per game is the Premiership's second biggest beaut in the black, Mike
Riley.
Top spot obviously goes to Graham Poll.
A strict authoritarian he may be, but the Blues have done well in the
three games he's refereed over the last three seasons.
Although he sent off Gary Naysmith in the match at Palace early on in
the 2004/05 season, Everton still went on to win the game 3-1.
He also refereed our 3-2 win at Norwich that season and booked Lee
Carsley and David Weir.
The only Everton match he took charge of last season was the 1-1 draw
with Chelsea, a game, if ever there was one, that we were destined to
get leathered in!
Everton, much to everyone's surprise, dug in and took the lead through a
James Beattie penalty but Frank Lampard did what he couldn't do all
summer and smashed a long range effort into the back of the net and the
game finished all square.
But more about that next week…
Mikel Arteta and Matteo Ferrari were booked in that match and that got
me to thinking about last season's underplayed Italian.
There was a lot of fuss being made about Moyes' decision to send the
defender back to Roma as, when he was given the chance, he always looked
pretty good.
But the manager obviously knew what he was doing and had his eye on
Joleon Lescott…and as good as Ferrari was he was no Lescott!
That's something the ‘Dithering Dave' brigade should take note of!
Anyway, back to Mr Clattenburg.
He has refereed seven Portsmouth games in the last three seasons and, in
more good news for Everton, Pompey have lost all but one of them.
The only match they have not lost when Mr Clattenburg has been in charge
was a 1-1 draw at Anfield in 2004/05…this is just getting better and
better!
It's looking like the FA couldn't have picked a better ref for this
fixture!
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