- Arsenal v Manu. Why aren’t the northern team doing very well?
- If your child was not treated properly at a football club, who would you complain to?
By Bulldog Drummond
How do Manchester United compare with Arsenal – and come to that how do they compare to a couple of other top teams in terms of the metrics of the day? Data used here is from Who Scored
In terms of goals the issue is obvious; Liverpool are shooting ahead (sorry about the pun) both in terms of goals and shots, although it is interesting that Arsenal take 14% fewer shots to get their goals than Chelsea.
But Manchester United are way behind on both counts. Fewer shots, fewer goals.
Interestingly when Arsenal were making headlines for three red cards early on, all the media covered it, but now that Chelsea are way out in front with 41% more yellow cards than either Liverpool or Arsenal, the media is strangely silent. Manchester United sit roughly mid-way in terms of yellows, between Chelsea and Arsenal.
It couldn’t be that the media will leap on anti-Arsenal stories, but for some reason stay strangely quiet when it comes to negative issues relating to Chelsea, could it?
As for possession, ManU are the poorest of our group selected below at keeping the ball, as their league position would suggest is true. But possession is not everything – Chelsea are outdoing Liverpool
| Team | Goals | Shots pg | Yellows | Possession% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 47 | 16.6 | 2.50 | 56.9% |
| Arsenal | 39 | 13.8 | 2.05 | 55.4% |
| Chelsea | 39 | 15.8 | 2.9 | 58.3% |
| Manchester United | 23 | 13.3 | 2.35 | 53.6% |
When we also do a comparison between Arsenal at home and ManU away on some key metrics we find that Arsenal have 18 home goals this season compared to 10 away goals for Manchester United. Arsenal have 14 home yellow cards compared with 24 away yellows for ManU , and Arsenal have an average possession of 59.2% at home compared with 53.6% for Manchester away.
This suggests someone is going to lose out on possession, Arsenal will win on goals and Man U will win on yellow cards and the media won’t mention that last point.
In terms of our regular measures of tackles, fouls and yellow cards per game taking into account home and away…
| Club | Tackles | Fouls | Yellows from fouls |
| Arsenal home | 17.7 | 11.0 | 0.68 |
| Man U away | 19.7 | 11.4 | 0.85 |
In quite simple terms Manchester United away from home tackle more, foul more and get more yellow cards because of those fouls.
But the really interesting thing about yellow cards however remains the mysterious category of yellow cards for “other” offences, meaning not fouls, not unprofessional conduct and not diving. I’ve been trying to find out what fits into this mysterious category but without any luck, but we can be sure Arsenal are being penalised like no other club for it.
Cause of yellow cards…
| Team | Fouls | Unprofessional | Dive | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 15 | 1 | 0 | 14 |
| 2 | Nottingham Forest | 23 | 3 | 0 | 9 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 18 | 5 | 0 | 8 |
| 19 | Liverpool | 16 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 20 | Manchester City | 17 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Whatever this mysterious category of “other” is, Arsenal are being penalised like no other club in the league. And yet no one seems to be able to tell me what the “other” item is.
This really is not just weird, it is worrying. There is a reason Arsenal are getting seven times as many yellow cards than Manchester City for “other reasons” and yet no one is willing to explain why. If ever there was a reason for PGMO officials to be forced to come onto TV and explain their actions, this is it. But their abject silence and the complicity of the journalists lets them get away with it.
I have written to WhosScore who are publishing these figures and not had a reply from them on the topic of what the “other” column includes – and to be fair to WhoScored there is no reason why they should have to go around explaining league data to onlookers. They are not the cause of the data, they just report it – although I must say on one or two other issues they have come back to me very quickly, and I’ve been very grateful for that.
But let’s focus on the key point. Not only does this data exist without an explanation, no journalist seems to be asking about it. Now why is that? Is it because they can’t be arsed, or is it because it only really affects Arsenal and where there is a negative point to be made about Arsenal the last thing they are going to do is ask, “what does this actually mean?”
