Chelsea’s problem is thus the opposite of Bournemouth’s – one has a surfeit of money, one doesn’t, but the difficulty is the same for both of them. How to convince players to come to a club and ...

He is one of just three referees who have been given 15 games in the Premier League so far this season. Last season he was the third most used referee in the league, overseeing 25 games. Anthony ...

And now we see Arsenal four points ahead, and just one goal behind on goal difference. Plus the gap down to Liverpool (who have clambered up to fourth) being 12 points. It’s 15 to Chelsea and ...

“A blip. A wobble. A mini-crisis. Call it what you want, Arsenal went into Tuesday night’s top-of-the-table battle with Aston Villa after a shaky few weeks.” ...

One of the interesting things that has emerged in the last month is a small number of articles on social media focusing on Arteta’s “illegal” tactics and referees’ errors that favour Arsenal. One of ...

This was going to be the BIG TEST, the time that Arsenal were likely to be found out (at least so the media kept saying), and they would thus make way for the teams that really know how to do it.

It is generally accepted that footballers and managers do not criticise the media because they (the clubs) use the media to put out false stories, acting as cover for their real activities – ...

It is generally thought that Havertz will be in the squad and could come on as a sub.

As you can see, the range in the number of fouls is 21.88%, meaning the referee who sees the most fouls sees getting on for 22% more fouls than the ref who sees the fewest fouls. And do remember this ...

Taken on straight results Villa are indeed doing better than Arsenal but it is undoubtedly true that Arsenal have had some tougher fixtures. And Arsenal have included a number of wins of late by more ...

The VAR concentration crisis compounds main referee patterns: when the same official appears in multiple roles across a club’s matches, total influence becomes impossible to measure through assignment ...