Sunderland – Arsenal: What can we expect from the ref?

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

By Walter Broeckx

The ref in the game Sunderland – Arsenal is Anthony Taylor. Taylor was born in Manchester (ouch) and lives in Cheshire.  I’ve heard about the cheese but never really tasted it. And as I am a cheese lover if anyone can tell me how it looks and how the flavour is I might go out and see if I can find it over here. But never mind the cheese, we are here for the ref. [Dense and crumbly – Ed].

He is one of the younger refs with only 34 years and he has been a ref in the PL since 03/02/2010. So he has just celebrated his 3 years in the PL.  This means that …well we don’t really have that much data on him.

And if you don’t have much data it is more difficult to predict the behaviour of the ref.  So this preview has to be taken with a pinch of salt [or cheese – Ed] as too many things are still unclear about this ref. But of course we will give you the data we have and some nice round things that are called graphics.

Let us start with Arsenal and from now on I will add the overall win percentage of each team in this preview. This is based on all the games played until the end of January 2013. That is if the Premier League site is accurate and can be trusted. If not, shoot at the site of the PL. Not at me.

But here we go with the win/draw/lost numbers of Arsenal.

Arsenal stats

Total games won draw lost won draw lost
Arsenal 797 426 212 159 53,45% 26,60% 19,95%

And in a graphic this looks something like this

And the next step is to compare this with the numbers from the ref. But alas Taylor has only done 5 Arsenal games so far and this are his numbers in those 5 games.

Arsenal games won draw lost won draw lost
5 3 2 0 60,00% 40,00% 0,00%

And in a graphic this looks like this

You will have noticed I used two different types of graphics. This is not to show how smart (or dumb) I am but I did this in the hope that you would tell me which type is the most clear of those two so you can say what to use in the future if possible.

But on to the numbers. As I said only 5 games. The good thing is until now we never lost a game with him in charge.  But I remember last year him not having his best day in the game Arsenal – Norwich in which we had a 3-3 draw and Norwich kicked us off the park and resulting in the second leg break of Sagna. We also had him when we won in Reading with 2-5 in the league earlier in December. Let’s hope for a Reading game then.

Let us move on to the  Sunderland stats in the PL. Based on 443 games as in their history they have gone up and down a bit.

Total games won draw lost won draw lost
Sunderland 443 119 112 212 26,86% 25,28% 47,86%

Put these numbers in a graphic and they look like this

So now let us move on to the stats of the ref when Sunderland is on the field.  And so far ref Taylor has done 9 games of Sunderland so this can give us a better view of  the way he has treated them.

Sunderland games won draw lost won draw lost
9 5 4 0 55,56% 44,44% 0,00%

And if you put these for Sunderland astonishing numbers compared to their overall win % you see this

So just as with Arsenal they (Sunderland) have never lost a game with Taylor in charge.  And that for a team who loses almost half of their games in general.  This is a bogey-reverse ref for them. In the process he has given them 2 penalties. And their last game under Taylor is only 3 weeks ago. Because on 19/01/2013 they won with 2-3 at Wigan. Giving them a penalty for a handball in that game when Sunderland was 1-0 behind. Don’t know if the penalty was correct but he never gave a penalty against Sunderland so far. Only in their favour.  He gave no penalties in favour of Arsenal but also none against us so far.

It is a bit astonishing that they give Taylor two games within a month with Sunderland. I think this is not really how things should be. But well who am I and well we know the ways of God are mysterious but the ways of the PGMOL are even beyond mysterious?

So the little data is encouraging but also a bit frightening. One could say a draw is on the cards if you look at the stats of both teams so far.

And to end this review let us link to the numbers we had of Taylor of last season. You can find them here.

Not a good total score in competence but this was only based on 5 games so again not really much data. But again we see some strange things. Because in general this ref had a negative home bias. So he was more friendly for the away teams.  Last season he did Sunderland – Liverpool and he was rather biased in favour of Liverpool and he also did Arsenal – Norwich as said and with a rather big bias for Norwich, so in both cases for the away teams.

In fact both Arsenal and Sunderland where the number 1 and 2 victims of his bias. And despite this bias Sunderland and Arsenal didn’t lose.

So what is my final conclusion? Well….er…that there is no final conclusion on this ref.  We don’t have enough data to start with. But the data we have is rather surprising and confusing at times. I do know that I am glad he isn’t our ref when we do Norwich. He has done some strange things in their favour last season.

So the only thing we can do is hope and pray that he will be unbiased for both teams. After all that is the only thing we want from any ref.

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23 Replies to “Sunderland – Arsenal: What can we expect from the ref?”

  1. Taylor is a stitch-up artist 🙂

    And Walter, I prefer the first graphic. The pie chart, not the weird donut chart 🙂

  2. Walter,
    Sprouts, chocolate and now cheese!
    Is there ANYTHING that le petit Belgique isn’t famous for?
    Today, as on most match days, we have to win DESPITE the referee.

