Everton's French defender Lucas Digne (front) is shown the yellow card by referee David Coote during the English FA Cup fifth round football match between Everton and Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park in Liverpool on February 10, 2021.Everton's French defender Lucas Digne (front) is shown the yellow card by referee David Coote during the English FA Cup fifth round football match between Everton and Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park in Liverpool on February 10, 2021.
Everton's French defender Lucas Digne (front) is shown the yellow card by referee David Coote during the English FA Cup fifth round football match between Everton and Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park in Liverpool on February 10, 2021.

Who are the strictest referees in the Premier League? And how do they perform when taking charge of Burnley games?

Mike Dean is officially the strictest referee in the Premier League, according to results of a new study.

The 52-year-old dishes out 1.93 yellow cards per game, ahead of Stuart Atwell (1.89) while Graham Scott (1.13) is the most lenient.

OLBG’s latest study, Referee Rankings, has analysed every Premier League game officiated by the top 13 officials in the top flight over the past five seasons involving teams currently in the league, and broken each referee’s record down by goals per game, win rates, fouls per game, cards per game and fouls per card shown to show which referees rank best for each side.

Dean has brandished over 500 yellow cards more than anyone else since the beginning of the Premier League, but Attwell is the biggest disciplinarian overall during the last five seasons when the figures are broken down into fouls punished.

The Nuneaton-born official, who made a prominent debut in 2008 as the youngest person ever to referee in the Premier League, shows a yellow card for every 5.51 fouls across all teams, only just less than Mike Dean at 5.59.

Paul Tierney, meanwhile, gives the most fouls per game at 11.39 and Andre Marriner tends to let the game flow more with just 9.29 fouls awarded per game.

Referee Rankings has broken down the performances of Mike Dean, Lee Mason, Jon Moss, Craig Pawson, Martin Atkinson, Kevin Friend, Andre Marriner, Chris Kavanagh, Stuart Attwell, Graham Scott, Anthony Taylor, Paul Tierney and Michael Oliver across five different metrics to analyse which teams they appear to punish more severely than others.

Scroll through our gallery below to check out the data.

Dean has brandished over 500 yellow cards more than anyone else since the beginning of the Premier League, but Attwell is the biggest disciplinarian overall during the last five seasons when the figures are broken down into fouls punished.