For some reason this article did not get posted on time. But here it is in case you have half an hour before the match. The actual team includes Odegaard
- Is there an Arsenal crisis or is it just a media crisis?
- Chelsea v Arsenal: just how many times do we have to have Michael Oliver
By Bulldog Drummond
As we saw in the figures earlier today Tottenham have found a way to put in many, many more tackles than Chelsea (22% more in fact), and yet commit fewer fouls. How do they manage that?
The fact that the number of yellow cards given because of fouls to each of these two clubs is very similar (21 to Chelsea and 19 to Tottenham) suggests the level of bad tackling is very similar and yet Tottenham really get away with the fouls in a way that Chelsea don’t.
Obviously, this is not a matter for us to worry about – the ways of referees in the Premier League are something that can only be classified under “weird” and yet Tottenham have found a way of dealing with this. It is most curious. Or perhaps there is a lesson to be learned.
Anyway as a result of this curiousness, we can see that Tottenham can put in 32% more tackles before a foul is called than Chelsea can.
Indeed there clearly is something amiss with Chelsea’s tackling (or perhaps their relationship with PGMO) because Arsenal can put in more than half as many tackles again as Chelsea before a yellow card is waved which seems quite extraordinary. All one can say is that this is PGMO, and this is what they do. Someone at Chelsea really has rubbed PGMO up the wrong way with something they have said or done, and their club is suffering in week on week as a result.
But overall the great benefactors have to be Tottenham They can go on tackling and tackling and yet get yellows far less often than Arsenal or Chelsea. And with such a huge benefit coming their way they really ought to be much higher up the league. Yet they just keep on losing games – twice as many in the League as Arsenal this season..
Here’s the regular table…
| Tackles per foul | Tackles per yellow | Fouls per yellow | |
| Arsenal | 1.47 | 11.67 | 7.93 |
| Chelsea | 1.22 | 7.52 | 6.14 |
| Tottenham Ho | 1.61 | 10.15 | 10.15 |
So we can expect Chelsea to carry on fouling and the ref to carry on whistling.
As for the team the Metro suggest
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Timber
Odegaard Partey Rice
Saka Havertz Martinelli
Sports Mole give us what has by now become the typical sentences when the word “Arsenal” appears in print, saying “Also reeling from the shock resignation of much-admired sporting director Edu, the Halloween period has indeed been one big horror show for Arteta and co…” which is pretty much standard media fare when talking about Arsenal.
They also say, “not since the 1994-95 season – when most of Arsenal’s players were not even born – have the Gunners lost three straight Premier League away games without scoring,” Which is probably true but one of those statistics that seems really quite irrelevant to anything. I mean what is better, to lose an away game 1-0 or 5-1?. If you want three consecutive matches lost without scoring why go back that far? Why not pick on 2021…
| Date | Match | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug 2021 | Brentford v Arsenal | L | 2-0 |
| 22 Aug 2021 | Arsenal v Chelsea | L | 0-2 |
| 28 Aug 2021 | Manchester City v Arsenal | L | 5-0 |
Well the reason is probably that Arsenal then won eight and drew two of their next ten games, which rather spoils the multiple doom and gloom scenario that the entire media is serving up today.
Meanwhile, 90min are even having a bash at Leno on their site which seems a bit unreasonable. In their line up they have Timber playing in midfield rather than Odegaard.
The BBC however do buck the contemporary trend of Arsenal-knocking by coming up with an amusing Chelsea stat just for balance:
“Chelsea have conceded at least once in each of their past six Premier League home games, last having a longer such run between December 2015 and August 2016 (13). With five of those games coming in 2024-25, it is their longest run without a home clean sheet from the start of a league campaign since 2011-12 (six).”
There seems to be a whole plethora of media sites that are giving us the Chelsea team this morning (as I write this) but not the Arsenal team. Instead, we have a headline like this from Football Insider:
Arsenal are ‘finished’ after confirmed injury news – fans devastated
So there we are. Life as usual. The team will probably be something along the lines of the above – that’s the best we can offer.
A disappointment but more Arsenal-like. Havertz was leaning offside or it’s 2-1. Arsenal had the better of play and chances, almost winning with the last touch. Arsenal switched off and Neto scored. Martinelli had earlier scored nicely by not shooting directly into the keeper for a change. There was good effort and performances. Odegaard was orchestrating again and the midfield was good today. Partey did a whale of job keeping Cole Palmer quiet, Rice was all over the pitch. One few second switch off was the difference. They’re going in the right direction but at the end of the day it’s still 2 points dropped. Arsenal and City have to hope Liverpool have a bad patch.
Let’s hope that all our players withdraw from next week’s International nonsense.
I was hoping that we get all 3 points as we were better than them all over the pitch. The ‘disappearance ‘ of Cole Palmer was a very telling point for us . Now we have to hope that Liverpool start dropping points , while we play catch up.
Up the Gunners !
Strange that with the stats above that Caceido managed to stay on the pitch yesterday in fact that he never even picked up a yellow. However in a quite robust game Oliver gave 4 yellow to them and 2 to us which kind of bears them out . Incidently at the Lane Spurs got 1 booking from 10 fouls although Ipswich got 5 from 19 and of course 3 points which in itself is quite heartening.
Re referee Oliver in the MC game Trossard was yellow carded for a lesser foul on Silva yet Caceido played Odegaard in a more aggressive way yesterday than Trossard did in the MC game and in Oliver’s opinion that’s ok not worthy of a yellow , consistency not likely it’s Arsenal
Oliver gave a yellow card to Havertz for having a cut head.
I admit to some surprise that he did not give Ben White a second yellow, noting that he chose not to give a second yellow to Neto for a challenge that was every bit as bad or worse than the yellow to Ben or the first yellow to Trossard in the match against 115 City.
He did allow Chelsea players to argue with him and the 4th official without seeming bothered and he should have given a red to the Chelsea left-back, both for his dangerous hairstyle and for kicking Saka out of the game in a deliberate and aggressive act.