RefWatch – Fulham v Arsenal (22/05/2011 16:00)

Arsenal under ref Atkinson get a booking every 4.4 fouls… some 30.6 fouls less than Fulham.

RefWatch – Fulham v Arsenal (22/05/2011 16:00)


By DogFace

  • Referee:              Martin Atkinson
  • Assistant 1:         Jake Collin
  • Assistant 2:         Adam Watts
  • 4th Official:        Michael Oliver

Good morning stat-fans and welcome to the last EVER RefWatch (this season)… and it’s Sunday again – but this time, at least, everyone plays!

Before I start (or stat) I would like to say thanks to everyone for reading these rather autistic outbursts of mine and perhaps taking the time absorb some of it and think about the numbers.  My goal is for every Untold reader to be able to glance at a game on telly and be able to say who the ref is and if he is good or one team or the other… then maybe look closer and examine the match for any bias or a lack of consistency and, unprompted, be able to spot the tell-tale signs of a tilted pitch and point out to your mates exactly what’s going on.

And then maybe – wonder why it has to be this way?

A fan can dream eh… a fan can dream.

Anyhoo – without further ado; let’s have a look at the Referee:

  • Full name:                          Martin Atkinson
  • Date of birth:                     31 March 1971 (1971-03-31) (age 40)
  • Place of birth:                   Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
  • EPL Referee Since:          2004/2005
  • EPL Games to date:         153

I’m sorry Arsené it’s beyond my control… you’re just not allowed to win this one.

Yup, it’s Martin Atkinson again… the one Wenger was fined 8k, and got a touchline ban, after he pushed him (as the 4th official) for giving Sunderland ‘as long as it took’ to get an equaliser. Come on you must remember him – that one who didn’t even give a yellow for that challenge from Manchester City’s Nigel de Jong’s on Hatem Ben Arfa that broke his leg… let’s hope he doesn’t go soft on Fulham eh when it comes to the tackles!

The 4th official for today is Michael Oliver – so maybe we’ll see Wenger turn and hoof him up the arse as Fulham equalise from an offside position in the 7th minute of the 5 minutes injury time or whatever.

Actually – now I come to think of it, we have had Atkinson before for this fixture in the last two consecutive seasons; we won one and lost one: 2009/2010 season 26/09/2009 – Fulham 0-1 Arsenal and 2008/2009 season 23/08/2008 – Fulham 1-0 Arsenal – which is a bit of a coincidence, odds anyone?


Martin Atkinson has had 15 games for Fulham consisting of 9 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses

Fulham are currently in 4th in Martin Atkinson’s personal Points Per Game League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an average of 1.93 PPG.

In Martin Atkinson’s personal Handicap Swing League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Fulham come 2nd with an average positive swing of 0.95.

Fulham are currently in 1st in Martin Atkinson’s personal Booking’s Per Match League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an overall average of 1.13 BPM.

In Martin Atkinson’s personal Fouls Per Booking League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Fulham come 1st with an overall average of 11.18 FPB.

What strikes me initially from this is not only the rather high PPG (for a mid/low table club) and AHS swing figures for Fulham… and then I look at the FPB figures – this season Fulham have smashed the roof off under Martin Atkinson with a mind boggling 35 FPB!

Martin Atkinson has had 14 games for Arsenal consisting of 8 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses

Arsenal are currently in 3rd in Martin Atkinson’s personal Points Per Game League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an average of 2.00 PPG.

In Martin Atkinson’s personal Handicap Swing League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Arsenal come 3rd with an average positive swing of 0.71.

Arsenal are currently in 12th in Martin Atkinson’s personal Booking’s Per Match League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an overall average of 1.86 BPM.

In Martin Atkinson’s personal Fouls Per Booking League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Arsenal come 15th with an overall average of 5.96 FPB.

Ok – so in stark contrast to Fulham, Arsenal (this season) under Martin Atkinson have received a booking every 4.4 fouls… some 30.6 fouls less than Fulham.  Consistency anyone?



As we can see from Martin Atkinson’s rather hectic ‘Vs EPL’ chart, Fulham do rather well – in fact this season they are top of the pops with a scorching +2.25 goals against the handicap.  We have done well and badly under him in the past – bouncing like a yoyo against the handicap – the plots look to be that Arsenal are on the decline while Fulham are on the up.  Chelsea have always done well under Martin Atkinson both in PPG and AHS and this testifies in all his figures… Manchester United and Martin have never really got on – remember the Chelsea Vs Man U game this season?  The only other point of note is the steady rise of Manchester City in his figures – and this is a concern.

The Predictortron gives Fulham a 0.296022 of a goal advantage.

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31 Replies to “RefWatch – Fulham v Arsenal (22/05/2011 16:00)”

  1. Just to clarify – the discussion here is on this article, and the bias of referees which leads to the headline statement. It is not an article about Mr Wenger. There are articles on that topic elsewhere on the site.

  2. Interesting to see the FpB figures in light of Fulham’s lofty placing in the fair play table!

  3. All this is excuse making for the useless team that has been created by Wenger.. hehe.. Kidding Tony, just kidding 🙂

    Hmmm.. How does anyone justify such a wide disparity in Fouls per Booking for any team by a referee? And ManCity’s rise is worrying. Who’s the referee in the ManCity Bolton game? What are his figures like?

  4. Dog Face, he didn’t even give a foul against DeJong for breaking Ben Arfa’s leg!

  5. Dog Face – Would you be able to write a ref review for Manchester City’s and Boltons referee and the results under him? Its a lot of work so I understand if you can’t, but it is a very important match in the context of the season! I think the referee is Chris Foy.

  6. Thaks DogFace, I actually was under the imporession Mr. Bean’s cousin was one of our favorites, or one of Sir Red Nose haters, or something.

