mourinhodeanAh, Mike Dean – every Arsenal fans most hated referee (and that takes some going when you look at the competition). We’ve written a couple of blogs about Mike Dean and Arsenal before. One highlighted Arsenal’s awful record under Dean, whilst the second showed that it looked like the curse had been lifted.

However, after yesterday’s game against Chelsea I think there is no doubt that his total ineptitude continues to coincide with Arsenal failing to win games. Thanks to Darren Berry for the picture of Jose and his daughter.

Here is a list of every Arsenal game where Mike Dean has been the referee. It looks to me like someone must have had a word in his ear in October 2004. If you’re reading this on a smartphone, you might want to turn it 90 degrees to see the whole table.

Date Opponents V Comp Score Sent off
1 16/09/2000 Coventry City H Premier League 2-1 W
2 09/12/2000 Newcastle United H Premier League 5-0 W
3 03/02/2001 Coventry City A Premier League 1-0 W
4 09/11/2002 Newcastle United H Premier League 1-0 W
5 19/01/2003 West Ham United H Premier League 3-1 W Lomas
6 27/08/2003 Aston Villa H Premier League 2-0 W
7 01/11/2003 Leeds United A Premier League 4-1 W
8 24/01/2004 Middlesbrough H FA Cup 4-1 W Boateng
9 09/05/2004 Fulham A Premier League 1-0 W
10 08/08/2004 Manchester United N Community Shield 3-1 W
11 02/10/2004 Charlton Athletic H Premier League 4-0 W
12 06/11/2004 Crystal Palace A Premier League 1-1 D
13 24/09/2005 West Ham United A Premier League 0-0 D
14 28/01/2006 Bolton Wanderers A FA Cup 0-1 L
15 15/04/2006 West Bromwich Albion H Premier League 3-1 W
16 25/11/2006 Bolton Wanderers A Premier League 1-3 L
17 26/12/2006 Watford A Premier League 2-1 W
18 28/01/2007 Bolton Wanderers H FA Cup 1-1 D
19 21/04/2007 Tottenham Hotspur A Premier League 2-2 D
20 31/10/2007 Sheffield United A League Cup 3-0 W
21 05/12/2007 Newcastle United A Premier League 1-1 D
22 09/01/2008 Tottenham Hotspur H League Cup 1-1 D
23 23/02/2008 Birmingham City A Premier League 2-2 D Taylor
24 13/09/2008 Blackburn Rovers A Premier League 4-0 W
25 30/11/2008 Chelsea A Premier League 2-1 W
26 08/02/2009 Tottenham Hotspur A Premier League 0-0 D Eboue
27 16/05/2009 Manchester United A Premier League 0-0 D
28 29/08/2009 Manchester United A Premier League 1-2 L
29 16/12/2009 Burnley A Premier League 1-1 D
30 07/02/2010 Chelsea A Premier League 0-2 L
31 24/04/2010 Manchester City H Premier League 0-0 D
32 03/10/2010 Chelsea A Premier League 0-2 L
33 07/11/2010 Newcastle United H Premier League 0-1 L Koscielny
34 19/01/2011 Leeds United A FA Cup 3-1 W
35 27/02/2011 Birmingham City N League Cup 1-2 L
36 02/10/2011 Tottenham Hotspur A Premier League 1-2 L
37 26/11/2011 Fulham H Premier League 1-1 D
38 22/01/2012 Manchester United H Premier League 1-2 L
39 26/02/2012 Tottenham Hotspur H Premier League 5-2 W Parker
40 31/03/2012 Queens Park Rangers A Premier League 1-2 L
41 21/04/2012 Chelsea H Premier League 0-0 D
42 23/09/2012 Manchester City A Premier League 1-1 D
43 03/11/2012 Manchester United A Premier League 1-2 L Wilshere
44 11/12/2012 Bradford City A League Cup 1-1 D*
45 13/01/2013 Manchester City H Premier League 0-2 L Koscielny,
Kompany
46 16/02/2013 Blackburn Rovers H FA Cup 0-1 L
47 14/05/2013 Wigan Athletic H Premier League 4-1 W
48 22/09/2013 Stoke City H Premier League 3-1 W
49 23/12/2013 Chelsea H Premier League 0-0 D
50 16/03/2014 Tottenham Hotspur A Premier League 1-0 W
51 29/03/2014 Manchester City H Premier League 1-1 D
52 22/11/2014 Manchester United H Premier League 1-2 L
53 18/01/2015 Manchester City A Premier League 2-0 W
54 15/02/2015 Middlesbrough H FA Cup 2-0 W
55 11/04/2015 Burnley A Premier League 1-0 W
56 17/05/2015 Manchester United A Premier League 1-1 D
57 19/09/2015 Chelsea A Premier League 0-2 L Gabriel, Cazorla

* Lost on penalties

As for where Dean’s loyalties lie, who can forget his reaction to Tottenham scoring against Arsenal a few years ago.

Here is a breakdown of Arsenal’s record with Mike Dean as referee.

Played Won Drawn Lost
To 2 Oct 2004 11 11 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
From 6 Nov 2004 46 13 (28%) 18 (39%) 15 (33%)
Total 57 24 (42%) 18 (32%) 15 (26%)

And here is Arsenal’s record since 16 September 2000 without Mike Dean:

Played Won Drawn Lost
645 395 (61%) 139 (22%) 111 (17%)

If Mike Dean was in charge of every Arsenal game, we would be flirting with relegation.

Another unusual statistic about Mike Dean is the number of Arsenal Premier League games that he officiates. The number of referees used by the Premier League is usually 18 or 19 per season. That means that each referee should officiate each team two or three times per season. There is no reason for a referee to be in charge of the same team more than three times in a season.

However, Mike Dean is consistently chosen to officiate four Arsenal games per season, although in 2011/12 he managed a whopping six games.

Season Games
2011/12 6
2012/13 4
2013/14 4
2014/15 4

We’ve already had him once this season, and I would put my mortgage on seeing him at least three more times. That’ll be fun.

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4 thoughts on “Mike Dean and The Arsenal – A New Chapter

  1. Ken George on 23 September 2015 at 9:01 am said:

    Mike Dean surely makes the perfect case for suspending referees . The blindness to Costa,s action and the way he was influenced by a player who his teammate describes as ” liking to cheat ” merits demotion at the very least .

    • Ken,
      Yes. It can’t be easy to argue that those “mistakes” are coincidence.
      I am sure other clubs would have similar views on different refs who always make “errors” at their expense.
      Still can’t believe that while Costa got a ban and Dean got off scot free.

  2. abdulmumin on 21 September 2015 at 12:47 am said:

    He was used by FA to to make the league more attractive. That is why nglish team hardly make impact in euro. Nonesence ref.

  3. Have you got a table of number of times we get each ref?

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