Guest writer: Kedge
It’s a Saturday night. There you are curled up on the sofa with the one you love (a can of lager?) watching 'Match of the Day'...
The post match interview: on comes one of the managers, usually French with a name that sounds like 'Whinger' and complains about the referee favouring the opposition.
So which teams get all the penalty decisions in their favour?
Based on the number of goals scored from the spot in the Premiership so far this season (because I didn’t have easy access to the actual number of penalties awarded), here's what I found:
8 goals
Arsenal
6 goals
Bolton
Everton
Aston Villa
5 goals
Tottenham
4 goals
Man Utd
Liverpool
Blackburn
Newcastle
Middlesbrough
3 goals
Chelsea
Fulham
Charlton
2 goals
Reading
Portsmouth
Man City
Wigan
Sheff Utd
1 goal
West Ham
Watford
Was that the result you expected?
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
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5 comments:
There is a saying that decisions favour the big clubs, which is show here.
Not just that Arsenal are top, but look at the least amount of penalties awarded - mostly bottom of the table teams.
Some of the more astute of us will say thats because the teams with more penalties have more attacks than those at the bottom - hence their respective positions in the league table.
It doesnt suprise me that Arsenal are top as they both attack and dive a lot in the penalty area. As does Andy Johnson of Everton, hence their position.
What does suprise me, however, is the position of Manchester United and Chelsea. Have the referees wised up to the diving antics from the likes of Ronaldo, Drogba, Robben?
You see - I knew there was a good reason why West Ham were near the foot of the table... ;-)
The Johnson=Diver thing is just lazy journalism coupled with managerial excuse mongering. If you look at Andy Johnson's season he had that period where 6-8 definite penaltys were denied him (as admitted by Keith Hackett). Johnson is constantly bursting into the box at pace & getting goal-side of defenders...they have little option but to let him go or foul him.
Stuey,
Try here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj6nR0K9FPg
... or here ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93jVXnhN8tE&mode=related&search=
.. infact, all I did was type 'Andy Johnson Dive' into YouTube and the search engine nearly went bezerk.
Lazy journalism - or lazy football?
I've got to say I'm inclined to agree. Much as I don't hate the bloke or anything, I do think he looks for penalties when he's in the box.
Other people do it, he's not the first and he won't be the last, but he does hit the deck a little too often for my liking.
Just my opinion...
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