Can Arsenal Ride Reds and Rise to Glory?

Much has been said over the past few days about Arsenal’s record of collecting red cards. There are facts, which cannot be denied, and solid arguments which should not be ignored. But there are also stats that are being used deliberately to paint a picture which isn’t true, or certainly is not wholly accurate. Moreover, from the facts, conclusions are being drawn which are also certainly debatable at best.

Most Arsenal fans only really care about the club being successful, i.e. winning trophies. And, ideally, ending the ridiculously long wait for another Premier League title. Oh, and a first Champions League crown wouldn’t go amiss but perhaps we’re getting greedy asking for both straight away – either will do for now!

We want to see a team with fight, courage, bravery, commitment, passion and a fierce will to in. Collecting a few red cards is neither here nor there… if it doesn’t hurt our chances of achieving our goals. Let’s look at some of the facts, stats, and conclusions being drawn and then consider whether all that is being written is true.

The Facts

William Saliba
William Saliba (jpellgen (@1105_jp) | Flickr)

After 30-minutes against Bournemouth, William Saliba was dismissed for what was deemed a professional foul. Most pundits seem to agree that VAR got it right in changing the ref’s initial yellow to a red but, through our Arsenal-red glasses, it looked very much like a yellow. There was minimal contact and defensive cover was available, plus it was 50 yards from goal (but that is a whole other debate).

The point is that Saliba was sent off and his red card was the one that broke the camel’s back and, introducing another metaphor, opened the floodgates. All of a sudden, Arsenal were the world’s dirtiest team and this was definitely going to cost them the title. Anyway, to the facts:

  • Arsenal have collected three red cards in eight games this season
  • In those three games they have drawn twice (against Brighton and Man City) and lost once (against Bournemouth)
  • They have a 100% record in the other five games
  • Only once in the last 10 complete seasons have the Premier League champions collected more than three red cards all season
  • In the last eight complete seasons, no champion has collected more than two
  • Since Boxing Day 2019 the Gunners have collected 18 red cards in the Premier League
  • 13 is the next most (Wolves and Everton)
  • Only Everton (108) have collected more Premier League red cards than Arsenal (107)

Are Arsenal a Dirty Team?

Stats can be used to paint almost any picture by cherry-picking what numbers we use and which we ignore, and by selecting dates or criteria that suit the argument one is trying to make or support. At the heart of the current debate is the notion that the Gunners are a dirty, wild and undisciplined team and central to that argument is the fact they have collected three red cards in eight games in 2024/25.

However, if we look a little closer there are stats that could easily be used to confound such a claim. First, when it comes to yellow cards this season, the Gunners have just 18. That puts them, coincidentally enough, level with both Liverpool and Man City, in joint 13th, well behind Chelsea, with the dirtiest team in the league, let alone London, amassing a walloping 30 bookings already.

We can also look at fouls per game, and again the Gunners are nowhere near the top of this table. Arteta’s side have made 12.1 fouls per game on average, well behind West Ham’s league-high of 14.8. Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs have all made at least 11 fouls per game, so Arsenal are hardly hacking opponents off the pitch.

Perhaps even more tellingly, let us go back to red cards. But rather than going back to the seemingly random date of Boxing Day 2019, picked we can only assume to make Arsenal look as bad as possible, let us instead look at the whole of the 2023/24 campaign. Liverpool collected the second-most red cards in the Premier League, their total of five was only ‘bettered’ by the seven amassed by Burnley.

Arsenal’s players received just two reds all season, the same as Man City’s, with only four clubs collecting fewer. If we go back a season more, lo and behold, Arsenal went the entire campaign without receiving a single red card. This idea that Arsenal are a red-card machine all of a sudden doesn’t look so true, let alone the notion they are dirty in general.

A Closer Look at the Reds

Declan Rice action shot
Declan Rice (Canno73 | Bigstockphoto)

Of course, returning again to the facts, Arsenal have had a player sent off in just under 38% of their league games this term. But should they have? As said, we may be biased but we believe Saliba should have stayed on the pitch. Maybe it should have been a red card but once the ref gave a yellow was it a clear and obvious error that needed to be changed?

Then we have Declan Rice’s farcical dismissal against Brighton, the midfielder picking up a second yellow for “delaying the restart”. Some might claim he nudged the ball two feet and got whacked by the Brighton player for his troubles, with VAR even suggesting they could be looking at violent conduct against Brighton’s Joel Veltman.

Arsenal’s other red came for the same offence, and one really might have thought Leandro Trossard would have learned from Rice’s red. Even so, whilst stupid, the game’s Key Match Incidents panel did not unanimously agree the red was correct. One member of the panel said that the “split-second nature of the kick away was enough of a mitigating factor” and it should not have been a red. Whilst we may be a tad biased, these three red cards could, in theory, have been zero red cards, or certainly just two or one.

Have the Reds Cost Arsenal… and Will They?

Another area where we get into conjecture is what exactly the cards have cost Arsenal. Yes, they dropped points but playing Man City at the Etihad it is impossible to claim they would definitely have won with 11 men. Likewise Brighton are a very good side, so an Arsenal win can hardly be assumed.

The most important issue is whether these red cards will come to haunt Arteta and his troops come May. Alan Shearer said, “It has to change” and that “Quite clearly they’re not going to get enough points if it doesn’t…It can’t continue.” But maybe that just isn’t true.

Those old enough to remember Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger glory years will know full well that a team featuring Patrick Vieira and Martin Keown, among others, were no stranger to a tackle. Under Wenger the Gunners claimed three Premier League crowns, collecting three red cards in 1997/98, a massive six in 2001/02 and three in the Invincibles campaign of 2003/04. Maybe these are lucky reds!