Mike Dean To Be The Man In The Middle On Saturday v. Wigan: A Look At The Numbers

The assignments for this weekend's Premier League fixtures have been announced, and Mike Dean will be the man in charge when the Newcastle United v. Wigan Athletic match kicks off this Saturday. Mike Dean is the second-most assigned referee in Premier League this year behind Howard Webb (these numbers also include European and lower-league assignments which account for 7 of Dean's 39 assignments and 10 of Howard Webb's 44) and has been the centre for 3 previous Newcastle United matches this season. Let's take a look at his numbers after the jump.

October 31 - Stoke City 0 - 3 Newcastle United (Britannia Stadium)

As a bit of a primer, I was able to track stats on: Total Fouls Per Team, Yellow/Red Cards and Stoppage Time- so it's not a lot, but it's something.

Stoke City (H) - 8 fouls (most fouls called on Huth with 4), 0 cards given

Newcastle United (A) - 14 fouls (most fouls called on Leon Best with 5. I believe this was when Leon was having trouble understanding the offside rule.), 1 yellow card given.

Stoppage time: First Half - 3 minutes, Second half - 5 minutes

December 3 - Newcastle United 0 - 3 Chelsea (St. James' Park)

You may remember this particular match. In the 5th minute David Luiz, as the last defender, pulled down Demba Ba from behind preventing a clear goal-scoring opportunity... yet was only cautioned because either "The ball was running away from goal" (it wasn't) or "The 5th minute is too early to send someone off" (the rules should be the rules, regardless of the time relative to the match). (Note: If you're the Howard Webb/Man U type conspiracy theorist, it is interesting to note that Mike Dean has called 6 Chelsea matches this season... more than any other club.)

If audio/video sync is your thing, I suggest you either only listen and not watch this video or just remember along with your mind video... it is off by a good 10 seconds here so that the video can stay up, I assume.

That incident aside, the match looked to be called with a relatively even eye.

Newcastle United (H) 7 fouls (Cabaye 2), 2 yellow cards given

Chelsea (A) 6 fouls (Drogba 3), 3 yellow cards given

Stoppage time: First half 2, Second half 4

March 4 - Newcastle United 1 - 1 safc (St. James' Park)

Few will have forgotten what turned out to be (who knew it would?!) a rather contentious affair at St. James' Park. By the foul numbers, it was called again with a relatively even eye:

Newcastle United (H) 14 fouls (Tiote 6) - 5 yellow cards

scum (A) 14 fouls (Bendtner 3) - 3 yellow cards, 2 red cards (Sessegnon -- Striking, Cattermole (post match) -- Ungentlemanly Conduct/Dissent)

Stoppage time: First half 3 - Second Half 5 (remarkably consistent on his stoppage time. I know that the flavor of these three matches was not that similar)

Interestingly, Mike Dean's next two assignments after this match were in the Championship and League Two before returning to the top flight for Man City v. Chelsea on March 21.

I'm not entirely certain that it tells us much, but that is a look at Mike Dean by the numbers.