Arsenal v Bournemouth; the history, the referee, the fouls, the cards

 

 

 

• Arsenal and Bournemouth, Bournemouth’s ability to foul without getting a card
• “Spurs were unhinged” The Guardian, and the Bournemouth game
• Arsenal v Bournemouth. Arsenal’s amazing 44 goals in 13 games, and a desire for a refund

By Sir Hardly Anyone

Bournemouth entered the Premier League in 2015 and went back to the Championship for one season for 2021/22 – I imagine just to have a look at how the old place was doing.

On 14 January 2018 Bournemouth beat Arsenal for the one and only time in the Preier League.   The score was 2-1.  Arsenal had in their team Cech in goal, Bellering, Holding, Mustafi and Chambers at the back. Xhaka Wilshere and Iwobi in midfield and Maitland Niles, Lacazette and Welbeck as forwards.

That goal is shown at the start of this video

Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic as they were known, started out in the Hampshire League in the early 20th century,  Then after the First World War they joined the Southern League before moving into the Third Division South.  There they stayed until 1970 when they popped down to check out the Fourth Division (the old north/south system having been exterminated), and then toddled around in the third and fourth tier until finally getting into the 2nd Division in 1988.

There was some more upping and downing until in 2015 they joined the Premier League.   Their highest Premier League position is ninth.

The club’s problem, apart from the lack of traditional support for football in the area is that the ground capacity is only 11,307.  Bigger than Luton (with 10,356) but still pretty tiny.

According to the Sun (yes I know, the Sun) in January next year they are going to build a new ground next door which will double the size of the stadium.  According to the press releases the new ground will hold 18,500 fans, though one stand will be capable of having an additional tier built on it, taking the overall capacity to around 22,000.  Or so we are told.

It has no running track, no undersoil heating and no artificial grass.

But that is not to mock what the club has achieved.  To get into the Premier League and return when knocked back down, with such a small ground, is a remarkable achievement.

After a run of twi defeats (to Luton Town and Aston Villa) and a draw with Manchester United, Bournemouth have won their last two games 0-1 away to Wolverhampton and 3-0 at home to Brighton and Hove.

This season Bournemouth have beaten Newcastle 2-0 at home in the league, and Manchester United 0-3 away, but other victories have been against other small clubs.  So on that basis a victory against Arsenal would be very unexpected.

Bournemouth’s biggest problem however is injuries.  They have nine of them and only two players have actually now got a chance of playing tomorrow. Romain Faivre could be back if the result of a scan is satisfactory and Illia Zabarnyi has been passed fit.  One player is suspended with a yellow card collection.

EPL gives Arsenal as having Jurrien Timber as the only injury.  Arteta is said to be on the edge of using him although reports also seem to suggest one more training session is needed.  Mind you, you can understand the club being very cautious after the player has missed the whole season.  But of course, when he does come back it will be like having a new member of the squad

According to the notorious Football London, “Mikel Arteta has admitted that Jurrien Timber could make his long-awaited return from injury when Arsenal take on Bournemouth in the Premier League this weekend.”

The referee is reported as being David Coote.  We’ll look at his details below.

Fouls per game: 24.47.   This compares with 20.68 for Jarred Gillett.  No one sees more fouls than Coote (one wonders where he gets them all from!)

David Coote is the top man for yellow cards, running at 5.2 per game, compared with Paul Tierney at 3.52 a game.

So to put this another way Coote sees 18% more fouls per game than Gillett.    And Coote gives out an astonishing 47% more yellow cards in his average game than Premier referee Paul Tierney.

This latter figure – 47% more yellows in a game than one of his fellow highly trained professional referees is amazing.  Remember this is not just for a single game this is averaged across the whole season.

Given that our constant proposal that referees should only see each club once a season at their home ground and once a season at an away ground, has not been put into operation we have see that clubs that have Coote overseeing a lot of their games, will immediately run into difficulty.