Burnley v Arsenal. The habits of the referee, and the injury latest

 

 

• Burnley v Arsenal: tackles, fouls and yellow cards – and the interesting numbers for Liverpool
• Burnley v Arsenal: could Burnley’s recent home scoring bonanza save them against Arsenal?

By Sir Hardly Anyone

The Premier League Injuries website has Arsenal listed as having seven injuries: Timber, Partey, Zinchenko, Smith Rowe, Tomiyasu, Vieira and Gabriel Jesus.  Smith Rowe is given a 75% chance of being ok, Tomiyasu and Jesus are on 50%.  Partey, Zinchecnko and Vieira are listed as 25% chance.

Arteta suggested however that some of Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith Rowe, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Fabio Vieira may be ready to return from injuries; he also said Thomas Partey, out with a thigh problem since October, was “progressing really well” and could be back within a fortnight.

The majority of PL clubs seem to have around six or seven players out at the moment.  The prime exceptions are Chelsea with nine, Liverpool with ten, Sheffield United in with nine and at the other end of the table, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers with two each.

Meanwhile, in the Guardian we have the commentary, “Asked whether that meant Arsenal were involved in any discussions about Mbappé he replied: “I am not. Maybe Edu and the owners are, but I am not in those conversations until the last stage.”

Now onto the referee: Jarred Gillett .  He is number seven in the charts for handing out yellow cards averaging 4.82 per game.    Compare this with 3.27 per game for Samuel Barrott.  Or at the other end  of the scale 5.22 per game for Anthony Taylor.  In other words Taylor hands out 60% more cards in a game than Barrott.   Does that sound to you like fair and balanced refereeing?  In the most popular league in the world?

However, there is compensation, for this is one of those referees who likes away teams and doesn’t seem to be too swayed by the home crowd.  In his 11 games this season Mr Gillett has overseen 45.5% of them as home wins and 54.5% of them as away wins, (with not a single draw in sight) so it looks as if Arsenal ought to be able to play their own game and see the match through without the referee deciding to take a hand.

In fact, no one else sees away wins as much as this referee.  We might compare this output with Robert Jones this season who in 15 games has managed just to see three away wins.

There have been 48 draws in the Premier League this season out of 238 games and 80 away wins, so the current level runs at

• Home wins: 46%
• Away wins 34%
• Draws 11%

This means Mr Gillet is right on the money with his 45.% home wins, but just tends to see matches that might be draws become away wins which could be good news for Arsenal.

Yellow cards are another huge area of variance within the game but Mr Gillet is fairly balanced here.  He has handed out 24 cards to away teams and 29 to home teams.    Compare with the 42 yellow cards to home teams and 25 cards to away teams from John Brooks across his 15 games.

But of course this is a refereeing issue and no one wants to talk about referees, so we move on…

Burnley v Arsenal across the years

Arsenal and Burnley have played 114 competitive games together starting with an FA Cup match in 1896 which Burnley won 6-1, and taking in a 1-7 away win for Arsenal again in the FA Cup in 1937 by way of revenge.

Arsenal didn’t win any of the first five games between the two clubs, and then had a run between 1920 and 1926 in which across 15 games Arsenal won just three.

There was another desperate run between 1953 and 1963 in which in 20 consecutive Division One games Burnley won 13, there were two draws and just five Arsenal wins.  In the final eight games of the sequence Arsenal won just once.

Things have changed however.  In the last 19 games from March 2009 onward to the 11 November last year there have been just one Burnley win, four draws and 14 Arsenal wins.   The last game was back in November and Arsenal won 3-1 in London.

There will be more on this match tomorrow.

In the meanwhile you might enjoy from the Arsenal History Society

• Arsenal anniversaries: When the ground was only half full for the north London derby.

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