Saturday, October 04, 2008

penalties


Sorry Gareth, this is another boring football blog!
I was in a conversation the other day about the apparent lack of penalties referees seem to award against the “top” sides when they’re playing at home. Well, thanks to google, I’ve discovered that it’s absolutely true! Over the past ten years in the Premiership, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have only “given away” 8 penalties each (ie. less than one a season!)… in fact, in all that time, Man U have only conceded 18 penalties home+away in total (compared, for example, with Villa’s total of 49, including 16 at home).
I’m not saying that referees are scared of the big managers or the home crowds (oh no!), but what are the odds of Villa being awarded a penalty at Chelsea tomorrow?

2 comments:

John Hancock said...

Did they actually make it into Chelsea's penalty area though?

bigdaddystevieB said...

fair comment, but I've seen refs give penalties outside the area before now!!