At the Premier League season’s halfway point, we look at what 2016-17 has offered up so far, and make predictions for the second half.
It’s been a double bluff season for the Premier League in 2016-17. Having convinced the world that everything was unpredictable, the top 6 have marched on create a clear gap to the rest of the league by this mid-way point; the biggest difference between any two teams going into the weekend of 14th Jan being the 9 points between 6th and 7th. I’ve personally spent a couple of months not daring to look at the news such was the shaky phase endured by Man United. Now that things are slightly more reassuring, I’m emboldened to write this piece.
Save the refs
Irrespective of whether your team’s doing well or not, it’s safe to say most fans hate referees. They are, simply put, the easiest meat on the planet – everybody gets to have a pop at them, but they have no voice and little help in fighting what is after all an unfair battle. It is difficult enough having to follow every action in a Premier League match that can see the ball and players cover every blade of grass, without adding the factor of their every decision being scrutinised in slow motion from half a dozen angles, and plenty of pundits just waiting to point out how wrong they were. Now, you would think it’s reasonable that they get 5-10% of their decisions wrong, given that they make some 20-30 decisions in real time, often while running at full tilt every game. That works out to roughly 1-2 mistakes per game. And let’s say one in 10 mistakes lead to a match-altering event; we should expect to see a bad refereeing decision impact at least one game every week.
