- For once, it is not Arsenal and us fans who are to blame, but we probably will be
- Arsenal: This is the best it has been for the last 20
By Tony Attwood
There was a line in the Guardian review of our last match which read, ” It was as if a sizeable proportion of match-going Arsenal fans had finally twigged there’s more to supporting your team than turning up five minutes before kick-off and sitting in nervous near-silence for 90 minutes.”
It was of course just one of the regular insults that the media pour forth upon Arsenal and Arsenal supporters, and a fairly silly one given that recent newspaper coverage could be described as being as if “a sizeable proportion of journalists who are paid to be at the matches had finally twigged that there is more to football journalism than turning up five minutes before kick-off, leaving 20 minutse before the end and writing articles that endlessly knock the club. and its players.”
On the other hand, much was made in fact of Wayne Rooney’s comment after the away draw with Atletico, “I think the celebrations are a little bit too much,” after the draw, adding, “Celebrate when you win.” He still doesn’t get support, does he?
But we can be pleased that the run of eight games without scoring more than one goal is over, and the fixtures to come should help the goal scoring pick up further, before the Champions League final. Winning the Premier League is in Arsenal’s hands, and even a few of the direst critics of the club have been forced by their editors to lighten up a bit when mentioning Arsenal.
But despite that run of eight games after beating Bayer Leverkusen without once scoring more than a goal in a game, being a bit tough at times, the club did win two games and drew two games in our worst run of the season. The word “blip” for that run still doesn’t feel quite enough, but it was tough going. A bit like that run of five draws in seven games at the end of the Unbeaten Season, although that was too long ago for journalists to recall.
So it is West Ham, Burnley, Palace and then PSG to come, and the issue of winning the Premier League means that Arsenal cannot – or at the very least should not – take the risks with the team that is put out, as they might have been tempted to do if winning the league was not a possibility. We expect victories, as well as hoping for a few more Manchester City slips.
And Manchester City, of course, have their little distraction along the way: after Brentford and Palace at home – both obviously easily winnable for them – they have Chelsea in the FA Cup final on 16 May, ending with Bournemouth away.
They will of course, want their piece of silver, and so that Chelsea game is important to them… and thinking of Chelsea reminded me of one particular table I haven’t mentioned for a while. Journalists won’t mention it because they don’t cover issues that put Arsenal in a good light, so here it is to review
Now in the table below, “card points” are calculated on three points for a red and one for a yellow. The data relates to Premier League games only.. You can see the whole table on ESPN, but here is just the top five yellows and the bottom five yellows ranked in order of most cards.
If you have a particular interest in reds, you might like to note that Chelsea are top with seven, followed by Tottenham and Everton with four each – something that is not regularly mentioned in reports but which I think does tell us a lot about those clubs. Arsenal, as we have noted, have clearly studied Premier League referees and their strange ways, and have adapted their approach to games accordingly. Not all clubs have learned how to do this…
| Team | Yellow | Reds | card points* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 88 | 4 | 100 |
| 2 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 85 | 0 | 85 |
| 3 | Sunderland | 77 | 3 | 86 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 77 | 7 | 98 |
| 5 | AFC Bournemouth | 75 | 1 | 78 |
| 16 | Aston Villa | 56 | 1 | 59 |
| 17 | Manchester United | 56 | 3 | 65 |
| 18 | Nottingham Forest | 54 | 1 | 57 |
| 19 | Liverpool | 52 | 1 | 55 |
| 20 | Arsenal | 45 | 0 | 45 |
*Three points for a red, one for each yellow.
Now my point here is not just that Arsenal are bottom of both the red and yellow tables, but that they have worked at this over time. Last season, Arsenal were 13th in the card chart. Chelsea were second, but Tottenham only 17th. The season before (2023/24), Chelsea were top and Tottenham were fourth for the number of yellow cards received. Arsenal were 19th
In 2022/23 Chelsea got the most cards, Tottenham were fourth and against Arsenal 19th, and so the pattern continues.
Now my point is that Arsenal under Arteta is a club which, like ManC, pays attention to every detail, such as yellow cards and how they mount up and remove players from the roster. Clubs like Tottenham just go on picking up cards without thought, mostly because they keep changing their manager, and as a result, players can overreach themselves trying to impress their new boss. Chelsea, on the other hand, has the notion of kicking their way to the top so deeply ingrained that they keep doing it, even though it doesn’t work.
