Arsenal tackles and cards – how are we comparing and why is it all so strange?

 

 

• Why would any player choose to go anywhere other than Arsenal?

By Tony Attwood

Do you remember all that talk about how awful Arsenal were last season?  It was raised in the media for months because of their alleged dirty play.  You might recall all the talk of six red cards etc etc.   

Arsenal in fact, came 14th in the yellow card table, last season.  42 were for fouls, three were for unprofessional behaviour and 28 for “other” reasons.   No clu got more than that for “other” reasons so we asked and asked, and  wrote and wrote to anyone who might know what “other” reasons were.  No one replied.

Chelsea got 35 more yellow cards than Arsenal last season.  I never saw that mentioned either.   Only three teams committed fewer tackles than Arsenal; yes only four teams committed fewer fouls than Arsenal – which is rather extraordinary for what was supposedly the dirtiest team in the league.  Arsenal tackle more, but commit fewer fouls.  Extraordinary!

But those six red cards defined it all.  Yet the real oddity of those yellows, which came in a cluster very early on in the season, was that no one ever mentioned how a club could have so few yellows yet the top number of reds.  

So inevitably, we look at the “discipline” figures again this season to see what magical mysteries PGMO have cooked up again.  (The media don’t ask,, of course, for to do so would be to draw attention to last season’s nonsense, but we will look).

At the moment, Arsenal are equal bottom on the yellow card table this season with Newcastle, each club having received nine, although Newcastle also have a red card (while Arsenal have none).  Seven of Arsenal’s nine have been for fouls and two for other reasons, and once again “other reasons” are not explained anywhere.

Elsewhere, I have not heard or seen a single comment on the fact that Brighton have committed three times as many fouls as Arsenal this season.   Chelsea, Everton, Wolverhampton, plus the media’s darlings, Liverpool, have all committed TWICE AS MANY fouls as Arsenal!  Again not a word.

Premier League Situational Statistics (source: WhoSCored)

	Team	Fouls	Unprofessional	Other
1	Brighton	21	3	0
2	Chelsea	15	1	6
3	Liverpool	15	0	2
4	Everton	15	2	5
5	Wolverhamtpon	14	0	2
19	Arsenal	7	0	2
20	Newcastle	4	0	6

So does it matter that last season the media spent months commenting on Arsenal’s alleged dirty play (alleged because the number of red cards was not paralleled by a high number of yellows, and because most of the yellows were not for fouls)?

Well, yes, because referees see these stats, and prepare themselves to oversee a game involving a “dirty” team.   So it would have been honest, polite and by and large rather nice for the media to have noted that last season Arsenal were 18th in the yellow card table and had well over half of their cards for the undefined “other” reason.   But they didn’t

Yes, Arsenal did get six reds last season, but at the same time, we need to have the undefined “other” situations for giving cards explained.  Or there could also be an apology for PGMO failing to explain what “other” means in this context.   Do PGMO and the media think we don’t notice, or that we are too stupid to understand?  Or is it that they thought that if the refs were told to “ease up on Arsenal a bit” this season, we might forget about last season?

But in reality, last season the media couldn’t get enough of it, ignoring the points we raised, which threw doubt onto the official figures.   But now it is not Arsenal that is the top of the table for cards.  And curiously no one is making much fuss about the clubs that are at the top of the fouling and cards charts.  Brighton, Bournemouth, Everton, Chelsea, Palace, Fulham and Brentford all have at least twice as many yellows as Arsenal.   And how about the fact that Chelsea have three reds so far?   Half as many as Arsenal got in the whole of last season, achieved in under a quarter of the season!!!!    Here’s the table…

Team	Yellow so far this season
1. Brighton	24
2. Bournemouth	23
3. Everton	22
4. Chelsea	18
5. Crystal Palace	18
6. Fulham	18
7. Brentford	18

Indeed, not only are the teams that pick up multiple cards not getting mentioned, there is no mention of how Arsenal have “reformed” themselves, although that would be difficult to comment on without mentioning other clubs.  Or come to that, the curiously changed behaviour of some referees. 

So, we still don’t know what all those Arsenal cards that were not for fouls, unprofessional conduct, or for diving (the cards for “other” reasons) were given for.  I mentioned it here time and again, and wrote to the PGMO and the League asking for information, but no answer came/

But maybe my ravings did have an effect because while Bournemouth and Fulham each have seven yellow for the still undefined “other” reasons this season, Arsenal have two – only Brighton have fewer, with zero.  Although curiously, Brighton are actually top of the yellow card league overall! 

Thus, while Bournemouth have 23 yellows so far this season (and strangely no one is mentioning that as they celebrate the club’s achievement of being so high up the league), Arsenal have had nine and are bottom of the yellow table. 

It’s a funny old game.