Manchester United get more stoppage time at Old Trafford when they need a goal

After Michael Owen handed Manchester United victory in the derby match with City deep into stoppage time, Mark Hughes was left furious that the referee had added so much time on. But is there really such a thing as ‘Fergie’ time? 

Two reports today reveal conflicting views, with one suggesting that United are actually less likely to receive additional playing time over the course of a Premier League season, but another suggesting that more time is likely to be added on at Old Trafford when United actually need it and are still chasing something from the game.

There may be lies, damn lies and statistics at work but nonetheless both studies will make for compelling reading.

 

The Sun today published a ‘Premier League Times Table’ in which all Premier League teams were ranked in order of how much stoppage time on average was played in their games, home and away, in the 2007-08 season, with United ranked 16th with 220 seconds.

Hull City came top with 259.6 secs, while Chelsea received the lowest average amount of stoppage time with 212.8 secs.

Such figures would seem to undermine the notion that United benefit from the kind of favouritism that Hughes was alluding to when he said: “You could say we feel frustrated, but robbed might be a better word. I’m not questioning the referee’s integrity, I just don’t know where he’s got the seven minutes from.”

However, a Guardian study on a similar subject proves far more revealing.

Reviewing all of United’s league matches at Old Trafford since the start of the 2006-07 season, they discovered that, on average, there has been over a minute extra of added time played when United did not have the lead after 90 minutes, compared to when they are in front.

In the 48 games when United were ahead, the average amount of stoppage time was 191.35 ss. In the 12 matches when United were drawing or losing there was an average of 257.17 secs.

The overall average amount of stoppage time for league games at Old Trafford for the period of the study is actually less than comparable figures for the other big four teams.

Liverpool’s average stoppage time at Anfield stands at 210 secs, Arsenal enjoy 224 secs’s per game while at Stamford Bridge the figure is 229 secs.

Last season, on route to the successful defence of their Premier League title the average time added on when United were winning at Old Trafford was 187.71 sec compared to 258.6 secs when they were losing or drawing.

Such a pattern has been continued in to this season, despite only three league matches being played. In the two matches that have reached 90 minutes with United in front an average of 304 secs was played while in Sunday’s derby match referee Martin Atkinson sanctioned a further 415 secs of playing time.