Arsenal Debate – Dirty or picked on by referees?

I must admit that I was very surprised to see just how many yellow cards Arsenal players have been given this season. I know that we are not exactly saints but I would have said that Arsenal needed to get tougher if anything.

So the Daily Mail report about the amount of yellow cards for fouls issued to clubs in the Premier League was certainly not what I expected. It shows that Arsenal are second in the list of EPL clubs with 46 bookings, behind only Sunderland who have amassed a massive 55 cards. So Arsenal make more bad fouls than Stoke do we?

I find that incredibly hard to believe, especially when you see that Chelsea, with a manager in Jose Mourinho that uses fouling as a tactic, are rock bottom of the list with just 28 bookings for fouls. But those are the facts so it must mean either that Arsenal make a lot more bad fouls than Chelsea, Stoke, West Ham and all, or that we are punished more harshly by the referee. I know which one I think it is and it is further proof against Maureen´s conspiracy claims that Wenger would have a lot more right to make.

Maybe it is just that clubs like Stoke and Chelsea are seen as combative in style, whereas Arsenal are seen as more technical so are not expected to get stuck in. Or maybe they just don´t like us. What do you think Gooners?

Tags Chelsea Stoke

38 Comments

  1. I’m willing to bet if the stat boffins looked at all those 46 cards an inordinate amount would be due to “cynical” fouls after a turnover in play. We saw such a thing with Bellerin vs Monaco when Martial countered.

    It further points to how open we leave ourselves, time and again we get hit and our players take a yellow to break up an attack. We’re not dirty, not one player has displayed a nastiness that could be labelled as dirty. We’re just always susceptible to counters.

    Watched an interview with Guardiola and he stressed the importance of defending WITH the ball, saying the real danger with possession teams comes when they have the ball. Basically sums us up. You can see we’re decent at defending out of possession, but we’re awful with the ball.

          1. agree, what a player

            wish my dad had boned my mum sooner, would liked to have seen him and george best in action.

            1. @muffdiver
              Never got to see Johan or Best play. But from the taped matches I’ve watched of both, they were “Natural Beasts”…
              I wish I’d got into football sooner…

            2. Lol! @Muff, well, I do think u particularly reincarnated and the reason u did not come soon enof is becuz u were still alive in ur other life. Not until u died were u conceived by ur mom…

  2. I think our midfield played fine wednesday, just bec Giroud missed sitters, our midfield and fullbacks goes too forward to get those deserving goals and we concede..

    Welback also missed sitter but that deflected by walcot, so we totally cant blame him, thats just bad luck

    Its just shame that we cant bench giroud, but we could bench walcot, rosicky, ramsey, chambo when everyone is fit. They deserve more to play in starting 11 than giroud..

    Why wenger keeps buying in atacking midfield area and not really a proper striker who really could challenge giroud for that place

    We should play walcot/chambo at right and welback going to middle

    I think giroud would be very good as a sub.

  3. If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

  4. We tend to make stupid fouls in stupid situations, so i’m sure at least 85% of them are deserved

  5. Look at the reality.

    Song was a disaster waiting to happen with fouls and giving away freekicks on the edge of the area. At West Ham that doesn’t happen.

    End of the day we have over 20 very very good players. Except our management is a joke that makes the players poor performers. There is only only version of reality in which Ozil could end up a wackasshoe after being an amazing player at RM. Unfortunately he ended up there.

    I don’t even blame the players anymore. Even Senderos played better after he left us.

    1. @RVP
      AW attempts to play a “watered down” version of total football, which in itself is high intensity and one where the players we have are just not up to it…Hence the frequent injuries…
      If he had say, the Atletico squad, who all roll with a serious off the scale work rate, we’d be killin it. But as it stands, Alexis, Kos, Santi, Le Coq, Rosicky and maybe Bellerin are the only players who roll that hard. The rest are 65+ min. men, tops…

      1. @ NY Gunner

        That is a very interesting point. As a like minded Gooner, it would be interesting to get your opinion on this. Who ‘presses’ in this country? It isn’t City or Chelsea. Ironically, they are both variations of Arsenal in their prime where, while they take different angles to their means to an end, their objective is purely to run through teams with power to win. SAF never did a ‘hard press’. Like my last point, he just sat his team up to wait, and then they ran straight through their opposition.

        Who really presses in this country? LFC last year – I can’t remember who but his assessment was that Brenda wanted to do Barca 2012 but never had the talent so ended up with a hard press Dortmund style. Them there is Southampton and whatever team Pocetino is at. They barely last a bit and they are done.

        I don’t even get where Wenger is going. He isn’t going to get what he wants regardless of the team he puts out. If he was even going to achieve that, he is 5-7 years away from doing that in England and his career isn’t going to allow that.

        1. @RVP
          So right. Was just looking at “The Invincibles” Doc and then took a look at their lineup/setup. Plain old 4-4-2 straight forward and it got the job done on many occasion.
          I think AW is obsessed with his watered down total football(Wengerball) and is adamant on seeing it work.
          But like you said, time is not on his side…

          1. I think it has become a case of square pegs into rou d holes. His bargain basement team was good enough to get into CL every year but the problem is that he is left over with that team while trying to accommodate Ozil and Sanchez into his new era.

            It won’t happen. He would need to change so much that by the time he did it it would be way past his contract anyway.

            Sad thing is that his biggest signings today are just becoming a token because he doesn’t have any infrastructure anymore to base a team around.

  6. I have saved £150 that I was going to spend on my mum for Mother’s day, but if Wenger needs more cash towards a top DM and striker, I can send him the money. Every little bit helps

      1. @john0711
        But with that he would get a broken down striker, an old CB plus a young, up and coming midfielder…And you’d get change back.

  7. Please not another thread on refs against us. I am already tired of how that crying mourinho keeps on saying there is a campaign. Let us not start this crap now.

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