Arsenal’s match against West Bromwich Albion will be refereed by Mike Dean, which is sure to be a popular appointment with fans.
Dean doesn’t have the best record in terms of refereeing Arsenal games.
He’s been in charge of 52 league matches with the Gunners involved, and Wenger’s side have only won 22.
That’s a 42% win rate.
Given Wenger has an overall win rate at Arsenal of 58%, that’s a significant drop.
However, the situation was even worse before 2017.
This year, Dean has only refereed three of Arsenal’s matches, and somehow the Gunners have won them all. They even beat Spurs, despite the 49-year-old overseeing the game.
So maybe he now has a soft spot for the club?
Maybe not.
Dean certainly seemed very keen to book Arsenal players in that match against Spurs. The Gunners committed 11 fouls to their opponent’s 16, but received four yellow cards, whilst Tottenham received one. So he did his very best to give Pochettino’s men a chance.
Plus, it wasn’t long ago that Dean decided to reduce Arsenal to nine men against Chelsea.
He decided not to send off Diego Costa for a foul, and sent off Gabriel for reacting to it instead. Then he sent off Santi Cazorla.
Canal+ viewers named the referee man-of-the-match that day.
I’m sure the Englishman will gladly seize this final opportunity to ensure Arsenal don’t go undefeated under him in 2017.