  3. Hi Walter,
    You asked for feedback; it would be clearer if the colours for win, lose and draw were the same throughout.

  4. I actually like the donut graph. For the pie chart you actually have two versions as well – one with black lines and one without; without black lines looks nicer, although still not as nice as the donut.

  5. F O Y B

    What a master class in kicking off the park. Well it looked like that on my stream

    Great win!

  6. Exactly, Walter.
    The Arsenal players are heroes. They were kicked and shoved all over the park. A lovely forearm smash from Bramble onto Mertesac’s neck, with the ref looking on. No foul. No surprise. Disgusting!

    Lovely goal from Santi though Ars missed quite a few good chances, especially late on, but throughout the game.

    I didn’t see Jenks 1st booking. It’s a pity he was sent off because of the match he misses, more than anything else.

    Very well done Arsenal.

  8. What’s FOYB? (**** off you b*stards/blackcats?)

    I probably should know but I’m too wound up. Mind you, I had German commentary, so at least I didn’t suffer the usual clap-trap from the Englishers. Ha.

  9. Oh rantetta, but you missed the best part. Commentators are like vacuum cleaners. The ref makes a mess, and the commentators clean it up and blow out hot air..

  10. Well it doesn’t look like the referees have been told to give Jack any extra protection yet! If Jenks deserved to be sent off then at least four Sunderland players should have been sent off as well. Jenks two fouls were honest fouls, mistimed but with no malice. Not so from Sunderland where there were numerous tackles with intent, many so late the ball was well gone. No chance of the ref score being anywhere near that of Mr Friend. It sometimes seems as though most fouls from our players earn yellow cards. Is there any way of checking on the database if there is a significant difference (that may require a separate article Walter, sorry).

  11. iniez – Vacuum cleaners. Brilliant.
    The plundits still make me sick though. I guess I shouldn’t take it all so seriously, but it’s damned hard, especially knowing that the rest of the sick f**ks that make up the meeeeja are going to follow through with their sh*t.

    Imagine the highlights tonight – Sunderland unlucky/Arsenal dirty/Wenger out, blah blah, ****ing blah. They’ll show every Sund chance (but they’ll only show a long-shot of Bramble on Merts), there’ll be no up-close Sund tackles shown, and O Nelly will be looking down lamenting his lousy team’s supposed misfortune. Howay you useless tossers! Call that football?

  12. Larsson should have been carded. Maybe taylor thought it would be really a sad thing to dismiss a player within minutes of coming on. easy chances missed, straight shots to goalie, crossbar, selfish plays and incompetent refree made this game a ‘hard-fought’ win. Sagna, Scsz, ramsey were all brilliant overall. The last two games have really proved we have improved our play against ‘park the bus’ teams.

  13. A day for heroes throughout our team. A bad day for the critics who say we lack fight yet again a ref who invites a team to kick us all over the park and kick they did. To think some wanted their manager to replace wenger a while back, managers like oneill and pulis are prehistoric . Laudrup and martinez show them for what they are. The sooner the teams they manage and the refs who protect them vanish from this league the better

  14. ‘So the only thing we can do is hope and pray that he will be unbiased for both teams. After all that is the only thing we want from any ref.’
    Dream on Walter!!!

  18. 3pm matches are often broadcast live in other countries Pat. You can often find a live stream of a match by fox soccer (or similar) if you root around for one.

  20. @Pat AbuDhabi Sports shows almost all of the 3pm kickoffs…its only in the uk that they are not shown

  23. Pie chart for me please Walter. Why not practice on a pie chart for Taylor:
    1)probability that he is just incompetent
    2)probability that he really doesn’t like Arsenal
    3)probability that he just had a bad game
    4)probability that he’s bent

    Fill in your own “Guesstimates”.

    and combinations of any/all of the above.

    Just for curiosity I looked back at old comments written on our local web site:

    v.Norwich 2011-12 3-3
    The first (?and only?) time that we’ve seen referee Taylor (versus Sunderland last season), I noted “And, some bald headed little schmuck and one of his linesmen, when we at last started to play in the second, managed to stuff us.” It might be fair to say that the follicly challenged Taylor (Note the PC) managed to stuff Norwich. How he was to compensate in a major, major way in the second half.

    Plenty of time to go up and get another winner. Ha. Enter the follicly challenged. He’d let increasing numbers of fouls/yellow card worthy assaults go by but none rated with his last which assured me, for one, that he was fit to referee Conference League at best. We’ve had many penalty appeals this season at the Grove. All have been turned down but none ranked as blatant as the push/trip on Robin as he was about to tap the ball into the net.

    Sunderland 2010-11 0-0
    And, some bald headed little schmuck and one of his linesmen, when we at last started to play in the second, managed to stuff us…A blatant penalty not even considered, a goal with an offside call that, wrongly, was considered and cards for dissent were flashing here, there and everywhere.

    Subsequently I’ve changed thought regarding his ability to take Conference League games. Sunday leagues at Hackney Marshes maybe.

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