. Much the same as when a decision goes AGAINST us, it is simply brushed aside.
What we saw at Anfield was clearly not the norm. What we saw on Saturday clearly is!!!
