Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
RefWatch – Fulham v Arsenal (22/05/2011 16:00)
By DogFace
- Referee: Martin Atkinson
- Assistant 1: Jake Collin
- Assistant 2: Adam Watts
- 4th Official: Michael Oliver
Good morning stat-fans and welcome to the last EVER RefWatch (this season)… and it’s Sunday again – but this time, at least, everyone plays!
Before I start (or stat) I would like to say thanks to everyone for reading these rather autistic outbursts of mine and perhaps taking the time absorb some of it and think about the numbers. My goal is for every Untold reader to be able to glance at a game on telly and be able to say who the ref is and if he is good or one team or the other… then maybe look closer and examine the match for any bias or a lack of consistency and, unprompted, be able to spot the tell-tale signs of a tilted pitch and point out to your mates exactly what’s going on.
And then maybe – wonder why it has to be this way?
A fan can dream eh… a fan can dream.
Anyhoo – without further ado; let’s have a look at the Referee:
- Full name: Martin Atkinson
- Date of birth: 31 March 1971 (1971-03-31) (age 40)
- Place of birth: Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
- EPL Referee Since: 2004/2005
- EPL Games to date: 153
I’m sorry Arsené it’s beyond my control… you’re just not allowed to win this one.
Yup, it’s Martin Atkinson again… the one Wenger was fined 8k, and got a touchline ban, after he pushed him (as the 4th official) for giving Sunderland ‘as long as it took’ to get an equaliser. Come on you must remember him – that one who didn’t even give a yellow for that challenge from Manchester City’s Nigel de Jong’s on Hatem Ben Arfa that broke his leg… let’s hope he doesn’t go soft on Fulham eh when it comes to the tackles!
The 4th official for today is Michael Oliver – so maybe we’ll see Wenger turn and hoof him up the arse as Fulham equalise from an offside position in the 7th minute of the 5 minutes injury time or whatever.
Actually – now I come to think of it, we have had Atkinson before for this fixture in the last two consecutive seasons; we won one and lost one: 2009/2010 season 26/09/2009 – Fulham 0-1 Arsenal and 2008/2009 season 23/08/2008 – Fulham 1-0 Arsenal – which is a bit of a coincidence, odds anyone?
Martin Atkinson has had 15 games for Fulham consisting of 9 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses
Fulham are currently in 4th in Martin Atkinson’s personal Points Per Game League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an average of 1.93 PPG.
In Martin Atkinson’s personal Handicap Swing League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Fulham come 2nd with an average positive swing of 0.95.
Fulham are currently in 1st in Martin Atkinson’s personal Booking’s Per Match League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an overall average of 1.13 BPM.
In Martin Atkinson’s personal Fouls Per Booking League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Fulham come 1st with an overall average of 11.18 FPB.
What strikes me initially from this is not only the rather high PPG (for a mid/low table club) and AHS swing figures for Fulham… and then I look at the FPB figures – this season Fulham have smashed the roof off under Martin Atkinson with a mind boggling 35 FPB!
Martin Atkinson has had 14 games for Arsenal consisting of 8 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses
Arsenal are currently in 3rd in Martin Atkinson’s personal Points Per Game League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an average of 2.00 PPG.
In Martin Atkinson’s personal Handicap Swing League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Arsenal come 3rd with an average positive swing of 0.71.
Arsenal are currently in 12th in Martin Atkinson’s personal Booking’s Per Match League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, with an overall average of 1.86 BPM.
In Martin Atkinson’s personal Fouls Per Booking League (for teams with a minimum of 5 matches played), for matches in the English Premier, Arsenal come 15th with an overall average of 5.96 FPB.
Ok – so in stark contrast to Fulham, Arsenal (this season) under Martin Atkinson have received a booking every 4.4 fouls… some 30.6 fouls less than Fulham. Consistency anyone?
As we can see from Martin Atkinson’s rather hectic ‘Vs EPL’ chart, Fulham do rather well – in fact this season they are top of the pops with a scorching +2.25 goals against the handicap. We have done well and badly under him in the past – bouncing like a yoyo against the handicap – the plots look to be that Arsenal are on the decline while Fulham are on the up. Chelsea have always done well under Martin Atkinson both in PPG and AHS and this testifies in all his figures… Manchester United and Martin have never really got on – remember the Chelsea Vs Man U game this season? The only other point of note is the steady rise of Manchester City in his figures – and this is a concern.
The Predictortron gives Fulham a 0.296022 of a goal advantage.