    Anyway, I hope we put in a good performance today and score a lot just to end this season with a smile.

  7. Good work Dogface

    Very interesting FFB difference here, some 30.6 fouls, WOW.

    I notice Michael Oliver as fourth official will have some involvement in an Arsenal game again today? I should keep a keen eye on the amount of injury time added each half considering the scoreline at the time, we have witnessed Mr Oliver at close quarters recently and we are well aware of his capabilities.

    I will also be keeping an eye on the Man City game in which C.Foy takes charge and our dear friend Mr Dowd is the fourth official.

    Vigilance is key.

  8. OK – well… to answer your questions – my DB gives Manchester City a 0.024188 of a goal advantage in that game [Bolton v Citeh], so we are looking hopefully at a draw.

    With regards to our game we might like to consider some other factors:

    Fulham have in the past put in some mysterious under-performances , some might say ‘creative’ – this will nullify the effect of any bias from the officials if it is present today.

    Fulham are in with a shot of a European place via the fair play league (due possibly to their crazy FPB figures – fixed anyone?) – so they might possibly stay out of the challenge and have a bit of a kick-about to avoid any ‘un-fair’ play as it were.

    Fulham’s Manager is Mark Hughes and even though he is part of SAF’s ‘Manchester Mafia’; we do not pose any threat to Utd and he may well not wish to do his old club [Manchester City] any favours today by going out to win… after all – they treated him fairly shoddily at the end of his tenure.

    Something to think about?

  9. Oh – any sorry, I misread my own data – Fulhams FPB is 34, not 35 – not that it makes an awful lot of difference – but just thought I would mention it before someone else does.

  10. I think Sparky is one of the few who suffered the most from “Fergie time”… wasn’t he the one who even coined it ?

  11. Gotta say I have never cheered on the Sp*rs before BUT watching Birmingham going down has made my day 🙂
    Watching those horrible muppets dissapear has left a huge smile on my face.

  12. Sad to see the demise of a footballing side like blackpool but much as i dspise tottenham, i thank them for sending a certain thug and his acolytes down! good riddanace to bad rubbish.
    Lets see if wigan and wolves can afford to stay up next season, i vote for one of them to set off the financial blackhole that is going to take down some pretty big stars with it

  13. Birmingham going down and wigan staying up has been good shame about Blackpool

    RVP is a scoring machione

  14. Birmingham going down and wigan staying up has been good shame about Blackpool

    RVP is a scoring machine

  15. Bye Bye Birmingham! Shame about Blackpool, I hope we see them back soon.

    That’s 9 consecutive away matches that RVP’s scored in, and equalled the record for most league goals in the second half of the season (18).

    Now for a long summer of transfer rumours, and a Cesc tug-of-war…

  16. 21 points on offer we take 6
    conceded 13 goals
    scored 10 goals
    we’re not worthy.
    we cant hide the cracks.
    6 seasons since winning a trophy not a problem.
    6 seasons fluffing it when counts a major concern.

  17. Arsenal face qualifiers to reach the CL, not with this defense if Wenger refuses to sign any players well wright the season off. What a shame we stuck with Alumina who cost us 10pts last year and it was a case of dejavu in this campaign, a frail defense complete with a headless chicken. A real blow to the team I’m sure just like us they had no confidence in our back line. A real clanger of a season if we our so financially stable then lets put this disgrace behind us.

  18. Bye Bye Alumina, Densilson, good riddance to bad rubbish take birmingham city with you now!

  19. This is the first season I have been a regular on this board -I would just like to say thanks for all the time spent by those writing the reviews and articles, they are of great interest and as a Gooner, great to get these angles on things.
    I am glad this season is now over. This implosion was not good on any level. I have a feeling it is going to be a long and painful summer for the more purist amongst Gooner fans, but maybe slightly better for the more pragmatic?

  20. I think we will be ok in the champs league qualifiers.
    The only team I would NOT like to see us play is Ruben Kasak…
    They seem to push everyone to the limit and play great football at times.
    Here is to another summer of hoping we can keep the main stay of our team together and add a few players that will bring us closer to the promise land.

  21. I wouldn’t worry about the qualifiers – we are still more of a power club (in terms of our brand) than FC Shitkickski.

    No doubt if we don’t turn up the ref will give us a leg-up.

    The bigger problem is the effect they will have on the season and our league position. I imagine that training will have to start earlier and that will effect our fitness window.

  22. For those waiting for the ref review:
    as I will be away from my computer all day tomorrow I will only be able to start it tomorrow evening.
    As a result I will only be able to start my review of the year from Tuesday.
    Sorry about this but as the game was not shown live on our sports channel I had to wait for Arsenal TV online

  23. Aye ,yes, its going to be a long , lonely summer ,and I’m going to feel the emptiness ;but let us make a pledge to keep our feelings in check and our minds sane till we restart again ; and seal it with a smiley face !
    Yesterday the Spuds made in happy in sending the Brum down -only
    because or the way the derided our defence in the CC final.Now they too have the pleasure of having their theeth kicked in at the last gasp.
    Everton beating Chelski wasn’t too bad either.But Blackpool going down was sad – hope they bounce right back again.

  24. About the qualifiers. What effect, if any, will it have on our supposed pre season Asian tour? Might result in us having to cut the tour short, thus making less money. Or even cancel it. I’m glad the season is over. Now it’s time to focus on setting things right. Both with our team, and if in any way possible with the refs. It cannot be allowed to continue like this.

  25. @meditation: 24 countries in Europe involved, although Koerl did not say which countries or which leagues. 24 countries! Out of the 50 countries Europe has! That includes the prominent football countries such as Andorra, San Marino and Vatican City. Even if we do take them into account, 50% chance the EPL is involved. Although in fact we already know that to be 100%.

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