Who is Burnley's 'favourite' referee?

With a sport as tribal as football, it is a given that some supporters have some trepidation about certain referees when they are announced as your next match official.

The study looks at teams’ win percentage under certain referees, and while it would appear Manchester City enjoy playing whoever is the man in the middle – because they happen to win a lot of games – you might be surprised to see which official often means Burnley tend to perform better.

City have never lost a game refereed by Lee Mason, for example, whereas the Clarets have never won one under Andre Mariner!

But when Martin Atkinson is in charge of Burnley, they have a 50% win rate – far more than with any other referee.

The Clarets won all four games he refereed in 2018/19, at Cardiff, at home to Brighton and Fulham, and at Bournemouth

The next best is 39% under Mike Dean, who is due to retire at the end of the season.

Dean has been in charge on some huge occasions for the club down the years https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/referee-mike-dean-was-in-charge-of-some-memorable-burnley-games-3620791

Next up is Paul Tierney at 33%, with Kevin Friend at 31%.

Burnley win 27% of their games officiated by Jon Moss, and 23% under Michael Oliver, dropping to 21% under Chris Kavanagh.

And officials to avoid are Anthony Taylor (18%) – Manchester United’s favourite referee with a 61% win percentage – Craig Pawson (17%) and Marriner, with Burnley not winning a single league game when he has been in charge, drawing twice at home to Arsenal last term and at Chelsea this season.

For the full breakdown of how each Premier League performs under certain referees, you can visit the AceOdds site: https://www.aceodds.com/articles/referee-report-how-premier-league-refs-affect-games.html