View: West Brom handed potentially bad card for vital PL clash v Burnley
Mike Dean will make his return to the Premier League on Saturday to officiate Burnley’s clash with West Brom at Turf Moor.
The 52-year-old stood down last weekend after receiving death threats on social media, following two controversial incidents the week prior.
Dean showed red cards to Tomas Soucek of West Ham and Southampton’s Jan Bednarek. Both decisions were overturned, despite the referee reviewing each incident on the pitchside monitor after consulting with VAR.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited managing director Mike Riley offered Dean the organisation’s support in the wake of the death threats. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the threats were ‘inexcusable’ and demanded ‘greater proactive intervention from social media companies.
What can the Baggies expect?
Dean has officiated two games involving West Brom this season. First was the 5-2 defeat at Goodison Park to Everton. The referee showed a straight red card to left-back Kieran Gibbs and another to former boss Slaven Bilic at half time.
He also took charge of our 1-0 home victory over Sheffield United in November. He showed yellow cards to Branislav Ivanovic and Matheus Pereria.
Overall in the Premier League this season, Dean has refereed in 15 matches, showing 54 yellow cards and 6 reds. Five of those red cards have been shown to the away side [WhoScored].
Of the 19 refs, he’s shown the second most red cards and the fourth most yellows, having officiated the joint third most matches [Premier League].
Sam Allardyce’s men will have to fix up if they are to prevent going into Dean’s book. The Baggies concede on average 10.7 fouls per game.
We’ve picked up 35 bookings and three red cards shown in 24 league games. That’s an average of over 1.5 cards per game.
Cards are inevitable in this clash, as Big Sam’s men really are fighting for their lives at the moment. After a hard-earned point at home to Manchester United, relegation rivals Fulham picked up three points at Everton.
We’re currently 19th, 12 points adrift of safety. We won’t mind picking up some cards if it means picking up points, also.
In other West Brom news, Rio Ferdinand has reacted to this moment in the clash with Manchester United.