For those of you who didn’t see last week’s first foray into this new area, these articles aim to highlight the potential that a simple referee assignment can bring to the Gameweek proceedings. If last week was anything to go by, it seems a worthwhile exercise.
The north London derby was the game and Mike Dean the main protagonist. The man in the middle lived up to his reputation with not just the anticipated penalty – duly given for a foul on Tottenham’s Gareth Bale and dispatched by Emmanuel Adebayor – but also the predicted flurry of yellow cards at the Emirates last Sunday.
Eight cautions were made in total during the resounding 5-2 home win, with two of those earning a red card for the new England captain, Scott Parker. It’s only fair then that Mr Dean, the pick of last week’s trio of Michaels, gets the headline slot this time out.
Mike Dean
Now finding himself atop the season totals for penalties given (with nine so far) Dean has been handed a second consecutive derby assignment, as he treks the 280 miles up the A1 to take the reins of the Tyne-Wear derby, where Newcastle and Sunderland do battle at the Sports Direct Arena.
While Sunderland sit bottom of the penalties table with just a single spot-kick awarded in the league this season (won and missed by Seb Larsson), Newcastle are not much better off, with just two themselves. When we look at penalties conceded, however, that’s when the ears prick up. No team have more spot-kicks awarded against them than Newcastle (eight) and, while only six have found their way past Tim Krul, it’s still an omen that the tricky James McLean or Stéphane Sessègnon could take advantage of; Newcastle’s defenders best beware, then. Fresh from his two goals for Sweden in midweek, Larsson is still the presumed penalty taker despite that December miss and is in our thoughts this week, as is Demba Ba for the hosts.
Phil Dowd
Second up in our analysis is another refereeing heavyweight, with the Stoke-based official lined up to take charge of his 20th Premier League match this season, as West Brom take on Chelsea. Saturday’s game will pit the team with the most yellow cards this season (Chelsea, 55) against the referee to have handed out the greatest number of cautions (76 in 19 games). Don’t be surprised, then, to see either Raul Meireles or David Luiz find themselves in the book and walking a tightrope through the rest of the match. In the case of the Portuguese midfielder, that tightrope would continue into the next week should he collect a booking, as it would be Meireles’ ninth of the campaign and put him one away from a 2 match ban.
Andre Marriner
Looking down the table of referees, Marriner is not one that stands out at first glance. His 49 yellow cards puts him just sixth amongst his colleagues, and his three red cards again rank him just off the pace setters. However, factor in that the West Midlands whistler has taken charge of just 12 games this season, and he starts to look a more interesting prospect.
For his thirteenth top level outing this term, Marriner will be taking charge of the match between Wigan and Swansea– this pits the team who’ve committed the most fouls (Wigan with 335) against the team with the least (Swansea’s 216). When you also consider that Wigan have been involved in the highest number of penalty awards this term (14, six awarded and eight conceded), then a punt on current penalty taker Jordi Gomez, or his penalty saving specialist goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, might be on the cards.
