da pixbet： Arsenal face Liverpool this weekend with both teams desperate for a win.
da 888casino： Arsene Wenger’s side have suffered their usual February-time collapse and desperately need to build some momentum in order to salvage whatever’s left of their shattered dreams. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, however, have had such a dismal start to 2017 that they now find themselves out of every cup competition and out of contention in the league.
Defeat this weekend would not only see his Reds fall even further behind the Champions League places, but would also see seventh-placed Everton breathing down their necks.
It might be a cliche, but there’s a grain of truth to it: games like these are often settled by a piece of skill, a stroke of luck, or a mistake.
Losing due to luck or skill is one thing, but losing to a mistake is galling. And that is doubly hurtful when the mistake doesn’t even come from one of your own team, but the referee.
The weekend’s big game in the Premier League falls, this week, to Bobby Madley, a man who has refereed more than most in the Premier League this season, featuring in the middle of 19 games this season so far.
As you can see from the infographic, his ratio of home wins is fairly pronounced, and that might just have something to do with his style of refereeing.
He’s one of the most whistle-happy referees in the PL, blowing for an average of 25 fouls per game and doling out 77 yellow cards. Within the Premier League refereeing fraternity, Madley has some of the highest fouls-per-game and yellow cards-per-game ratios. On the other hand, he has only given one red card all season, despite taking charge of more Premier League games than all but three other referees. That red, incidentally, was a second yellow card given to Watford’s Miguel Britos in the final minute of their defeat to Stoke in November. Not even a straight red.
That tells us that Madley likes to keep the game under control rather than let it flow and risk chaos later on. He blows for plenty of fouls and gives out plenty of yellow cards, but because he has the game on such a tight leash, red cards are less likely to be seen.
Perhaps this is why the home team wins so often when Madley is in charge: his desire to keep the game under control means that the away team can’t start off by roughing up the opposition and putting them under undue pressure immediately.
Yet this weekend, perhaps it will have the opposite effect. Per game this season, Madley has given more fouls against Liverpool than any other side (17), perhaps showing that Liverpool’s high-pressing game is at odds with Madley’s outlook. There is also a clear difference between the 17 fouls per game he has given against Liverpool and the much fewer 10 fouls per game average he has against Arsenal.
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