More goals scored, fewer conceded, but why do Arsenal keep getting more cards?

 

 

 

• “Postecoglou and De Zerbi are the future and British football will be better for it”
• The first step to clubs taking back control of football and showing Fifa the door

By Tony Attwood

This season Arsenal have scored more goals than in any season in 10 previous years after 24 games.

This season Arsenal has the second-best defence the club has had in the previous 10 years.

This season Arsenal has a better goal difference than it has had in any of the last 10 years.

And yet Arsenal are five points behind where they were last season, and are third rather than top of the league.   So are Arsenal actually declining or advancing?

To try and work that out, and to get a sense of perspective, we have put together Arsenal’s record after 24 games this season compared with the previous ten seasons… Data from 11v11.

 

Pos	Year	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
3	2024	24	16	4	4	53	22	31	52
1	2023	24	18	3	3	52	23	29	57
6	2022	24	14	3	7	38	27	11	45
10	2021	24	10	4	10	31	25	6	34
10	2020	24	6	12	6	32	34	-2	30
5	2019	24	14	5	5	50	33	17	47
6	2018	24	12	6	6	45	31	14	42
4	2017	24	14	5	5	52	28	24	47
4	2016	24	13	6	5	37	22	15	45
6	2015	24	12	6	6	45	27	18	42
1	2014	24	17	4	3	47	21	26	55

 

Of course such figures can be used in many different ways and it might be disappointing that Arsenal are not quite as high as they were a year ago.  But the rise from the depths of 2020 has been sensational, and it really ought to be remembered that what Arsenal FC gave Mikel Arteta was the time to make things work – even though some “fans” and much of the media was calling for him to be sacked.

What we should also note is that although the points total and hence league position is lower than at the 24 games mark last season, the progress is still there.   More goals scored and fewer goals conceded don’t of themselves take the club up to the top, but it reminds us that simply looking at the number of points is not enough to judge how a team is progressing.

Of course none of this takes into account the way referees and their VAR pals are behaving.   But according to an article in the Athletic we have nothing to worry about on that front since the rate of correct decisions has “climbed from 82 per cent in those innocent days before VAR to 96 per cent now. This season alone has seen VAR correctly intervene on 57 occasions and incorrectly just twice.”  (How they worked this out we are not told).

Current figures come from the Key Match Incident Panel, who say that “20 VAR errors (different to incorrectly intervening) had been made this season”.   That’s a 20% improvement.

So why, if Arsenal are continuing to make such progress would two TV pundits choose to rage, rage and rage again against Arsenal players celebrating their victory over Liverpool?  And why if PGMO is moving VAR in the right direction and everything is going fine, are so many supporters fed up with VAR?

Well for one thing, as has only just become apparent, PGMO has not been training up VAR specialists.   And they are not saying if such people will be available for next season either.

Nor has anyone got any idea of how to make the VAR situation more bearable for fans in the grounds.  The rules say the refs can’t be miked up, and so everyone is just sitting there glumly looking at … well, nothing apart from a middle aged man running to a monitor to agree that the decision needs to be changed.

So everything is being dragged out, including the games which generally are getting longer – currently the average Premier League games now lasts over 101 minutes.   Although that is quite jolly in one way because quite a few goals are scored in the extra 10 minutes.

But then again that leads to more time-wasting by players, and so more players are booked for this – 145 of them so far, which is over double the number for this way through last season.    

So is everything good?  Well, actually no, because all this activity around VAR and referees can also be seen as nothing more than distraction journalism, taking us away from considering how differently some clubs are treated by referees from others.

Arsenal get a yellow card every 6.4 fouls.  (Data from WhoScored). Tottenham get a yellow card for every 9.8 fouls they commit.   In short they can commit almost half as many fouls again as Arsenal before getting a card.

OK it might be argued that Tottenham’s fouls are less deserving of yellow cards than Arsenal.  Or it could be argued that Tottenham are putting in so many fouls that the refs don’t want to wave the cards all the time.

This perspective can be examined by looking at the other high fouling club in the upper reaches of the league: Liverpool (although you may want to ask why that fact seems not to be mentioned much in the media).

Liverpool commit 12 fouls a game and yet have got 1.2 yellow cards per game for fouls.   In short one card every 10 fouls.

So Arsenal get a yellow card every 6.4 fouls.  Tottenham get a yellow card every 9.8 fouls.   Liverpool get a yellow card every 10.0 fouls.    Does that sound like fair and balanced refereeing to you?

Yes you can argue that Arsenal’s fouls are far worse, but it would be nice to see someone on TV do that analysis and prove the point.  The fact that TV won’t go near this topic made me take a quick look at the incidents, and I don’t think Arsenal’s fouls are worse.  It is just that referees give more cards to Arsenal.

And no one wants to talk about that.   In case you want to mention it though, here are those numbers again.

• Arsenal get a yellow card every 6.4 fouls. 
• Tottenham get a yellow card every 9.8 fouls.   
• Liverpool get a yellow card every 10.0 fouls.