Why am I not surprised?

Just read this and thought that every fan in the country knew this already.

http://www.teamtalk.com/news/revealed-the-most-favoured-sides-when-it-comes-to-winning-penalties

 

I am not saying there may not be some bias, but in general the better clubs get more penalties because they are more likely to be putting the opposition under pressure. Remember we got a lot of penalties in the lower leagues for that very reason. My theory is borne out by the fact that Leicester have had so many penalties this season...no one could claim big team bias there.

 

Surprise surprise!
Thought Arsenal would be up there with the Big Boys though
Big aggressive home crowds screaming for a penalty overtime one of their super stars throw themselves dramatically to the ground and their team mates screaming in the face of the referees may help. Our crowd is much quieter and less aggressive and our players don't garage the referee either so we won't get that benefit plus we don't have that many divers like most teams (Long, Mane & Tadic).

 

Nothing like rational explanation, and I would agree with the spirit of this. However, to ignore human frailty is wrong of us. I think the fact that our players don't mob the referee for decisions is laudable, but I cannot help feel it costs us at times. But generally, yes it must be true that the more pressure you put on defenders the more likely it is that they will concede free kicks and penalties.

I certainly don't subscribe to the view that referees are deliberately biased. Some of them are pretty ordinary (good morning, Mr Mason), but I don't believe any are dishonest.

 

Yeah, I was just about to write something similar, especially of Saints exploits in the lower leagues.

I wouldn't say that there is zero correlation, indeed there may be something quantifiable there, but it is slightly more complicated than simple big v little clubs penalty bias. Perhaps there is something worth measuring. Someone [other than me ] ought to give it a go.

 

I agree. I admire the gents we have on the pitch... good stuff old boys, but occasionally we need someone bending the ear of the referee. West Ham got two players sent off two weeks running (Vic and Everton player) when yellows may have been issued. I also noticed Saturday that the crowd were baying for blood with Liverpool timewasting at 2-0, but not one Saints player spoke to the ref (obviously anyway) whereas Liverpool had the ref tapping his watching at us in the 43 minutes of injury time.