Murray is a significantly more difficult player to play against now than when he played for us first time around and I think a lot of that is because of his experience in the PL and all the dark arts that he's learnt there. This stat is a testament to that, I believe. The fouls against and even the red card 1 match ban are all small prices to pay for what he brings to the team and I'm sure that Hughton is not bothered by this stat in the slightest.
Fantastic. I thought for the Gus years we always lacked a bit of spite in the side to "play the game" a bit more. Seeing players like Barton do a number on us year after year while our slight naivety in those situations usually ends up with us on the losing side. In Murray, Stephens, Kayal, Knockaert (sometimes), Skalak and Duffy, we've got some cracking gits in the team.
May be statistically true, but most of the fouls on / by Murray are a matter of interpretation by different refs. With some he gets the decision most times when jumping against centre halves, with others he gets bob-all and is more often penalised for the same incident that some refs give him a free-kick for.
We've all seen it - one game a free-kick for climbing the next a free-kick for backing in. Aerial duels are the most open to subjective analysis by the ref of all challenges. This data is no surprise.
To be fair, this report makes a pleasant change from them reporting on the imminent arrival of a KILLER FREEZE, unprecedented levels of immigrants, or a ludicrous new conspiracy theory on Diana's death.