Martin Atkinson is an unusual referee. While most of the 21 who worked in the Premier League last season produced statistics that were largely in coordination with each other, there's a huge discrepancy from the 47-year-old's returns for 2017/18. A ranking of first for red cars per match last season is completely contradicted by coming in at a mere 17th for penalties per game. That imbalance highlights Atkinson's most infamous moment from last season – when he failed to award Manchester City a late penalty in the Manchester derby, despite Ashley Young's challenge on Sergio Aguero being far from within the confines of footballing law. There's only one way to really interpret that...
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