Matchweek 27 – all the games and officials, and some predictions.

by Andrew Crawshaw

In the last round of matches the following stands out

Watford were called for 21 fouls in their game against Everton but only had two yellow cards awarded against them.  Here is a table showing who committed the fouls and when.  Andre Gray should consider himself lucky not to have picked up a card for his four fouls in 34 second half minutes.  Duocuré and Capoue could also consider themselves lucky not to have been carded

Player	Fouls Called in Min.	Card Produced in Min.
Doucouré	2, 45+3, 85,
Capoue	3, 12, 77,
Deeney	9, 69, 90+5	69
Mariappa	16,
Holebas	17, 83	83
Hughes	32, 81,
Deulofeu	41
Gray	54, 60, 77, 88,
Cathcart	75
Janmaat	90+2

Looking at the appointments for matchweek 27.  

Here courtesy of Premierleague.com are the games and officials, along with links to the Predictions so far published on the Football Predictions site.

Friday 22 February

19:45 Cardiff City v Watford
Referee: Simon Hooper
Assistants: Scott Ledger, Derek Eaton
Fourth official: David Coote

Cardiff v Watford: the predictions

19:45 West Ham v Fulham
Referee: Lee Mason
Assistants: Harry Lennard, Adrian Holmes
Fourth official: Stuart Attwell

West Ham v Fulham: the predictions

Saturday 23 February

12:30 Burnley v Tottenham Hotspur
Referee: Mike Dean
Assistants: Ian Hussin, Dan Robathan
Fourth official: Craig Pawson

15:00 AFC Bournemouth v Wolves
Referee: Roger East
Assistants: Eddie Smart, Richard West
Fourth official: Graham Scott

15:00 Newcastle v Huddersfield
Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistants: Matthew Wilkes, Darren Cann
Fourth official: Martin Atkinson

17:30 Leicester v Crystal Palace
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn
Fourth official: David Coote

Sunday 24 February

14:05 Arsenal v Southampton

Referee: Graham Scott
Assistants: Mick McDonough, Neil Davies
Fourth official: Chris Kavanagh

Arsenal v Southampton: the predictions

14:05 Man Utd v Liverpool

Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett
Fourth official: Andre Marriner

• United have now had 20 of their 27 matches refereed by only 6 people – Michael Oliver, Andre Marriner, Kevin Friend and Paul Tierney have each done 3 matches and Mike Dean and Jonathan Moss have each done four.
• The two Manchester Clubs have had the fewest number of referees with 11.
• Arsenal have had 13 different referees
• Everton and West Ham the most with 16.
• Chelsea and Brighton haven’t got matches this weekend due to the League Cup final

For us this will be the third time this year we will have had Graham Scott, all of them at the Emirates.  This represents one quarter of all of his matches.  Chelsea and the two Manchester Cubs a haven’t yet had him at all, Liverpool have had him once (and get him again for their midweek fixture next week) and Spurs twice.  Southampton are the only other club to have had him three times.

Our two previous matches have been against :-

• West Ham in August at the start of our 22 match unbeaten streak.  We won by 3 – 1 getting one booking (min 89) from 16 fouls.  West Ham got three bookings (Min 41, 80 & 88) from 13 fouls.
• Fulham in January which we won 4 – 1 where we didn’t get a single booking from the 7 fouls for which we were called. Fulham got one booking (min 77) from 13 fouls.

Southampton’s two previous matches under Mr Scott have also been at home:-

• Southampton v Burnley on opening day – this was a goalless draw.  Southampton had no bookings from 10 fouls whilst Burnley had one booking (min 15) from 9 fouls
• Southampton v Everton (2 – 1) – Southampton had two players booked (Min 67 and 89) from 12 fouls whilst Everton had one booking (min 67) from 11 fouls.

We can see that Graham Scott is unlikely to be waving too many cards on Sunday so far in matches involving Arsenal and Southampton he has taken note of 9 players names after calling 90 fouls an average rate of one card per 10 fouls.  The overall figures in the league to date are 890 cards (yellow and red) from 5453 fouls so an average of one card for every 6 fouls.

In other matters as far as my recollection goes he is fairly typical, we should look out for inappropriate advantages, Southampton getting the benefit of dubious fouls in dangerous areas, Arsenal players needing to be shot in the penalty area before a penalty is awarded and all of the other PGMO tricks of the trade.

I won’t be at this match but one of my Grandchildren will go instead.  I’ll give them my Arsenal Belgium Scarf for luck.

COYG