Over the last number of years, ABU’s and others would always say that Manchester United always get penalties, and that teams never get penalties at Old Trafford. Well after a review of the past ten and a bit seasons, I think we can smash this myth once and for all. Only one belief can perhaps held for the ABU’s out there however.
I’ve taken Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and of course United and shone the spotlight on them. Below, there’s a clear breakdown in black and white illustrating the penalties awarded and conceded at home and away all the way back to the 2000/2001 campaign. I’ve included any penalties so far in the league this season, and the fact that Man City are pretty average, they weren’t even in the Premier League one season so stats for the bitters are a little off.
So what can we take from these FACTS? Well, Arsenal get the most clearly, and United get the same as Liverpool. That’s interesting! If you take a look at the graphic below, you’ll see that United do not get the bulk of their penalties at Old Trafford which most rival fans thought. In fact, Arsenal get almost 3/4 of their penalties at home which is an awful lot especially considering they’ve been awarded the most overall! But United get all the decisions at Old Trafford…don’t they?
In terms of conceding penalties in the League, I suppose this is there is only one slither of a stat for the rivals to cling to, and that is the fact that United have conceded the least amount of penalties in the League over the period of time examined. But they’ve had a higher percentage of the conceded penalties awarded at Old Trafford than others, so perhaps it’s harder to get a penalty elsewhere! Liverpool and Chelsea have each had a lower percentage of their conceded penalties awarded at Anfield and Stamford Bridge respectively.
When I had a look at the referees to see just who was awarding how many it was a little blatant Howard Webb’s generosity to United. Below is a list (since the 2006/2007 season until Feb 25th 2011) of all the referees who awarded penalties to the five clubs I’ve singled out. Each club has one or more referees highlighted, those officials being the ones to award the most penalties to that club. Oh Howard!
It’s quite satisfying to have the cold hard facts in front of me telling me that Arsenal are more likely than any other of the top teams to get a penalty, and that Stamford Bridge and Anfield are just as unforgiving to visitors as Old Trafford.
Q.E.D.
Feel free to leave a comment below.
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9 Responses
Smashing the myth? All you seem to be doing is proving that either
a) you are mathematically illiterate – or
b) you are so biased that you can’t see the truth even if it is staring you right in the face.
So your argument begins thus;
‘If you take a look at the graphic below, you’ll see that United do not get the bulk of their penalties at Old Trafford which most rival fans thought. ‘
Factually incorrect. Does 31 out of 49 (almost two thirds) not represent ‘the bulk’? it dooes, surely, for evrybody else?
So is that the myth now ‘smashed’?
Whoever wrote this is stupid and cannot even read his own figures.
Total number of penalties for United at old trafford = 31
Total number of penalties against United at old trafford = 7
So clearly United do get all the decisions at Old Trafford.
Plus your percentages are wrong.
There’s also so much else that is wrong with the article it is laughable and not even worth reading.
Are you completely thick? “Clearly United get all the decisions at Old Trafford”. True, but so do Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and (less obviously) City. It might have occurred to you that the top clubs attack more at home and are more likely to get a penalty than concede one. Truth is, an opponent is not more or less likely to be awarded a penalty at Old Trafford than at Anfield, Emirates or Stamford Bridge, BUT they do need to get into the penalty area first to stand a chance.
Interesting analysis…here is an alternative presentation of the facts. FACT 1 United have conceded fewer penalties in the league than all their main rivals (just 20 in over ten seasons) and half the number Arsenal have conceded(40). FACT 2 United have conceded the fewest number of penalties at their home ground (just 7 in over ten seasons) FACT 3 Howard Webb is a red!
The biggest problem I see with your analysis is that you are taking the fact that some sides win a larger percentage of penalties at home than away as a sign of greater bias. Another explanation is that those sides are far more dominant at home and struggle to win away games, Arsenal being a classic example.
As for the refs and the numbers of pens they’ve awarded those figures are meaningless without knowing the number of games they’ve ref’d and against who- awarding 5 pens in 5 games to one side is very different to awarding 5 in 20, so is awarding 5 pens in 5 4-0 victories as opposed to 5 in 5 1-0 victories.
To properly judge the effect of bias you’d have to produce some sort of scoring system on all the penalties awarded in the Prem (say where 10 was a definite penalty and he ref was in a perfect position to see it and 0 was obviously not a penalty and the ref was in a bad position so shouldn’t award) . Then take a look at the number of penalties awarded below a certain score and those not awarded above that score and work out some sort of bias factor. I’d suggest you’d need a panel of refs to do the scoring and you’d have to anonymise the teams so no bias was possible (faces hidden, shirts changed to random colours)
All of which would be costly and time consuming.
[...] Originally Posted by dicki Just think of all those penalties turned down at Old Trafford. Just think of all the extra points we'd have had, had those dirty refs actually given us any of them. http://stretfordenders.net/statistic…the-penalties/ [...]
Would have been nice to see how many games each ref has officiated for each team (and home/away break-down too). Just because Webb has given more penalties for Utd doesn’t mean he is biased. Could be he has reffed more of their games. Another interesting stat would be how many penalties awarded against the teams!
I won’t add to the chorus of above comments pointing out this less than objective analysis. A good example of how to manipulate statistics to suit the audience.
Perhaps you could add a table that shows ratio of ‘penalties for’ to ‘penalties against’. If I’m not mistaken:
United 2.5
Chelsea 2.1
Liverpool 1.5
Arsenal 1.5
City 1.1
I’d like to know how many penalty decisions the teams get that they shouldn’t plus goal that are given that shouldn’t?? It seams to me man united get the decisions that win them championships like the disallowed goal that spurs scored shocking