As I often do, I'd like to share with you my work in progress.| I will add more data to the chart, with For/Against decisions, goals, cards, etc... But for now, this is the first iteration. As sourced from ESPN UK, this relates purely to overturned decisions. [1/2]

About that #NEWTOT penalty... The new rules introduced this season should be clear enough, but as with almost any other rule in this game, it's the refereeing inconsistency that ruins it for everyone. The only precedent this year is #FULMUN (again thanks to VAR), but it happens in almost every game

New appointments, new chapter in the Where Is Jarred Gillett saga... What is going on?

The #BURCRY game tomorrow will be Thomas Kirk's debut as a PL on-field official. He is one of the new referees added to the SG1 Supplementary List this season and has featured in 5 games as 4th so far. These are his current stats in the lower leagues (www.whoscored.com/referees/759...)

New match officials appointments for matchweek 15: www.premierleague.com/en/news/4480... The big issue is Jones as 4th for #BRIWHA: - he does not officiate EVE or LIV ever, so there is a conflict there - the following week there's #LIVBRI 4th officials may sub the on-field, so there is a risk

Here's the latest VAR Review by ESPN UK: www.espn.com/soccer/story... | #CHEARS #CRYMUN #AVLWOL

To clarify the penalty retake incident in #CRYMUN, this is what the law states. The rule was changed this year, following the discussion around Julian Alvarez' penalty in the UCL (Atletico Madrid-Real Madrid).

Just found this from another TikTok account, praising the Chelsea players for their attitude in #CHEARS. The thing is, this is a blatant foul and, at the very least, a yellow card for excessive force. Taylor did not interrupt the play at all. VAR did not look. Somehow reminded me of Vinnie Jones

In #MCILEE, the Gvardiol goal should have been ruled out. There have been lots of examples of players' "awkward" positions in front of goal, with mixed outcomes, but this is plainly and simply a foul because Silva is hugely impeding Perri. [1/3]

While playing, I met colleagues with a gambling addiction, both mild and hardcore. It's a very complex matter, and there's a risk of oversimplifying it, by fans and pundits. From the inside, it is painful because you don't know how to help your teammate, and there is no support at League level [1/4]

Anthony Taylor had a shockingly bad day in #CHEARS, and he lost any grip on the game as early as the 5th minute when he decided not to book Caicedo for his behaviour (found this angle on TikTok, sorry for the overlay text). From there, it was total mayhem. [1/5]

So much happens behind closed doors these days that fans don't get to see, let alone fathom. And a few journalists are doing an amazing job to uncover all of that 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

An interesting match to scrutinise will be #EVENEW, considering it features the same ref as last season, Craig Pawson, who did not cover himself in glory back then: www.goodisonnews.com/2024/10/15/p... With Darren England at VAR (back in Merseyside after his shocking derby) Data may follow later

One more about discipline, waiting to see how Anthony Taylor will handle the #CHEARS game... This is the discipline trend for both Arsenal and Chelsea after matchweek 12 since 2001 (when PGMOL was formed). Both yellow and red cards are included.

Considering Anthony Taylor's 'happy' handling of yellow cards, it will be interesting to see what happens in #CHEARS... - Arsenal have received the fewest yellows, going 4 games without 1 - Chelsea are on the opposite end with 25 (max is 32 for Brighton), on top of a double yellow and 2 reds [1/2]

Ahead of #CHEARS, I have collected data on Anthony Taylor. The previous post showed his history with the Big6 since the VAR introduction; this is his whole PL career as an on-field referee since his debut (with current PL clubs). [1/2]

So... Anthony Taylor... Let's begin with his history with the 'Big 6' since the introduction of VAR. Chelsea are on a good run with him, including this season's win over Liverpool, while Arsenal's wins have dramatically shrunk. Will the pattern continue on Sunday?

Big statement wins for Chelsea and Arsenal in UCL... this Sunday's clash will be juicy. The match will be officiated on-field by Anthony Taylor, so I'll be doing the same deep analysis for him that I did for Oliver last week. Coming later today

[Rant] Sorry, I want to keep it professional, but I can't ignore this man's doing. I hoped FIFA had learned their lesson after Blatter/Platini, but Infantino has gone up 10 levels. He is transforming this sport into a circus, in broad daylight. The Ronaldo thing is mad www.espn.com/soccer/story...

We need to talk about Jarred Gillett... How does the most overused PL referee go from officiating 3.4 matches per week to disappearing entirely from the match sheets? And is the time of his VAR rejection just a coincidence? [1/8]

All Brazilians, no Defenders. On the opposite end, the players who are punished more harshly are... - Dewsbury-Hall (EVE): 5 cards for 14 fouls (2.8) - Romero (TOT): 5x12 (2.4) - Iroegbunam (EVE): 4x6 (1.5) - Jiménez (BOU): 4x5 (1.25) - Grealish (EVE): 3x4 (1.33) - Danso (TOT): 3x3 (1.00)

Here are the appointments for Matchweek 13 (www.premierleague.com/en/news/4466...) and 14 (midweek, www.premierleague.com/en/news/4473...) I will check for conflicts and workload later in the week, once I get the EFL appointments as well.

Waiting for #MUNEVE in about an hour, here's my updated Discipline chart. I still can't comprehend Newcastle's "favourable" treatment: they make the fewest tackles, though these are the 5th most reckless, and yet they go almost totally unpunished. Same as last season, so there's a clear pattern.

Not PGMOL-related, but interesting nonetheless, Spurs have registered two of the lowest xG ever in the PL in just three matchweeks (0.05 v Chelsea and 0.07 yesterday). They appear 3x in this list (under 0.1), while Arsenal appear 4x on the benefiting end (3x CRY). www.statmuse.com/fc/ask/lowes...

