By Tony Attwood
It may not be what we want to know, but Arsenal’s performance this season in being top of the league after 13 games is not exceptional. Over the past six seasons, after 13 games, the top team has twice been ahead of the 30-point marker (once Arsenal and once Liverpool), twice before they have been on 30 points, and just once Liverpool were top after 13 games on just 28 points. This is, in fact, just a normal season.
The table below shows us what the top of the league looked like after 13 games in this season (ie today) and for each of the past five years.
| Year | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/6 | Arsenal | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 7 | 18 | 30 |
| 2024/5 | Liverpool | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 8 | 18 | 34 |
| 2023/4 | Arsenal | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 27 | 10 | 17 | 30 |
| 2022/3 | Arsenal | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 11 | 20 | 34 |
| 2021/2 | Chelsea | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 31 | 5 | 26 | 30 |
| 2020/1 | Liverpool | 13 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 29 | 19 | 10 | 28 |
Arsenal’s goal difference is not particularly special, nor are any of the other numbers either. Twice in the last five years, a club has done better than Arsenal this season, twice the top club has done worse and once the same.
Even Arsenal’s famed defence, letting in just seven goals this season in the first 13 games, has been exceeded – Chelsea let in five in 2021 by this point of the season, while being top of the league. And in terms of goals scored, Arsenal are the lowest of all the clubs that have been top after 13 games in the six seasons this decade.
But where there is a remarkable consistency is in defeats – in each season by this stage, the top club has had just one defeat. Just like Arsenal so far this campaign.
And there are other interesting similarities that are, for some reason (although I suspect sheer reporter laziness), never mentioned in the media. For example, for the third straight season, after 13 games, Chelsea are making a strong bid to finish on top of the table. But in the final analysis, Chelsea ended up 12th, 6th and 4th.
Chelsea, however, are making a strong bid to finish top of the league in accumulating yellow and red cards. Cheslea have four red cards and 25 yellows in Premier League games alone, according to ESPN. Three clubs have two reds each and six have one.
In 2023/4 Chelsea set a new yellow card total of 106, and they have been running close to this record ever since. Indeed we can see that Chelsea have more bookings than anyone else in the past three years and are challenging for top spot for red cards over this period too. They have now over 300 yellow cards since 2022/23. Arsenal by way of comparison, are on 191.
But of course, fouling is not the only offence. The analysis further shows that “Chelsea rank highest in the Premier League for yellow cards for dissent/arguments and dives since the 2022-23 season. They are also second for time-wasting (behind Aston Villa, 39) and reckless offences (behind Crystal Palace, 95).” (Figures from the New York Times).
When we look at Chelsea’s bookings, what we find is that the majority are for tactical fouls, closely followed by cards for reckless play. They are also high up the league for dissent and argument (67 cards).
But nothing is being done about this. Chelsea have found a way of playing that clearly works for them (they are, after all second in the league) but which is founded on breaking the rules. Of course, over time those yellows will mount up, and Chelsea will have players banned, but even that threat is not holding them back. And yet we should remember that the whole point of the card system was to keep foul play under control. IT’S NOT WORKING GUYS!
As usual, the media won’t go anywhere near this sort of debate because it involves numbers, and their general view is that most of their readers are innumerate. But the reality is that over half of their yellow cards come in the last 9% of the game.
Thus, quite clearly, we have a strategy: get the lead, and then foul your way to the end of the game to stop the opposition getting a momentum.
PGMOL must have seen this because they have access to all the data, and yet they are doing nothing about it. They don’t even seem to have gone to the International Football Association Board, alerting them to this abuse of the rules and requesting (for example) for a team getting four yellow the next yellow is deemed a red.
As we know, Chelsea specialises in bending rules, as when the Premier League allowed Chelsea to get out of its financial issues by selling its women’s team to a company the directors already owned. Now Chelsea know they can do pretty much as they wish not least because they are world champions, and punishing them would look bad for England.
But in fact Chelsea are winning by taking risks in defence, knowing they can then recover with high-risk challenges which rarely earn cards.
- In 2022/23 Chelsea picked up 77 yellow cards.
- In 2023/24 Chelsea picked up 105 yellow cards.
- In 2024/25 Cheslea got 99 yellow cards
The FA fines clubs £25,000 for having six or more players booked in a game. The second time it happens the fine is double. Last season, Chelsea got done on this sliding scale THREE times. Surely it is time to turn these fines into suspensions.
