- Highlights: Arsenal – nothing to worry about. Football – everything to worry about.
- Everyone’s injured and Arsenal using the dark arts.
By Tony Attwood
There has been a huge amount of chat about the “dark arts” involved in the Manchester City v Arsenal game, although not much about other teams who perhaps foul just as much or (although you will imagine from the media this is not possible) even more than Arsenal.
Now the fact that we currently find it hard to imagine that some teams foul more than Arsenal difficult to imagine, is because of the way the media presents the issue, without fulsome analysis and without detailed statistics.
And yes I know that according to the media, the average football supporter is totally thick and unable to do any maths at all, but this is all part of the mythology that allows the journalists to blame some clubs and some players without giving any comparisons. Let us therefore very briefly attempt to put things right and examine a few basics like tackles and fouls. And instead of doing it for a club Arsenal are playing, as we do through the season, let us take a few clubs that it turns out are delivering lots of fouls. Figures as ever are from WhoScored.
.
| Team | Tackles pg | Fouls pg | Tackles/ Foul |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Ham | 15.8 | 16 | 0.99 |
| Wolverhampton | 21.4 | 15.6 | 1.,37 |
| Ipswich | 18.4 | 14.2 | 1.30 |
| Fulham | 19.6 | 14 | 1.4 |
| Bournemouth | 19.8 | 13.4 | 1.48 |
| Arsenal | 17.8 | 13 | 1.40 |
| Bolton | 15.7 | 12 | 1.31 |
So Arsenal can put in more tackles before a foul is called than Ipswich, Wolverhampton and West Ham – the latter putting in so my fouls that they are being accused of more fouls than they have put in tackles (presumably because of the arm- pulling and blocking of opposition players which are not always recorded as fouls.
Now I know this is a change in approach from last season, and obviously Arsenal are a bigger club than the others in the table, but still it seems a bit over the top to go on and on and on about Arsenal and fouls as if they were the worst offenders in the league.
Moving on let us consider the number of yellow cards given to various clubs for fouls
| Team | Fouls | Yellow from fouls | Fouls per yellow | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wolverhampton | 78 | 14 | 5.57 |
| 2 | Ipswich | 71 | 14 | 5.07 |
| 3 | West Ham | 80 | 13 | 6.15 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 52 | 11 | 4.72 |
| 5 | Tottenham | 60 | 11 | 5.45 |
| 6 | Nottingham Forest | 63 | 11 | 5,72 |
| 7 | Bournemouth | 67 | 11 | 6.09 |
| 8 | Fulham | 70 | 11 | 6.36 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 65 | 10 | 6.50 |
What we can see from reviewing the clubs that commit the most fouls Arsenal are currently sixth in the league. When we look at Arsenal and the number of yellow cards they get from fouls they are 10th in the league – that is obviously half way down. And the fact that Arsenal’s fouls are not significantly worrying to the referees is revealed by the fact that referees are willing to allow Arsenal to commit 6.5 fouls before getting a yellow car – more than any other team on the list.
And why this largesse from the referees? Quite simply because Arsenal’s fouls tend to be minor, rather than the full bloodied body block or chopping the legs from under the forward.
As this is to say that Asenal can commit 37% more fouls than Chelsea before a yellow is waved. So unless we are going to argue that suddenly the referees are becoming much more lenient on Arsenal (if that is what you see, then that’s your view) or Arsenal are getting better and better at tackling without picking up yellow cards.
Now I would never argue that West Ham should be treated as the same as Arsenal in analyses – they were given their stadium for free while Arsenal paid for theirs, and West Ham don’t win very much, compared to Arsenal.
But even so we might note that Arsenal have committed 19% fewer fouls than West Ham this season, and of course fewer than Tottenham and Chelsea – but I don’t see that mentioned much.
Arsenal are, as we have noted, half way down the league for yellow cards from fouls and get fewer of their tackles turn into fouls than most other teams. (I’ll do a full table in a while when a few more games have been played).
So when it comes to fouls and cards, Arsenal are very much mid-table, and yet to listento a commentary on Arsenal on TV at the moment you would think that Arsenal are responsible for most of the fouls that happen in the Premier League.
This really is the media at its worst, suggesting Arsenal are a particularly dirty team – on whichever measure you take the club is pretty much mid-table or a little above mid-table. That’s all. There is no story, except one in relation to how referees are treating Arsenal.
Apologies to change the subject Tony, but its being reported that City may have won the ATP case against the league.