It's confusing, isn't it? You watch the Eze goal in #ARSTOT and the Murillo goal in #LIVNFO and you ask yourself, why aren't these disallowed? Same referee as in #MCILIV (Oliver), opposite decisions. The reason is the same I described in my post about the Van Dijk goal... [1/4]

The VAR Review by ESPN UK is out with the #LIVNFO incidents: www.espn.co.uk/football/sto... This ESPN review used to be packed with all the incidents from the weekend, so it's annoying that it is now so barebones and lacking crucial content.

Quite a few incidents yesterday... This one in #NEWMCI looks horrible in this frame, doesn't it? Before I present you with the Law, my take as ex-player is that this is a penalty because the tackle can be very harmful and Schar totally misjudged his timing. BUT it's not as straightforward [1/5]

A quick one showing the match officials' fouls/yellow ratio so far this season... They are pretty much all down from last season, with roughly 150 fewer yellow cards issued than in the same matchweek last year.

Following some feedback I received on the last infographic (thanks!), I added the counts as well. The filled dot shows 'on-field' and the outlined one shows 'VAR'. Hopefully, this is more helpful now 😅

I'm going to end this "Michael Oliver week" with this last chart, showing the frequency and results of his appointments to the 'Big6' since VAR adoption. In 2021-22, City won all those games while United didn't win a single one. And overall, it doesn't look too bad for Arsenal, does it?

Apologies, I missed this story two days ago: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Following up on yesterday's post about Michael Oliver and the #ARSTOT derby, I collected data on his history as an on-field referee since his debut (with current PL clubs). Then I got curious and checked how all clubs fared against City, to satisfy the conspiracy theorists 😅 [1/4]

Fans rarely see past their own turf and a good example is the upcoming #ARSTOT derby. Both sides are flooding the web with theories claiming Oliver is biased toward their respective club. Could be, but the history of Oliver's derbies says 3 wins ARS, 2 wins TOT, 2 draws so it's fairly even [1/3]

All appointments for Matchweek 12: www.premierleague.com/en/news/4461... My notes to follow... [1/3]

Some really big differences compared to last season in the fouls/yellow ratios. Arsenal, Manchester United and West Ham seem much more disciplined this season, but other clubs are being punished more, even though they don't play much dirtier.

So, the KMI panel confirmed the doubts I had on second thoughts, that the goal was disallowed for the wrong reason and therefore should have stood (convoluted but makes sense), and that VAR could not intervene (bsky.app/profile/pgmo...) : www.si.com/soccer/premi...

Based on the same analysis from earlier... If you're curious to learn how it unfolded last season, these were all the same-region appointments. There are no London-based referees in SG1 to officiate on-field, but three match officials who are often on VAR duty are in London or Essex.

Something very surprising I found when researching for the analysis I mentioned earlier, is that Transfermarkt has a massively incomplete set of data regarding referees (www.transfermarkt.com/premier-leag...). In fact, most of the data between 2021 and 2024 is missing! 😱😱😱

Here is the first draft of my analysis of same-region referee appointments for 'Big6' games since PGMOL's formation in 2001. Territory is a clear criterion to determine a conflict of interest when appointing referees (the policy is linked later in this thread), so some questions arise [1/4]

A small extract from the data analysis I am working on... 2001-02: PGMOL is formed; 2019-20: VAR introduced (hence the double bars). Those bars show the number of same-city appointments to the Big6. In 2019-20, United had Manchester refs for way more than half the season No bars, zero refs.

I find this "Match Officials Mic'd Up" show totally pointless (there's no real debate, and 99.9% of the time we merely listen to Webb say, "yeah, it's all good, we have the greatest refs in the world"), but hey, to each their own. www.skysports.com/football/vid...

I may have rushed it a little... bsky.app/profile/pgmo... I stand by my reasoning that Robertson becomes active because he ducks away, BUT... This was the exact call: "Robertson in an offside position and deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper", and that... [1/4]

In #SUNARS Pawson made some particularly poor decisions, both in key incidents and in his management of the game. For once, I want to start addressing these by sharing a parody from a TikTok account that often pops up in my feed: www.tiktok.com/@morgantrotm... It's comedy but not off by much [1/7]

In the meantime, ESPN UK has published a VAR review for the #MCILIV incidents: www.espn.co.uk/football/sto... Personally, I tend to agree with the disallowed goal. Though I want to elaborate a few points... [1/6]

I'm working on an analysis on the whole of the Premier LEague era (since 1992), so my updates on last weekend may be delayed. I want to write about #SUNARS, #MCILIV and #BRENEW but the analysis is taking time, sorry.

Biased content, but they were the first to post, so I'll share this for now: www.liverpool.com/liverpool-fc... Referee was Chris Kavanagh from Manchester (training on City ground) and VAR was Michael Oliver who... well, you know.

Looks like the automation is not working as expected... I will have a look into it during the week :/

Still very surprised by Newcastle's big jumps between tackles, fouls and yellow cards, but there are others to note as well: - 5 teams with low fouls/tackle ratio - Fulham, high fouls/tackle - Fulham, Wolves and Arsenal, low cards/foul - Everton, Liverpool and Sunderland, high fouls/yellow 🤔

If you're interested in getting to know the referees better, "PGMO Touchline Talks" is a series produced by PGMOL featuring interviews and insights from referees and other officials. The aim is to provide a behind-the-scenes look into the world of match officiating. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOJG...

Often, when you are at the bottom of the table, you are more nervous, commit more fouls and get more cards. Not the case for Burnley so far this season. Only the Manchester clubs and Sunderland have committed fewer fouls and they ended 3 games without receiving a yellow (Arsenal tops that with 4)