RefWatch – Arsenal v Wigan Athletic (22/01/2011 15:00) « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
RefWatch – Arsenal v Wigan Athletic (22/01/2011 15:00)
By DogFace
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Today’s RefWatch is dedicated to Phil Gregory (although Dogface hasn’t approved this because we didn’t have time to tell him). Phil writes on economics and does our match previews, and today joins the refereeing clan by taking his first match. Everyone at Untold and in the wider multiverse wishes you all the best Phil
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- Referee: Kevin Friend
- Assistant 1: 2nd Official
- Assistant 2: 3rd Official
- 4th Official: Lee Probert
Good morning stat-fans and welcome to an unusually piss poor Refwatch.
‘But why?’
I hear you ask [yes I hear you]; well – it breaks down like this – today we have the pleasure of Kevin Friend and this is his first time ever at the whistle for Arsenal in the EPL.
‘But what about Wigan’
I hear you interject… well – our Kev has only had one match for Wigan and they lost that finishing at -1.00 against the handicap – so I suppose that’s something.
‘SO TELL US ABOUT THE 4th OFFICIAL!’
I hear you yell… ok – it’s the same 4th official we had in the last EPL (West Ham United) game and not much has changed then – we have Lee Probert involved in an EPL Arsenal match yet again – what are the odds of that then?
A recap: 1 win, 2 draws and 0 losses; 1.67 PPG, +0.33 AHS, 1.00 BPM and 11.33 FPB – more info can be found here:
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/10312
‘Right, then make up a nice pretty graph about Lee Probert and Wigan then and let’s look at that’
I hear you feign interest… ok – I’ll do that but, if you recall, we did have Lee Probert as the referee in the previous EPL match against Wigan [away] in which we were mugged 2-2, but we’ll have another glance right after we have a quick look at Kevin Friend:
- Full name: Kevin Friend
- Date of birth: 8 July 1971 (1971-07-08) (age 39)
- Home town: Leicestershire, England
- EPL Referee Since: 2009/2010
- EPL Games to date: 21
Suits you sir!
What’s encouraging here is that Kevin is a sprightly 39 and should be able to keep up with the run of play, but as a relative new boy, and will probably be relying on the more ‘experienced’ Lee Probert for guidance. Lee has been a referee since he was 13 as he was crap at football – well this may or may not be the case but the real reason is that his father [Doug Friend] was also a referee. There seems to be a lot this sort of thing going on at the ‘highest’ levels of refereeing in the UK [following in the father’s footsteps] which just goes to show, it’s not what you know it’s who you know… and also what you know… y’know?
Our Kev has had his share of the usual controversies, selective myopia and erratic calls [as you would expect from a Select Group referee] but most of those were just him proving his mugging mettle in the Championship so we should be fair to him here as an EPL official, just keep an eye on him and document it.
So without further ado – let’s check out how Wigan do under the auspices [or not] of Lee Probert:
Lee Probert has had 10 games for Wigan Athletic consisting of 0 wins, 3 draws and 7 losses… and we thought we had it bad – that is woeful form in anyone’s book.
Wigan Athletic are currently in 25th in Lee Probert’s personal Points Per Game, for matches in the EPL, with an average of 0.30 PPG – yes that’s right – less that a 3rd of a point per game – a whole season of that kind of form and you would finish with 11 points!
In Lee Probert’s personal Handicap Swing League, for matches in the EPL, Wigan Athletic come 22nd with an average negative swing of -0.68… hmm, not as bad – so it looks like Wigan have had a lot of games under Lee that they were never expected to win anyway – but still pretty poor… which is amazing really when you consider how much of a positive swing he gave them this season in the 2-2 draw!
In other news – Wigan Athletic are currently in 19th in Lee Probert’s personal Booking’s Per Match League, for matches in the EPL, with an overall average of 1.60 BPM and in Lee Probert’s personal Fouls Per Booking League, for matches in the EPL, Wigan Athletic come 14th with an overall average of 8.56 FPB.
Let’s have a look now at what little data exists regarding Kevin Friend vs the EPL for the swing agains the handicap (selected teams only):
Teams on the down-swing are Blackburn, Bolton, Stoke and Tottenham [I approve] and teams on the up-swing are Birmingham, Fulham and Sunderland. As I said – very little data – but if you can find some kind of pattern there worthy of note then please leave a comment.
So what can we expect?! I dunno… I mean – I reckon we’ll win or we should do – even if we have the pitch of the pitch titled against us we’ll still have ‘the pitch’ in that it’s not a cabbage patch [like Wigan’s] so it’ll be all passes, moves and avoid the hooves!
But before I go I did notice a couple of games that caught mine eye – I wouldn’t normally say anything but it’s such a minimalist Refwatch that I may as well give you something.
Consider these Manchester matches:
Match 1 – the Murks v the Burks
- Manchester United v Birmingham City (15:00)
- Referee: Mike Jones
- Assistant 1: John Flynn
- Assistant 2: Andy Madley
- 4th Official: Phil Dowd
Just like the Tottenham game – this is a bad choice of officials for the Red Devils… so maybe we are witnessing a little ‘reigning in’ here to plump the brand. Everyone bangs on about how the EPL is biased in favour of the Murky Mancs… and it is in a way – but there are conflicts of bias that you must understand. These things are not black and white and despite SAF’s influence, he’ll never get it all his own way – after all, it’s in nobody’s economic interest for Manchester United to win the EPL before the ides of May.
Let’s look to the other side of Manchester
- Aston Villa v Manchester City (17:30)
- Referee : Howard Webb
- Assistant 1: Dave Bryan
- Assistant 2: Darren Cann
- 4th Official: Mike Dean
Ho, ho, ho – if Mancini is ‘clued up’ here he’ll be parking that gold plated bus again – almost a ‘perfect storm’ methinks! Waddayareckon – Darren Bent to score on his debut? I can almost hear the orgasmic excitement of the Sky commentators already.
*yawn*
But don’t get your hopes up, it’s a funny old game and we’ll wait and see what the weekend brings.
The Complete Wigan Extravaganza
Step aside Ms Cheese – Phil’s got his computer going
Bogus Cheese runs her fingers over the pundits
Snooping around Wigan. (This might be a health hazard)
And Elsewhere
The Untold Untolds (plus some Untold Tolds)