Fulham v Arsenal: the metaphors might be failing, but Arsenal are on the up
Next Post Coming Soon...
No matter what, they will pick the man they want, and rely on their blanket ruling to the mainstream media that talking about referees is not an acceptable option if they want to have their reporters gain free admission to the special boxes in the grounds where they are housed.
To be precise, this is the man who sent Declan Rice off with a second yellow for tapping the ball back a couple of yards. The referee was not only criticised for that card waving but for the fact that multiple other players engage in each week without reprimand). If you want some coverage Daily Canon covered the issue.
But it certainly had its effect since all the media turned on Arsenal as the dirtiest team ever.
The big issue is one of consistency and comparison – for nasty foul by a defender might get a yellow card, the same as tapping the ball back, which defender after defender does as the forward edges the ball forward to gain an advantage at the free kick?
But as we also have pointed out to us in the same article this referee’s performance in the 2-2 draw with Chelsea.
So what are we to make of him? In terms of most statistics, he is middle-of-the-road among PGMO employees, but it is in the area of waving yellow cards that he is extreme in terms of Arsenal, giving three cards a game. Only John Brooks exceeded him with four yellows. Michael Oliver matches Kavanagh on three with Jarred Gillett slightly behind with 2.5 cards a game on average.
Although in terms of referees who have only seen Arsenal once this season the outlying waver has to be John Brooks who saw 18 fouls in one match.
Kavanagh has overseen nine PL games this season – only Oliver and Taylor have refereed more. He sees six fewer fouls per game than, for example, Robert Jones who has also seen nine games, but in terms of yellow cards, as you might imagine he is right out there at the top waving 5.67 cards a game on average, the second highest in the League. Anthony Taylor by comparison gives out on average 1.5 cards per game fewer.
This season he has overseen nine games and given out four reds. Last season it took him 20 games to wave four reds. This clearly is a referee who has got the taste for the power that the red card brings – or maybe (although I have no evidence to support this) just doesn’t like Arsenal.
What is inexcusable is that PGMO has given Arsenal this man again to referee a match. It is an utter indictment of PGMO and indeed of the Premier League as a whole, letting PGMO get away with this. It really does show what Arsenal, and I think a handful of other clubs, are up against. But of course, those that benefit from these wild antics of course will never vote out PGMO although they could by simply not renewing PGMO’s contract. And that really is what the clubs ought to do.
We might also remember that this is the referee who oversaw the draw (2-2) with Chelsea and allowed the Chelsea goalkeeper’s assault on Gabriel Jesus.
In terms of results this season Kavanagh has gone draw bonkers. Over half his games have ended in draws, although to be fair he also has a third of his games as away wins, leaving the minority as home wins – something totally out of kilter with the average arrangements.
The big worry with a referee like this, and an ultra-secretive controlling body like PGMO is that Kavanagh can do pretty much anything he likes, as he likes, how he likes. It is unlikely that PGMO will do anything about him, and even if they did, we’d probably never know unless it showed up in the statistics. And we know for sure that the mainstream broadcast and print media will never once criticise a referee, for fear of being banned from the grounds by PGMO.
In short, we are screwed. And the fact we are doing ok in the league speaks volumes for Arsenal..
Recent Posts
Fulham v Arsenal: the metaphors might be failing, but Arsenal are on the up
Next Post Coming Soon...