How things in the Premier League SHOULD be ........

Come the end of the season, we may well congratulate Roy Keane for doing an excellent job in keeping Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League this time. However, I think the time for congratulations is already upon us.

Let’s not just credit him for his accumulation of points either – but rather for what he has brought to the way we perceive the game. If there is a more candid, straight-talking boss around in the top flight today I’d like to meet him. Just consider one or two of Keane’s comments in recent weeks: to start with, his ex-bosses Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz have yet to reply, but they will surely be aware that Keane accused them of hypocrisy in calling for greater respect to be shown to officials.

Then there is the Irishman’s ongoing campaign to draw attention to what he perceives as anti-Sunderland bias on the part of several match officials. Keane is so fed up with it that he mentioned in one of his matchday programme columns last month.
“I’m starting to wonder if it’s more than coincidence,” he wrote. In the column Keane pointed to winning goals against Aston Villa and Derby County being disallowed, a late goal for Reading that did not cross the line denying Sunderland a draw, and a harsh penalty award at Ewood Park that presented Blackburn Rovers with a win.

Plus, it was great to see someone finally take issue with one of the most annoying myths in football. Keane wrote: “Don’t fall for this nonsense that things will even themselves out over a season. There’s no way anything can be evened out for us. We’re not getting the rub of the green against any club, not just the big four, and it worries me. Even our youth team had a good goal ruled out in the last minute this week.”

Roy Keane isn’t the only person who thinks that it’s simply not good enough to point to a refereeing howler and say, “Well, the team will actually benefit some time later from a similarly outrageous mistake”. West Bromwich Albion arguably went out of the FA Cup to a goal which featured a handball in its build-up. Will they get a comparable break any time soon? Will they be in next season’s semi-final?

This has been a terrible season for referees. No one disputes that. But could some of these decisions have had far-reaching consequences for one or more teams in the league?
Once or twice a season, it’s worth popping along to the website www.rightresult.net where a group of football fans set out to produce a league table which reflects results as they might have been had officials not got things wrong.

Each week, their panel (made up of members of the Association of Football Statisticians) assesses the key injustices that happen each week during the Premiership season, applies the strict rules of the game to them and passes judgement. Typical examples of incidents include questionable penalties or those which have been overlooked, whether balls did or didn’t cross the goal line and goals disallowed for questionable offside.

According to their current “right result” league table, Manchester United would still seem to be cruising to the title (they believe Fergie’s men should have 82 points rather than 80), but they have Arsenal in second on 74 rather than 71 and Chelsea on only 69 instead of 75. So there you go, Monsieur Gallas – maybe life has been slightly cruel in recent times.

So, referees haven’t affected the ultimate destination of the league title. However, there are a couple of glaring differences elsewhere in the table. According to Right Result, for instance, Everton should be all but guaranteed Champions League football next season, rather than Liverpool. They point to decisions which robbed the Toffees of points in matches against Blackburn and West Ham, among others, and suggest Everton should have 66 points rather than 61. Liverpool’s total, meanwhile, has been “corrected” to 59 rather than 66, with the dubious decision to give Arsenal a 2-1 win in the league encounter at the Emirates, based on a penalty that they say wasn’t awarded.

Perhaps the biggest discrepancies occur down at the foot of the table where managers most commonly complain about bias, often in favour of the “Big Four” teams they play. Right Result currently have a bottom three of Derby (11 points), Reading (32) and Birmingham (32). Fulham are estimated to be two points clear of danger and Sunderland are in thirteenth place on 38 rather than 36 points.

Here’s the major talking point: Bolton, they feel, should be six points better off, with 35 rather than 29 points, and in 15th place rather than 18th. Most of the incorrect decisions against the Trotters came earlier in the season, say Right Result.
If you haven’t laughed all this off as nonsense already, go to the site to see how your team’s season has gone in this parallel universe. Unless perhaps you support Tottenham: along with Derby and Reading, they are the only team whose Right Result points match those of the official Barclays Premier League table.

Lastly, let’s leave the final word on the matter with the pundits. American football analyst Don Meredith had no time whatsoever for playing the game of what might have been. His standard reply: “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.” Try telling Roy Keane that.