By Bulldog Drummond
In the previous article we were looking at Arsenal’s bad runs of form, and noting that Wolverhampton had suffered in the same way at the start of the season. But for them the bad run went on longer, as their opening results show…
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Comp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug 2021 | Leicester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers | L | 1-0 | League |
| 22 Aug 2021 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Tottenham H | L | 0-1 | League |
| 24 Aug 2021 | Nottingham Forest v Wolverhampton W | W | 0-4 | League Cup |
| 29 Aug 2021 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Manchester U | L | 0-1 | League |
| 11 Sep 2021 | Watford v Wolverhampton Wanderers | W | 0-2 | League |
| 18 Sep 2021 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Brentford | L | 0-2 | League |
| 22 Sep 2021 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Tottenham H | L | 2-2 (2-3) | League Cup |
But Wolverhampton survived and of late have been having a bit of a decent run themselves… with one defeat and one draw in the last seven games. However it should be noted that the three goals scored against Southampton was only the fourth time in the season they have managed three goals or more in league or cup.
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Dec 2021 | Brighton and Hove Albion v Wolverhampton W | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 19 Dec 2021 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 3 Jan 2022 | Manchester United v Wolverhampton W | W | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 9 Jan 2022 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Sheffield United | W | 3-0 | FA Cup |
| 15 Jan 2022 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Southampton | W | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 22 Jan 2022 | Brentford v Wolverhampton Wanderers | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 5 Feb 2022 | Wolverhampton Wanderers v Norwich City | L | 0-1 | FA Cup |
Note: it appears we have got the referee wrong – please see comments after the article.
The referee for this match is Craig Pawson. If you are a regular follower of Untold’s train of thought you will know that we have long argued for each referee to oversee each team no more than twice in a season but we are nowhere near achieving that.
Pawson has seen Arsenal twice already and we won both games. However, there is a danger, for Pawson is a man who seems to be on a mission to see more fouls in an Arsenal game than anyone else. That is not to say I am alleging corruption at all, it is just how the figures pan out, and Arsenal need to be very aware of this.
We have already seen him twice this season, and as you may recall we have long campaigned for this to be the maximum number of times any referee is seen by an official.
Figures from Who Scored and are for Premier League games only.
| Referee | Arsenal games | Fouls per game | Yellow per game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craig Pawson | 2 | 14.50 | 2.00 |
| Michael Oliver | 4 | 10.00 | 0.25 |
| Paul Tierney | 1 | 10.00 | 3.00 |
| Stuart Attwell | 2 | 9.50 | 2.00 |
| Mike Dean | 2 | 9.50 | 1.50 |
| David Coote | 1 | 9.00 | 0.00 |
| Martin Atkinson | 2 | 8.50 | 1.00 |
| Anthony Taylor | 2 | 8.50 | 1.50 |
| Andre Marriner | 1 | 7.00 | 1.00 |
| Graham Scott | 1 | 7.00 | 2.00 |
| Kevin Friend | 1 | 6.00 | 4.00 |
| Jonathan Moss | 1 | 5.00 | 1.00 |
| Jarred Gillett | 1 | 5.00 | 2.00 |
Wolverhampton have had him just once before and he gave 10 fouls in that game and two yellow cards.
In fact Pawson is very much middle of the road for all PGMO statistics this season, such as fouls, cards etc. Except for one. He gives far fewer penalties than any other Premier League referees. He has given one penalty this season in the Premier League
Let’s end with a peek at how the head to head has gone between the two clubs. Wolverhampton have played in all the divisions of the Football League except Division Three (South), reaching the fourth division in the late 1980s. This is now their fourth season back in the top division. Least season they were 14th.
Of the games between the two sides Wolverhampton have won 32 to Arsenal’s 58 with 28 drawn. We had a rather fine run against them from 1980 onward, playing them in 19 games without defeat, the run finally ending with a 3-1 loss in April 2019.
But since then it has all turned around and in fact the last six games against them have resulted in just one Arsenal win, with three defeats and two draws in the other games. The win was away on 4 July 2020. We do however have some rather nice videos of Arsenal wins against Wolverhampton on the Arsenal History society website.
- Wolverhampton v Arsenal: how to come out of a bad run.
- Wolverhampton v Arsenal: at last some tackles, fouls and yellows (and injuries)
Oliver it’ll be, actually
https://www.premierleague.com/news/2463105
Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: Simon Bennett, Darren Cann. Fourth official: Michael Sailsbury. VAR: Lee Mason. Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZr07AYWLSo&ab_channel=SOUTHERNREBEL) indeed – and much more so than with pawson, as “orbinho” pointed out:
Orbinho
@Orbinho
Michael Oliver will officiate the Wolves v Arsenal match on Thursday – his 5th PL game involving the Gunners this season. In League and Cup, Arsenal will have played against PL teams 25 times and this will be the 6th time Oliver has officiated.
8:57 PM · 8 févr. 2022·TweetDeck
Zouma the West Ham cat kicker deserves a jail sentence. West Ham, who put him in their team last night, need to be suspended for the remainder of this season, the 2022 to 2023 season, and should start the 2023 to 2024 season in Division One.
I see Spurs are going all ‘Spursy’ again.
Tottenham 2 – 3 Southampton.
If only you won trophies for being wonderful at selling players!!
Perhaps it would help if they learned to buy them as well.
“Spurs were robbed of an equaliser by VAR” said a BTSprout commentator.
You couldn’t make it up.
Yes, why not “Southampton saved from injustice by VAR”
However, how often do we see VAR not used correctly, or only referred to selectively?
How was Sp##s 2nd goal allowed with the assault on the Southampton player near the halfway line and what was VAR doing with this clear and obvious mistake by the referee
seismic
“Spurs were robbed of an equaliser by VAR”
Exactly what I shouted at the telly. How the f*** were Spurs ‘robbed’ when it was clearly offside.
But it’s all part of the eternal drip drip drip of the medias narrative. Okay, in itself, in isolation, it isn’t much, but the emotion they want to project, even though totally unjustified as Spurs were completely outplayed, is that Spurs were indeed ‘robbed’. Hard to really convince of that but at least say it. Plant the seed.
Also a post match comment from Crouch made me laugh.
“Spurs disappointed me. They were in complete control and let it slip”
Okay for about 15 minutes they weren’t being completely overran, but even when 2 – 1 up they were never in control, not at all.
The stats read:
Spurs: Shots = 8
Soton: Shots = 23
Spurs: On Target = 3
Soton: On Target = 10
Spurs were absolute rubbish. They only went in front due to an own goal.
All I know is if we’d been played of the park as Spurs were the focus would of been on how terrible we were, how disastrous the transfer window was for us, how the manager has to go, and how the club is clueless, and that would of been just our own fans and ex players !!
We got that after the first game of the season. A game the stats show we actually dominated, hit the woodwork 3 times in and deserved at least a draw from, at least. Yet we got slaughtered.
The focus last night was on ‘What a wonderful game’ Yes Southampton were wonderful. Spurs were not. And how unlucky Spurs were to have a ‘goal’ chalked off. No they wasn’t.
Steve Vallins
“How was Sp##s 2nd goal allowed with the assault on the Southampton player near the halfway line”
Again, 100%. That was without doubt a foul.
In addition, as far as I could see the Southampton players contested the decision easily as much as our ladies did the goal from Man City.
It will be interesting to see if Southampton get done for failing to control their players ?
Also what was that by Conte having a hissy fit up and down the touchline !
Will he get done ?
I’m not even saying they should. But it’s the sort of thing we DO GET DONE FOR, then we get told we have a discipline problem.