Are Arsenal turning into a dirty team, or is it the media that’s getting nasty?

 

• Highlights: Arsenal – nothing to worry about. Football – everything to worry about.
• Everyone’s injured and Arsenal using the dark arts.

By Tony Attwood

There has been a huge amount of chat about the “dark arts” involved in the Manchester City v Arsenal game, although not much about other teams who perhaps foul just as much or (although you will imagine from the media this is not possible) even more than Arsenal.

Now the fact that we currently find it hard to imagine that some teams foul more than Arsenal difficult to imagine, is because of the way the media presents the issue, without fulsome analysis and without detailed statistics.

And yes I know that according to the media, the average football supporter is totally thick and unable to do any maths at all, but this is all part of the mythology that allows the journalists to blame some clubs and some players without giving any comparisons.  Let us therefore very briefly attempt to put things right and examine a few basics like tackles and fouls.   And instead of doing it for a club Arsenal are playing, as we do through the season, let us take a few clubs that it turns out are delivering lots of fouls.  Figures as ever are from WhoScored.

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	Team	Fouls	Yellow from fouls	Fouls per yellow
1	Wolverhampton	78	14	5.57
2	Ipswich	71	14	5.07
3	West Ham	80	13	6.15
4	Chelsea	52	11	4.72
5	Tottenham	60	11	5.45
6	Nottingham Forest	63	11	5,72
7	Bournemouth	67	11	6.09
8	Fulham	70	11	6.36
9	Arsenal	65	10	6.50

 

What we can see from reviewing the clubs that commit the most fouls Arsenal are currently sixth in the league.  When we look at Arsenal and the number of yellow cards they get from fouls they are 10th in the league – that is obviously half way down.  And the fact that Arsenal’s fouls are not significantly worrying to the referees is revealed by the fact that referees are willing to allow Arsenal to commit 6.5 fouls before getting a yellow car – more than any other team on the list.

And why this largesse from the referees?  Quite simply because Arsenal’s fouls tend to be minor, rather than the full bloodied body block or chopping the legs from under the forward.   

As this is to say that Asenal can commit 37% more fouls than Chelsea before a yellow is waved.  So unless we are going to argue that suddenly the referees are becoming much more lenient on Arsenal (if that is what you see, then that’s your view) or Arsenal are getting better and better at tackling without picking up yellow cards.

Now I would never argue that West Ham should be treated as the same as Arsenal in analyses – they were given their stadium for free while Arsenal paid for theirs, and West Ham don’t win very much, compared to Arsenal.

But even so we might note that Arsenal have committed 19% fewer fouls than West Ham this season, and of course fewer than Tottenham and Chelsea – but I don’t see that mentioned much.

Arsenal are, as we have noted, half way down the league for yellow cards from fouls and get fewer of their tackles turn into fouls than most other teams.  (I’ll do a full table in a while when a few more games have been played).

So when it comes to fouls and cards, Arsenal are very much mid-table, and yet to listento a commentary on Arsenal on TV at the moment you would think that Arsenal are responsible for most of the fouls that happen in the Premier League.

This really is the media at its worst, suggesting Arsenal are a particularly dirty team – on whichever measure you take the club is pretty much mid-table or a little above mid-table.  That’s all.  There is no story, except one in relation to how referees are treating Arsenal.