- Is this the biggest referee bias yet found in the Premier League
- Official tackles and yellow card stats shown to have major flaw. Arsenal v Sheffield U
- Arsenal v Sheffield United. 3pm saturday – what a weird time! How did we get here?
By Bulldog Drummond
The referee for today’s Arsenal game is Tim Robinson. Here is his record thus far this season broken down by home and away sides.
| Referee | Games | Fouls pg | Fouls/Tackles | Yellows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Robinson home side | 4 | 12.50 | 0.88 | 7 |
| Tim Robinson away side | 4 | 11.00 | 0.49 | 14 |
So as we can see he is not getting regular games this season – some referees have already had eight games. And he is a traditional home-biased referee in terms of fouls and yellows, as the majority of them are.
Just to give some insight into the variability of refereeing this season, Andy Madely is giving 15 fouls per game, while Michael Oliver is giving under 10. Madely is also the great yellow carder with 23 in six games.
Tim Robinson has 14 cards waved in four games and at 5.25 yellows per game and so is the second highest giver of the cards so far this season, 2.25 cards behind Darren England at the top of the referee card league.
But Robinson only gives 1.75 cards per game to the home side compared with double that number to the away team, which is what we like to see when Arsenal are at home. Not actually what we would like to see would be all referees being equal in their treater of clubs, but with Liverpool having had two yellow cards at home this season and 14 yellows away from home this season, we can see we are not within a trillion miles of the sort of balanced refereeing that treats the home and away team equally, that we have been looking for.
But the biggest problem Arsenal face against Sheffield United could still be the referee, despite all that I have just written above, for he has overseen just one home win all season, as opposed to three away wins. Indeed, no other referee has an away team bias like this. Simon Hooper has reverse figures, with 75% of his games going to the home team and 25% being won by the away team. (Figures from WhoScored).
We can only hope that our little summary of the latest doings of PGMO (see also “Is this the biggest refereeing bias scandal yet found in the Premier League?” for further insights into England’s most notorious secret society.
But meanwhile, Here’s the Arsenal team from the Standard
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Rice, Havertz;
Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli
Pain in the Arsenal offer
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Rice, Smith Rowe, Odegaard;
Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
Sports Mole give us
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko;
Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice;
Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli
Chances are it will be something like that.
Well everybody had the team really really wrong…. Go Emile, GO !
Great win! Great to see some of the fringe players take on their job and get game time. Eddie is a goalmachine!
Eddie has been doing that at all levels since he joined us from Chelsea as a 14 year old boy. Great to see him in full flow again.
How Kalajdzc being taken down wrestling style in the Newcastle box NOT being a penalty beyond me.
The defender has his arms around him, both, from behind and makes him fall.
No VAR check…. I mean…. seriously ?
I guess Arsenal were lucky to be awarded the penalty then as VAR did it’s job.
Wonder how this will be reported- Total VAR and refereeing failure benefiting Newcastle….no surprise there….
It comes as no surprise that Gillett was on VAR at Wolves – wonder if it will be mentioned on MOTD later. I still have yet to hear an apology from Webb after the physical assault on Jesus at Chelsea. Maybe I missed it!
Regarding VAR, nothing has or will change because the media do not want it to change.
All the huffing and puffing from certain ‘mouths’ is all smoke and mirrors.
All they really want is for the waters to calm so they can get get back to screwing who they want without so much fuss, because frankly, I think it’s getting right on their tits now!!!
@Nitram – you are quite right with your comment above.
I have been reading your site again recently. It is sad to see the refereeing is in the spotlight – again!
I must say that this is a very interesting time to watch football anywhere in Europe. It seems to me that what the media wants to happen often does with a few “wrong interpretations” of the laws of the game by the officials. It is very easy to see which way the result is stacked by looking at the first 10 minutes. I find I am turning off more often than not when this happens. It is very rare to find a game where the officials don’t try and tilt the game one way. In fact I think that in the last 3 months there have only been 2 or 3 games that I would say have been refereed in a correct way. It really doesn’t take many “errors” to change the whole flow of the game. As this is happening continuously it really does make me wonder if this is a deliberate policy.
