(Not specifically City related, but it concerns this thread so I thought I would post it here.)
After the rags capitulation on Sunday I thought I would have a look at the stats relating to rag games with Clattenberg in charge.
I found their league results for the last year on the BBC website. That shows that in the last 12 months Clattenberg has refereed 4 rag games - Leicester on Sunday, and last season Everton (a) in April, Liverpool (h) in March and Arsenal (a) in February. The website only goes back 12 months so I did not check the games prior to the derby game last September.
In the four rag games refereed by Clattenberg the rags have accumulated one point - the 0-0 draw at Arsenal. They lost on Sunday of course, lost at Everton and Liverpool wiped the floor with them at the swamp.
Given how gash they have been over the last year I found none of this particularly surprising.
What I found more surprising was that in those four games, Mr Clattenberg has awarded no less than six penalties against the rags. The two on Sunday, one for Everton in April, and three for the dippers - one of which Gerrard missed. That contrasts with all the other referees in the PL who have in the same period awarded against United a grand total of zero penalties. One phrase that jumped out at me from the West Ham match report was 'West Ham's penalty appeals were waved away by Mr Mason.' I have no particular theory to advance as to why there should be a big discrepancy between how frequently one referee awards penalties against them and how infrequently all the others do, but it is a remarkable statistic (if my research is accurate, and I would be pleased to be told if it is not) which of itself is worthy of note.
So, to sum up:
Clattenberg - 6 penalties awarded against the rags in 4 games
Every other PL referee put together - 0 penalties in 12 months.
If I was a rag I would worry about the first. Everyone who isn't a rag should perhaps worry more about the second.
