Premier League Referees - Spurs' Nightmare Match Officials

They are to be objective, but statistics reveal that some Premier League referees have a kinder eye for Spurs than others. We show you the match officials Tottenham should hope for. And which Ange Postecoglu should fear.

Referee decisions are discussed every match week, and all fanbases and players have opinions on who they prefer to be in charge of their games. Analyzing Tottenham's games in the last 10 seasons tells a remarkable story.

Are Premier League referees 100% neutral or is there reason to believe that the match officials fancy some clubs over others?

Numbers don't lie. Since the 2014/2015 season, 33 Premier League referees have officiated Tottenham. Lee Probert (in 2014/2015) is the only match official who has not refereed a Spurs win.

Probert is excused, though, as he only was in charge of one Tottenham game.

The ten Premier League referees with whom Tottenham has won the most points (2014/2015 - 2023/2024):

1. Anthony Taylor - 64

2. Michael Oliver - 58

3. Andre Marriner - 51

4. Craig Pawson - 46

5. Mike Dean - 42

6. Jonathan Moss - 41

7. Kevin Friend - 41

8. Martin Atkinson - 38

9. Graham Scott - 34

10. Stuart Attwell - 30

Martin Atkinson, Kevin Friend, Mike Dean, Jonathan Moss, and Andre Marriner are no longer active Premier League referees.

Of the 33 referees that have officiated Tottenham since the 2014/2015 season, 20 are still part of the PGMOL's Select Group that can be nominated for Spurs' matches in the upcoming season. Some Tottenham supporters - and players - might be concerned knowing that the three Tottenham unfriendliest referees of the last decade are still active.

The Nightmare Premier League Referees

Michael Salisbury, Peter Bankes, and Tim Robinson have officiated 12 Spurs Premier League games since 2020. The outcome: Only three wins, two draws, and 11 Tottenham points. That's a Points per Game (PPG) of 0.92.

Rob Jones is another referee who doesn't suit Tottenham all too well. Since the 2021/2022 season, Jones has officiated seven Spurs games with an average PPG of 1.14.

That can only happen with such a low amount of officiated games, some might argue. Well, let's take a look at Paul Tierney's numbers, then.

Since Tierney's first game involving Tottenham (2018/2019 season), he has been in charge of 18 Spurs games. In those, The Lilywhites have won only four and accumulated a miserable 18 points. That is an average PPG of 1.

By the way, Paul Tierney has also officiated four Tottenham cup ties in the 2014 to 2024 period.

How many wins, you ask? One.

Knowing that Tottenham's total Premier League PPG since the 2014/2015 season is 1.81, Tierney's numbers are remarkably different (see graph below).

It is, however, not only Tottenham who seems to have an issue with Paul Tierney.

Tierney, Jones, Salisbury, Bankes, and Robinson have officiated 37 Tottenham games for 37 Spurs points in the period. With that trend in mind, knowing that the Premier League referee quintet was in charge of more than a quarter of Tottenham's league games last season is scary for many Spurs fans.

Tottenham's referees of choice

On the contrary, there are referees one could hope were nominated for a Spurs game week.

Three possible referees for next season have never officiated a Spurs loss. Tottenham has a 100% win rate with Tony Harrington (1 match), Samuel Barrot (1 match), and Darren England (2 games) at the whistle. The number of games is few, however, and this could, in all fairness, come down to coincidences.

The numbers are more compelling when we look at Stuart Attwell and Graham Scott. The duo has been in charge of 13 Tottenham games each in the past 10-season period, officiating 21 Spurs wins. That makes a combined win rate of more than 80%.

Attwell's 10 wins and three losses give a PPG of 2.31, while Graham Scott's 11 wins one draw, and one loss add up to an impressive 2.62 Tottenham points per game. While Graham Scott hasn't officiated Tottenham in the cups in that period, Attwell has four cup Spurs cup ties under his belt without Tottenham coming out short (3 wins, 1 draw).

Points per Tottenham game officiated by currently active Premier League referees. *less than 5 games officiated.

Howard Webb, do you hear?

Even though Attwell (Premier League debut in 2008) is the most experienced among the Select Group referees that Howard Webb (head of PGMOL) can choose when assigning referees, and Graham Scott is the oldest, the duo only officiated one single Tottenham game last season.

We, therefore, kindly send Howard Webb a reminder to look Attwell and Scott's way when assigning match officials in Tottenham's games in the upcoming 2024/2025 season.

Spurs kick off their new season at King Power Stadium against Leicester on Monday, August 19. Surely, a game Tottenham should get something from considering the club and manager's ambitions. Having Stuart Attwell or Graham Scott oversee that opening game could ease some Tottenham nerves and increase the possibility of bringing those first, valuable three points back to N17.

Paul Tierney, on the other hand...