With the double Gameweek affording us a realistic chance either to make up ground or put vital points between ourselves and those chasing, the weekly assessment of the men in black is here again to offer the alternative view of the key factors in play…
It was left to the final match of Gameweek last time out before a penalty was delivered, with the spot-kick awarded to Bolton in their win over Villa maintaining the record of at least one free shot being awarded in every Gameweek. That award took referee Chris Foy on to six for the season and lifted him to sixth place in the penalties per game stat. Foy’s appointment to the Stoke vs Arsenal match up, however, is not one that makes this round up, as we have to go back to 2010 to find the last penalty in this fixture (Cesc Fabregas in the 90th minute of the 3-1 away win). Robin van Persie may therefore have to wait a little longer for his next goal (he’s scored already vs Stoke – and has yet to score twice against any side other than Manchester United this season).
Instead, it’s the return of spot-kick loving Jonathan Moss to the roster, and a juicy double header for his mentor, Mike Dean, that take our fancy:
Jonathan Moss
Headteacher Moss is no stranger to this column, with seven penalties in his first 10 games this season and eight in his 12 match Premier League career. His appointment to the Liberty Stadium, as Swansea City take on a Wolves team now unburdened with the pressures of survival, looks intriguing. With seven penalties already conceded by the bottom club this season and a home record that has seen Swansea awarded six in their games so far in the Principality, there’s a fair chance we may see Scott Sinclair stepping up to boost his season tally. For Wolves, the freshness that their recent relegation may bring and a promise from manager Terry Connor to ‘respect the integrity’ of the competition, could result in a new verve to their play. The recent rise to the fore of wingers Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly, may afford Stephen Hunt a chance to add a consolation goal as he prepares to wave at his brother Noel when they swap divisions in the summer (there’s a little known unsaid ‘Hunt ruling’ that only one brother can grace the Premier League each season).
Mike Dean
It’s not difficult to justify the inclusion of a referee who tops the penalty giving charts, although with four straight games without pointing to the spot, we were thinking of looking beyond Mike Dean for a just a second. That was until the Match officials appointments turned up on Monday that is.
For a man with a penchant for the pen, things couldn’t get much better than to start your double Gameweek with a Wigan side who’ve been involved in more penalty awards than any other this season with 15 in total (seven for and eight against). However, the visit of Newcastle to the DW stadium puts the cherry on the cake as it pits the Latics against the only side to have conceded more penalties than them, topping the penalties conceded stat with nine. With all those moons aligned, there is clearly no fixture in the league season with a greater potential than this one for a penalty award. For Wigan, with early season specialist Ben Watson out of the picture, we’d expect whoever gets the starting nod from Jordi Gomez and Shaun Maloney to take on the responsibility of putting away from 12-yards. As for the Newcastle options, the presumption is that as Demba Ba has taken all three previous penalties in the League this season (scored two), that he is still the man in possession.
In a quirky twist from the appointments panel, Dean’s second game of this bumper Gameweek happen to place him at the other end of the potential penalty scale, as in Spurs’ trip to Bolton. Here we will see the team with the fewest penalties conceded – Spurs, with only Mario Balotelli’s injury time winner on their record from January – up against the team sitting just one place above them in that table. Just in case though, we’d expect Rafael van der Vaart and Martin Petrov to do the honours should they be given the opportunity.