That would be worth following up on and to see if a new league will be formed as most likely.
It’s the maths. Not a core course requirement in journalist school. As for pundit school, don’t make me laugh.
Tony,
“Quite simply because Arsenal’s fouls tend to be minor……”
For the last few season, with the recruitment of larger more physical players, Arsenal play a more robust style than in the past. Starting with Saliba, Gabriel, White, Rice and especially Havertz Arsenal no longer shy away from contact. This was done without losing the technical ability and free flowing play Arsenal are known for. Quite a feat.
The media absolutely can’t abide it. One collision and it’s the ‘dark arts’. Watch out for those Arsenal baddies. Tony Pulis anyone? You can be prone on the pitch being choked by the opponent – no foul. You can be bent over waiting for the restart and an opponent sticks a finger up your bum – no call. Oh yeah, Arsenal with the ‘dark arts’.
Media are in essence “Trolls”. Invent or ignite inflammatory material for readership, freedom of the press is a license to spread whatever agenda you wish. Feeding the trolls is counterproductive.
@Ben,
all I found were mentions it may have LOST the case. All speculative, saying that the decision ought to be ought by end of september.
So, you know, nothing here. Just people bait-clicking.
The statistics themselves cannot reflect the selective and uneven approach of referees who look for the slightest excuse to book Arsenal players, whilst letting opponents, especially Brighton and Man 115 City in recent memory, get away with serious fouls.
I saw a couple of respected journalists stating that City may have won a small part of their case, but were overall losers. I don’t have any information to support any theory, given the secrecy of the PL in matters relating to football (or refereeing).
I did hear that the semi-automated offside system may now be delayed until next year.
PGMOL may not have paid their phone bill.
So far this season-Arsenal being differentially refereed- from our opponents in 2 key games- 2 yellow cards leading to 2 game changing red cards by referees who did not give yellow cards to opposition players for the same offences in the same games. That is not opinion – it is a fact.
The allegations of Dark Arts by Arsenal are not facts they are opinions made by people who are not neutral. They are Manchester City players and their captive media and pundits who are in fact supporters of other teams who have an interest in wanting Arsenal to fail. and present opinion and speculation as facts. We know after winning so many titles they firmly believe they are entitled to win every game all of the time and cry foul if they dont.
Much as I fully agree with the point made about the allegations of so called Dark Arts have an absence of evidence and contextual data to support them and the term Dark Arts has not been defined sufficiently to have any meaning. it all points to the same thing- an attempt at gaining legitimacy in presenting Arsenal one of their chief rivals as cheats.
This is utter hypocrisy by a club facing 115 breaches of football’s financial rules. We know why Manchester City have accumulated 115 charges before the football authorities took action- because of their legal intimidation which has financial backing that no one else can match. The fact that they are recruiting allies in the form of other clubs order to change the rules to defend themselves also is outrageous. The Government cannot intervene directly without breaching FIFAs rules- which clearly leaves an open door for high levelcorruption. FIFA itself is not fit for purpose that is clear
What is in the power of the government is to change the ownership rules of football clubs in this country so that another sovereign state cannot own an English football club.
We know that Manchester City will do everything to try to maintain their monopolistic position and they have such wealthy owners that almost anything is possible. Guardiolas comments made last week about other s wanting them to disappear- are totally inappropriate – a public statement made as a blatant attempt to influence the outcome of this process.
When we are talking about alleged Dark Arts perpetrated by Manchester City’s opponents- neutrals should start to take a closer look at the game itself rather than accepting City players narratives at face value that Arsenal players were faking injuries -such as the corner which led to Gabriel’s headed goal- look at Kyle Walker’s actions- jabbing Gabriel in the gut several times just before he went for the header. I suppose that was deemed a fair challenge ?-Its just another City foul challenge that Oliver let go that the media never picked up on. The fact is their Dark Arts did not work on that occasion and were less effective than usual and that’s why Manchester City players were whinging.
If differential refereeing is present- the list of fouls reflect only what that referee has called a foul and is not an objective measure of whether a team is dirty or not.
I do believe that Arsenal need to play far more games this season to determine whether they really are being refereed differentially there and are picking up more yellow cards because they have altered our style of play -so far we have had a hard run of games over a short period- and may not be representative of a change of approach over the whole season.
Although Goonerboy we can see that Arsenal are running at almost twice the number of yellow cards this season as they were getting last season, which shows a real change in refereeing – at least given that I can’t see a difference in the way the club is playing in defence.