Paying the penalty

Last updated : 27 December 2014 By Tony Scholes

The press speculation was that it was a race between West Brom's Alan Irvine and Palace's Neil Warnock as to which of them would be the first Premier League manager sacked this season.

It's all quiet at the Hawthorns this morning but Palace, who appointed Warnock after this season kicked off, confirmed the departure of their manager after just 16 Premier League games in charge.

Surely that will signal the end now for the former boss of several clubs as his second spell at Palace comes to an end and their search for a new boss starts yet again, for a third time in no much over a year.

Former boss Tony Pulis, who is currently favourite for the Brighton job, has been installed as 5/2 favourite by Sky Bet. Tim Sherwood, who turned the job down prior to Warnock's appointment, is second favourite at 9/2 and then it's another former boss Dougie Freedman at 8/1.

Now to the original reason for the title, and where to start. I would suggest the Stadium of Light is probably the best place because they had two clear penalties refused, both for handball. Steve Bruce can say what he likes but both were penalties against his son Alex and then Stephen Quinn, the latter even clutched his face to try and fool referee Andre Marriner.

Gus Poyet, who had seen his team take a first minute lead before losing the game 3-1, said the decisions, or lack of them, were embarrassing. It was 1-1 at the time and correct decisions would surely have led to Sunderland winning the game.

Meanwhile, over at Leicester, another clear penalty wasn't given. It would probably have earned Leicester a point but when Leonardo Ulloa went down in the box the lack of award from Neil Swarbrick was astonishing.

There'll be no sympathy for Nigel Pearson in Burnley, that's for sure, but if those penalties had been given and scored there would be a different look at the bottom of the Premier League today.

Newcastle had a penalty appear at Man United. I don't think it was, but had it been it wouldn't have been given. Newcastle were playing away from home and the referee was Mike Jones.

Then there was QPR's spot kick at Arsenal converted by Charlie Austin. It won them nothing in the end but it was another poor decision.

And probably the poorest decision of the day was in that game, not from the referee Martin Atkinson but Olivier Giroud's head butting of Nedum Onuoha after he'd been pushed. Talk about over reactions. Atkinson went straight for his red card, the easiest of red card decisions all season.

It was the only red card of the day but Jonathan Walters should have got one at Everton. How on earth Lee Mason saw that as yellow when Leighton Baines is running on goal is beyond me, and I'm certainly not sure about the merits of the penalty which won the game for Stoke either.

There was one notable incident in that game. It came in the 78th minute when Mason yellow carded Gareth Barry. In doing so, Barry became the first player in the Premier League to receive 100 yellow cards. He'd previously been level on 99 with Lee Bowyer and Kevin Davies.

All the results and stats from yesterday are below along with the leading goalscorers, the red and yellow card count for each club and the last fixtures of 2014.

The Results
Friday 26th December
ARSENAL 2 QPR 1 LEICESTER 1 TOTTENHAM 2
BURNLEY 0 LIVERPOOL 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 3 NEWCASTLE 1
CHELSEA 2 WEST HAM 0 SUNDERLAND 1 HULL 3
CRYSTAL PALACE 1 SOUTHAMPTON 3 SWANSEA 1 ASTON VILLA 0
EVERTON 0 STOKE 1 WEST BROM 1 MANCHESTER CITY 3

 

The Stats
Biggest Win CHELSEA 2-0 v WEST HAM (home)
HULL 3-1 v SUNDERLAND (away)
MANCHESTER CITY 3-1 v WEST BROM (away)
MANCHESTER UNITED 3-1 v NEWCASTLE (home)
SOUTHAMPTON 3-1 v CRYSTAL PALACE (away)
Total Goals Scored 27 (12 home - 15 away)
Player Scoring Most Goals 2 - WAYNE ROONEY, MANCHESTER UNITED (v NEWCASTLE)
Highest Attendance 75,318 - MANCHESTER UNITED v NEWCASTLE
Lowest Attendance 20,683 - SWANSEA v ASTON VILLA
Total Yellow Cards 33
Total Red Cards 1
Most Cards in a Game SUNDERLAND v HULL (6Y) Ref: ANDRE MARRINER
ARSENAL v QPR (5Y 1R) Ref: MARTIN ATKINSON

 

Leading Goalscorers (League Only)
14 SERGIO AGUERO (MANCHESTER CITY) - includes 2 penalties
13 DIEGO COSTA (CHELSEA)
12 CHARLIE AUSTIN (QPR) - includes 2 penalties
10 ALEXIS SANCHEZ (ARSENAL)
8 WILFRIED BONY (SWANSEA) - includes 1 penalty
PAPISS CISSE (NEWCASTLE) - includes 1 penalty
GRAZIANO PELLE (SOUTHAMPTON)
WAYNE ROONEY (MANCHESTER UNITED)
ROBIN VAN PERSIE (MANCHESTER UNITED)
7 SAIDO BERAHINO (WEST BROM) - includes 3 penalties
CHRISTIAN ERIKSON (TOTTENHAM)
LEONARDO ULLOA (LEICESTER) - includes 1 penalty
6 NACAR CHADLI (TOTTENHAM)
EDEN HAZARD (CHELSEA)
ROMELU LUKAKU (EVERTON)
DIAFRA SAKHO (WEST HAM)
YAYA TOURE (MANCHESTER CITY) - includes 2 penalties
5 OLIVER GIROUD (ARSENAL)
MILE JEDINAK (CRYSTAL PALACE) - includes 3 penalties
NIKICA JELAVIC (HULL)
HARRY KANE (TOTTENHAM)
JUAN MATA (MANCHESTER UNITED)
STEVEN NAISMITH (EVERTON)
DAVID SILVA (MANCHESTER CITY)

 

Hat Tricks
 Date Player & Game
13/09/14 3: DIEGO COSTA - CHELSEA v SWANSEA (home)
18/10/14 4: SERGIO AGUERO - MANCHESTER CITY v TOTTENHAM (home)
20/12/14 3: CHARLIE AUSTIN - QPR v WEST BROM (home)

 

Disciplinary Record (League and Cup)
Club Y R Y R Club Y R Y R
  League   Total   League  Total 
ARSENAL 41 2 43 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 32 3 34 3
ASTON VILLA 40 3 40 3 NEWCASTLE 39 3 43 4
BURNLEY 32 0 32 0 QPR 30 1 32 1
CHELSEA 36 2 37 2 SOUTHAMPTON 25 0 36 1
CRYSTAL PALACE 29 3 29 3 STOKE 43 0 47 0
EVERTON 31 0 32 0 SUNDERLAND 45 0 49 0
HULL 37 3 38 3 SWANSEA 34 4 37 4
LEICESTER 28 2 29 2 TOTTENHAM 36 3 36 3
LIVERPOOL 34 1 35 1 WEST BROM 28 1 29 1
MANCHESTER CITY 40 2 41 2 WEST HAM 33 1 33 1

 

The Next Fixtures
Sunday 28th December
ASTON VILLA v SUNDERLAND SOUTHAMPTON v CHELSEA (14:05)
HULL v LEICESTER STOKE v WEST BROM
MANCHESTER CITY v BURNLEY TOTTENHAM v MANCHESTER UNITED (12:00)
NEWCASTLE v EVERTON (16:15) WEST HAM v ARSENAL
QPR v CRYSTAL PALACE  
Monday 29th December
LIVERPOOL v SWANSEA (20:00)