The Premier League Is Never Even.

You can’t. Buddha said, “This is because that is; this is not because that is not; this is born because that is born; this dies because that dies.” He did not become a Premier League referee and say “This red card is because of that red card”.

The intangibles to be gained from West Brom beating Chelsea are close to impossible to list. Momentum is a key one – West Brom will feel robbed of all three points, of the win. And the momentum this can build for a team is enormous. West Brom are not a bottom side anymore, a relegation candidate, Steve Clarke has gotten them to be a progressing above mid-table side. Still a scalp of perennial title challengers Chelsea is a big coup for them.

The two extra points would not have moved them up the table. They currently sit 10^th, 3 points behind Newcastle, who they have just lost to. Before that they played Aston Villa, who were below the Baggies on goal difference. Maybe, buoyed by a win over Chelsea, rather than wound up by the injustice, they would have won more than 1 point from those two games?

Sunderland too are embroiled in turmoil. With Gus Poyet looking to steady the ship at the Stadium of Light, a sending off, which was not warranted will do them no good, and it didn’t, as they lost 2-0 to Stoke. Sure, it will take the FA Panel about 30 seconds to review and overturn the decision, but that doesn’t give Sunderland the 1 or 3 points and the momentum they could have gained from that match.

What if Liverpool’s form stumbles and they start to drop points in their forthcoming games because Everton took a point, picked up because they had all 11 men on the pitch?

Now you may say that they are professionals, and that they should be taking the performance into the next game, taking each game as it comes and not thinking about the points or the decisions. But have you ever deliberately tried to forget something? Try not to think about a purple penguin. Just try not to think about them. Hard, isn’t it?

West Brom, on average, go 11 games between penalties, and, in their first 11 games this Premier League season they had…..1 penalty. On average Chelsea wait just 6 games between penalties in the Premier League, over the last 10 years. Before that weekend they had played 10 games with 2 penalties. The first was at 0-0 against Hull – a possible game changer at that point – so the odds were they would be due to get another one soon. (Although the stats would suggest it ought to have been against West Ham, their next opponents, so no wonder West Brom feel hard done by!)

But let’s have a look closer at the penalty they were given – against Liverpool. It was a soft penalty that they were given – soft, but it was a penalty. However, how much did it matter? Luis Suarez already had netted a hat-trick by that point, and Liverpool were dominating. The point during the game in which the penalty was awarded made it inconsequential. 66 minutes played, and 3 goals down, it was not a game changing goal.