Here at The Scout we’re always looking for an edge, something that will give both us and our readers a little extra when the action unfolds at the weekend. With that in mind (and a nod to the readership) we bring you a new angle on the Fantasy fare; a statistical look at the middle men….

We spend hours, days, even whole weeks considering the players to entrust with our Fantasy fortunes but despite their fine skills and vast wages, even they are rendered impotent when it comes to the shrill blasts and flashes of cardboard that punctuate our beautiful game. With red and yellow cards, and perhaps most notably the awarding of penalties, these men in yellow, blue, orange and occasionally black have the power to make or break a gameweek with a single decision – and, as we’ll find, some are significantly more likely to than others.

Michael Oliver

Having celebrated his 27th birthday this week, Mr Oliver is easily the youngest referee on the roster, and perhaps this goes some way to explain the general good feeling towards him (his very low yellow card average – 2.43 per match, is another good indication, though). Scratch the surface of his stats so far this season, however, and we find a potential gem staring us in the face.

The fresh faced official tops the ‘penalties per match’ stat ahead of the weekend with, on average, a spot-kick awarded for every 2 Premier League games officiated (7 in 14). With his last two games failing to deliver anything more than a few yellow cards, his fingers must be twitching in anticipation.

The powers that be have assigned him to Stamford Bridge this weekend, as Chelsea take on Bolton and, with stats like those, the designated penalty takers will have pricked their ears at that news, potentially giving Monday’s Watchlist candidate Juan Mata a chance to really stake his claim to the duties he has supposedly been afforded by Villas-Boas.

Bolton have conceded just 2 spot-kicks all season, though, whereas Chelsea have doubled that tally, with 4. All three of the Trotters’ designated takers, Ivan Klasnic, Kevin Davies and Martin Petrov, have fallen out of favour of late, making it difficult to ascertain just who would step up, in the event of an award for the away side on Saturday.

Mike Dean

The other appointment of note ahead of the Gameweek 26 fixtures was that of penalty-giver extraordinaire Mike Dean to the north London Derby fixture between Arsenal and Spurs. If this had been last season, we could almost guarantee a penalty (or two) from this appointment and, if it weren’t for Michael Oliver, then Dean would once again be topping those stats, having awarded eight league penalties at a ratio of 0.4 per game.

A nod, then, to a couple of Dutch masters, Robin van Persie and fit again Rafa van der Vaart ahead of Sunday’s clash. It’s also worth noting, though, that the rivals have conceded just 3 penalties between them all season, with Spurs’ 1 the joint-lowest in the league, alongside Fulham.

A further point of interest on Mike Dean is that he also sits second only to Phil Dowd in the yellow card tables with 65 handed out in his 20 league games compared to Dowd’s 72 at 4 per game. In a fixture that’s likely to be spicy before it’s even started, and both van Persie and van der Vaart no stranger to over exuberant censure (most recently in European competition – Barcelona and Twente respectively spring to mind from last season), then don’t be surprised to see the odd point missing from their final gameweek score. The Gunners, in particular, will need to be aware of Dean’s penchant for flashing the cards- they’ve picked up 14 more bookings than Spurs already this term.

Mike Jones

Finally on our refereeing round up, we turn to the third name in our hit list, Mike Jones. Not so well known, but into his fourth season as a top flight referee, it’s this unassuming figure that tops the red card stat for the season so far.

With reds shown for two yellows included in our numbers, Mr Jones has now dismissed five players in his 15 games (most recently Gareth Barry in Gameweek 20), and with 63 yellow cards to his name (including a massive eight in the gameweek 7 match up between Swansea and Stoke) at an average of 4.20 per game – his officiating may be key if Blackburn and Man City are to maintain a full complement of players for the 90 minutes.

Of the two teams, Rovers have been far more inclined to pick up a booking- 48 yellows is the third worst disciplinary record, whereas City, with 32 bookings, have the fourth best. For Steve Kean and the visitors’ sake, it’s maybe a good job that Jason Lowe is also suspended, then.