LONDON, England, January 15- Arsenal’s clash with Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday may have been as good as over when the hosts, already down to 10 men, went 2-0 behind after 32 minutes.
But the Gunners only needed to check the referee before the game to know luck wasn’t likely to be on their side.
Mike Dean made a controversial, but correct, call to send off Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny after nine minutes, but the north London side’s record under the match official is be woeful since 2009-10, compared with their rivals.
Stats from Opta show that in the 15 Premier League games Arsenal have played when Dean is officiating, they have triumphed just once, making it a winning average of just seven per cent.
It represents a massive contrast with the Premier League’s current top four. Both Manchester clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham have recorded significantly better results under Dean’s watch.
The title winners from the past three years recorded winning averages between 63 and 67 per cent, while even Spurs can claim a 50 per cent success record when the Wirral-born referee has been in charge across a similar amount of games.
Arsenal’s only victory under Dean’s officiating in the last four seasons came earlier last year, a 5-2 win over Tottenham at the Emirates.
But he has been present for some of Arsenal’s most painful recent defeats too including the 2-1 loss at White Hart Lane in the reverse fixture.
More recently he oversaw Arsenal’s League Cup exit at Bradford and was also in charge of the competition’s final in 2011 when Birmingham caused an upset to defeat the Gunners at Wembley.
Dean’s decision to send off Koscielny yesterday comes just over a year after a similar incident in a Premier League match between Chelsea and Newcastle.
The December 2011 clash between the two at St James’ Park came to life in the fourth minute when David Luiz denied Demba Ba a clear goal scoring opportunity but was punished with only a yellow card.
Chelsea went on to win 3-0 in a result that left Newcastle boss Alan Pardew fuming after the game when he claimed Dean had told him Ba did not have ‘control of the ball’ so it was not a red-card offence.
Pardew revealed later on Sky Sports‘ Goals on Sunday that Dean had initially stood by his decision but changed his opinion after reviewing the incident.
‘He said, ‘I made a mistake, he should have been sent off’,’ said Pardew.
– DailyMail
