Arsenal’s red card: Are Arteta’s squad ill-disciplined or just plain bad luck in the Premier League? |Football News

They are saying good issues are available threes – attempt telling Mikel Arteta about Arsenal’s disciplinary points this season.

William Saliba was despatched off in opposition to Bournemouth on Saturday, after Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice had been additionally despatched off earlier within the season. The Gunners have dropped factors in all of those video games, which means they’ve fallen behind Liverpool and Manchester Metropolis within the Premier League title race.

“We will not proceed to play with 10 gamers, particularly at this stage if you see the trouble that groups put in to win soccer video games,” Arteta instructed a information convention on Monday. “It’s extremely Clearly, we have to eradicate this phenomenon.”

Arteta’s frustration at conceding extra factors shall be heightened by the truth that the Gunners have gained each different Premier League match this season. Once they preserve their cool, they’re 5 on 5. However when the veil slips, they pay the worth.

“It is actually dangerous to get three purple playing cards within the first eight video games,” Jamie Carragher mentioned on Monday.

“But when issues do not change shortly, they will have large issues. Regardless that it is early within the season, you do not wish to be three or 4 factors behind Manchester Metropolis.”

“It is most likely an odd scenario – three purple playing cards in eight video games, which occurs as soon as in your teaching profession.”

However that is not the case, as this is not the primary time we have seen this sample with Arteta’s Arsenal. The purple playing cards do appear to be coming in bunches.

At first of 2022, the Gunners acquired three purple playing cards in 4 video games in opposition to Manchester Metropolis on New Yr’s Day, Gabriel was despatched off, after which Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey scored within the two legs of the Carabao Cup semi-finals. Each had been despatched off in the course of the recreation.

In January 2020, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz acquired two purple playing cards inside 10 days within the London derby in opposition to Crystal Palace and Chelsea respectively. On the finish of that yr, Xhaka and Gabriel had been despatched off inside three days of one another in consecutive league video games in opposition to Burnley and Southampton.

This implies Arsenal have acquired 18 Premier League purple playing cards since Arteta moved to north London – considerably greater than another membership. As well as, the Gunners have acquired two purple playing cards within the first half of this season, which is similar as the opposite 19 Premier League golf equipment mixed.

However Arsenal’s historical past of purple playing cards within the Premier League goes again a lot additional – to the Arsene Wenger period, when purple playing cards weren’t unusual among the many Gunners’ ranks. So that is nothing new for the north London membership.

After Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996, his workforce averaged practically 5 purple playing cards per season in his first six seasons. Once they gained the Double in 2002, they picked up six purple playing cards that season, together with three earlier than the beginning of November.

Throughout that Double Championship season, Wenger even admitted that his workforce typically educated with 10 males, so the opportunity of gamers being despatched off was excessive.

Arsenal’s purple card offender on the time was precisely what you’d count on. Martin Keown and Patrick Vieira typically discovered themselves within the tunnel too early, whereas Ray Parlor was despatched off twice earlier than Christmas within the 2001/02 season.

There is a acquainted feeling about Arteta’s early days. In Arteta’s first two years in cost, Luiz was despatched off thrice, whereas Xhaka and Gabriel had been despatched off twice in the identical interval. It is typically the identical face.

This season, these culprits are even stranger. Rice, Trossard and Saliba had been all sacked for the primary time of their Premier League careers. The latter had not even been forwarded as soon as this season earlier than being despatched off in opposition to Bournemouth on Saturday.

It creates the notion that Arsenal’s spike in purple playing cards will not be the previous Achilles’ heel of poor self-discipline, however moderately the Gunners have fallen sufferer to elevated scrutiny of minor incidents in unlucky circumstances.

“In my view, what occurred in these three instances has nothing to do with acts of aggression,” Arteta mentioned. “Everybody has an opinion. Once we present how nice it’s, we wish to be tremendous aggressive. While you present it and it does not go your approach, that is a part of your judgment.”

Essentially the most notable instance of Arsenal’s misfortune was receiving a yellow card for a delayed restart, which noticed Rice and Trossard despatched off, however then Saliba’s sending off seemed about the identical as Tosin Adarabio’s. There was the same problem in opposition to Chelsea a day later at Liverpool, the place a yellow card was sufficient.

On Monday, Arteta cited “different very clear examples of the identical place” as explanation why Arsenal may attraction in opposition to Saliba.

However ought to sympathy for Arsenal be restricted to the purple card offense and never what follows? Can Arteta’s aspect nonetheless win regardless of having fewer gamers?

“Do they actually have the center of ten folks?” Carragher mentioned. “You possibly can nonetheless win a soccer match with 10 males, so is Mikel Arteta transitioning into Guardiola’s fashion and changing into extra pragmatic?”

“While you do it for 65 minutes with 10 folks, it turns into inconceivable,” Arteta mentioned. And Arsenal confronted some large challenges surrounding the precise circumstances surrounding the three purple playing cards.

In August, Arsenal, with 10 males, gave up a 1-0 lead in opposition to Brighton, who had extra possession than the Gunners on the Emirates Stadium earlier than Rice’s purple card.

Arsenal’s recreation in opposition to Bournemouth is equally troublesome. The Cherries began the sport fourth in anticipated objectives dominance, an indication of how troublesome a problem they pose to any opponent within the league.

Then there’s the added context of accidents sustained at Arsenal final weekend. With two of their most artistic gamers, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, out and Gabriel Martinez nonetheless semi-fit, Trossard might want to function out huge. This leaves Arsenal with solely three midfielders to call within the beginning XI, albeit with proficient teenager Ethan Nwaneri as an attacking possibility.

“We now have to regulate our midfield,” Arteta mentioned. “Saturday’s recreation wasn’t one of the best recreation.”

Even with a smaller variety of gamers, Arsenal have an opportunity to win video games in opposition to Brighton and Bournemouth. Kai Havertz missed two large probabilities in opposition to Brighton, whereas substitute Martinelli may have given Arsenal a 1-0 lead in opposition to Bournemouth. Their opponents barely made essentially the most of this further participant.

Arteta put this right down to his gamers’ spectacular defensive nature. “The workforce’s relentless effort and perspective have been extraordinary,” he mentioned Monday.

“I instructed the gamers [on Sunday] – I watched the sport twice extra – We performed with 10 gamers in that scenario and it is the third time you undergo that emotionally after getting back from a world break, it is unbelievable .

However Arsenal confirmed how good they’re with a 10-man squad as they got here inside seconds of beating Manchester Metropolis away from house and performed calmly – essentially the most troublesome setting European soccer can produce. Is there a sense Arsenal may do extra?

Talking of Manchester Metropolis, they’ve solely acquired two Premier League purple playing cards prior to now two seasons, with Guardiola’s aspect successful each video games. These are the requirements by which Arsenal and Arteta compete.

You possibly can watch Arsenal’s subsequent Premier League match in opposition to Liverpool this Sunday at 4pm on Sky Sports activities Premier League Dwell; it begins at 4.30pm. Watch the game with a NOW TV pass.