Arsenal v Bournemouth: tackles, fouls, yellows, past games…

 

 

• Fouling: the part of the game where Arsenal suffered but are now coming good
• For Arsenal, history is the best teacher
• Arsenal vs Bournemouth: the remarkable survival of a very small club

By Bulldog Drummond

In terms of the tackles, and comparisons with fouls and yellow cards, the figures of Leeds United (normally the most punished club in the league) are shown alongside Arsenal and Bournemouth.  Data comes from WhoScored

 

Club	Tackles	Fouls	Yellows
Arsenal	14.4	9.7	1.56
Bournemouth	16.5	10.3	1.70
Leeds	23.2	12.7	2.12

 

And the regular ratios

 

Club	Tacklers per foul	Tackles per yellow	Fouls per yellow
Arsenal	1.48	9.23	6.22
Bournemouth	1.60	9.71	6.06
Leeds	1.83	10.94	5.99

 

Arsenal tackle less than Bournemouth and so can commit fewer tackles before a foul is called – it is the same story week after week.  Likewise, Arsenal can get away with fewer tackles before a yellow card come out.  But they are getting away with fractionally more fouls before a yellow is shown.

Overall however the numbers are very close.

With Leeds United, we see the pattern we expect – as a high-tackling, high-fouling club they are able to get away with more tackles before a foul is called, and more tackles before a yellow is given, but when we look at the number of fouls they commit before a yellow comes out it is lower.

So Leeds’ general play is less interrupted by fouls being given, but as the fouls mount up the referees tend to get out the card more often.

Back to Arsenal v Bournemouth, Arsenal have played Bournemouth 13 times, of which one has been in the League Cup and one in the FA Cup.  Overall we have only lost to them once…

That defeat on was on 14 January 2018 came in a run of 13 games in the FA Cup (knocked out by Nottingham Forest), and the League Cup (knocked out Chelsea after a replay, but then lost to Manchester City) plus 11 in the league, two Europa games and seven league games.  In the league games we won two and lost five.

On the day of that defeat to Bournemouth, the league table read, in part…

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Manchester City	23	20	2	1	67	17	50	62
6	Arsenal	23	11	6	6	41	30	11	39
13	AFC Bournemouth	23	6	6	11	24	35	-11	24

 

So that defeat was not expected although the Arsenal form was very up and down.

This season, Bournemouth have scored 22 league goals, and only five teams have scored fewer – and that compares with 56 for Arsenal.   Bournemouth do however have the worst defence in the league – and to prove it, here’s the table in order of goals conceded. 

It is interesting that Newcastle have such a good defence this season – if they had the attackers to go with it they would be a real challenge at the top of the league.  That presumably is what they are going to spend billions on this summer, as long as the league don’t agree that the club is actually under the control of the Saudi state.

 

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
5	Newcastle United	23	10	11	2	35	15	20	41
1	Arsenal	25	19	3	3	56	23	33	60
2	Manchester City	25	17	4	4	64	25	39	55
10	Chelsea	24	8	7	9	23	25	-2	31
3	Manchester United	24	15	4	5	41	28	13	49
6	Liverpool	24	11	6	7	40	28	12	39
8	Brighton and Hove Albion	22	10	5	7	39	29	10	35
16	West Ham United	24	6	5	13	23	29	-6	23
9	Brentford	23	8	11	4	37	30	7	35
7	Fulham	25	11	6	8	36	31	5	39
12	Crystal Palace	24	6	9	9	21	31	-10	27
4	Tottenham Hotspur	25	14	3	8	46	35	11	45
15	Wolverhampton Wanderers	25	6	6	13	18	35	-17	24
18	Everton	25	5	6	14	17	36	-19	21
11	Aston Villa	24	9	4	11	30	38	-8	31
17	Leeds United	24	5	7	12	29	39	-10	22
20	Southampton	24	5	3	16	19	41	-22	18
13	Nottingham Forest	24	6	7	11	18	42	-24	25
14	Leicester City	24	7	3	14	36	42	-6	24
19	AFC Bournemouth	24	5	6	13	22	48	-26	21

 

However, although the story about the Saudi state directly having control over Newcastle, that story has now vanished – which is a little odd.   We’ll try and find out what is going on.