I cant help feeling that games (and because of this leagues) are being decided by some very poor officiating. I watched a game from Spain last Sunday and I saw at least 5 to 10 errors per half by the officials. I will add that before the “evening out” fans have their say the errors are nearly always one way. This has the effect of disheartening the side who keeps getting the bad decisions and they stop trying.
It is amazing that world rugby have had the guts to admit that refereeing could improve. It seems to me that world rugby realise that disquiet by fans about officiating may be worthwhile investigating. It will be a cold day in hell before PIGMOB investigate any problems.
I watched Chelsea v Arsenal this weekend and once again the not so subtle media bias against Arsenal was quite clear to see. I am not a supporter I am merely a football fan who is fed up with inconsistent officiating and “journalists” who know nothing about the games rules.
As I have said before at least the wrestling bodies call their sport entertainment. Maybe FIFA, UEFA, The FA and premier league could do the same and call referees ” entertainment adjudicators” – this would be more honest.
I see the PIGMOB now have “time wasting” and “miscellaneous offences” to help them with their “tilting”. I never understand how it take a referee 90+ minutes to book a goalkeeper for time wasting when he/she has been doing it since minute 5 of the game. Of course the “8 second” time wasting 2nd yellow was a very strange outlier decision.
I am wondering why I don’t bother watching a lot of games now – maybe there is a reason why!
Can I have my post back as i have missed spacing
Haaland scored a penalty for Man. City today after Højlund fouled Rodri in the penalty area.
Tierney (the referee) did not give the penalty, but Oliver (on VAR) told the referee to stop the game (the ball was in play), and review the decision. Tierney reversed the decision in favour of Man. City. Let’s forget the inconsistency between this decision and the one in the Wolves game earlier in the week, and consider that the game was stopped some 30-40 seconds after the “foul”.
During the Spurs-Liverpool offside incident, the incorrect decision couldn’t be overturned after the match had restarted. Why not? Today’s match was stopped to allow a reversal of a decision which went against City.
Michael Oliver has allegedly been refereeing matches in the UAE recently.
I have been reading your site again recently. It is sad to see the refereeing is in the spotlight – again!
I must say that this is a very interesting time to watch football anywhere in Europe. It seems to me that what the media wants to happen often does with a few “wrong interpretations” of the laws of the game by the officials. It is very easy to see which way the result is stacked by looking at the first 10 minutes. I find I am turning off more often than not when this happens. It is very rare to find a game where the officials don’t try and tilt the game one way. In fact I think that in the last 3 months there have only been 2 or 3 games that I would say have been refereed in a correct way. It really doesn’t take many “errors” to change the whole flow of the game. As this is happening continuously it really does make me wonder if this is a deliberate policy.
I cant help feeling that games (and because of this leagues) are being decided by some very poor officiating. I watched a game from Spain on Sunday and I saw at least 5 to 10 errors per half by the officials. I will add that before the “evening out” fans have their say the errors are nearly always one way. This has the effect of disheartening the side who keeps getting the bad decisions and they stop trying.
I have been watching the rugby world cup and I have been quite surprised to see officials communicating with one another and also apologising for wrong decisions and correcting them. It is also refreshing to see laws appearing to be applied consistently.
I watched Chelsea v Arsenal this weekend and once again the not so subtle media bias against Arsenal was quite clear to see. I am not a supporter I am merely a football fan who is fed up with inconsistent officiating and “journalists” who appear to know nothing about the games rules.
As I have said before at least the wrestling bodies call their sport entertainment. Maybe FIFA, UEFA, The FA and premier league could do the same and call referees ” entertainment adjudicators” – this would appear to be more honest.
I see the PIGMOB now have “time wasting” and “miscellaneous offences” to help them with their “tilting”. I never understand how it take a referee 90+ minutes to book a goalkeeper for time wasting when he/she has been doing it since minute 5 of the game.
I am wondering why I dont bother watching a lot of games now – maybe there is a reason why!
I am increasingly seeing parallels between the refereeing situation here in the PL, and what has been happening in Italy, Spain and Greece during the last 20 years.
Does anyone remember Steve Bennett?
It cant happen here