Arsenal red card: Are Mikel Arteta’s side undisciplined or just bad luck in the Premier League? | Football news

They say there are three good things – try saying that to Mikel Arteta about Arsenal’s disciplinary problems this season.

William Saliba was sent off against Bournemouth on Saturday following similar dismissals for Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice earlier in the season. All those games have seen the Gunners drop points, meaning they are already behind Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League title race.

“We can’t keep playing with 10 men, especially at this level and you see all teams struggle to win football matches,” Arteta told a press conference on Monday. “We have to eliminate it, obviously.”

Arteta’s frustration at dropping more points will be compounded as the Gunners have won every other Premier League game this campaign. They are five out of five when they stay cool. But when the veil slipped, the cost.

“To get three red cards in the first eight games is not good,” Jamie Carragher said on Monday.

“But if they don’t change quickly, they will have a big problem. Even though it’s still early in the season, you don’t want to be three or four points behind Man City.

“It can be a strange situation – three red cards in eight games, it happens once in your career as a manager.”

Except not, because this isn’t the only time we’ve seen this pattern with Arteta’s Arsenal. Red cards are seen a lot.

At the start of 2022, the Gunners picked up three red cards in four games when Gabriel was sent off against Manchester City on New Year’s Day – before Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey were given the order in either of the Carabao Cup semi-finals. lost to Liverpool.

In January 2020, there were two London derby red cards in 10 days for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz at Crystal Palace and then Chelsea. Later that year, Xhaka and Gabriel were sent off in three days in back-to-back league games against Burnley and Southampton.

It means Arsenal have picked up 18 Premier League red cards since Arteta moved to north London – more than any other club. In addition, the Gunners have received two red cards in the first half this season, equal to 19 Premier League clubs combined.

But Arsenal’s history with Premier League red cards goes back further – going back to the days of Arsene Wenger, when red cards were not uncommon in the Gunners ranks. So this is nothing new for the north London club.

After Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996, his team averaged nearly five red cards per season in his first six campaigns. While winning twice in 2002, he picked up six red cards that season, including three dismissals before the start of November.

In the season that won twice, Wenger even admitted that the team was trained regularly in the form of 10 players, so high that the possibility of asking the player to be sent off.

By then, the cause of Arsenal’s red card was exactly what you’d expect. Martin Keown and Patrick Vieira regularly went down the tunnel prematurely, while Ray Parlor was sent off twice before Christmas in the 2001/02 season.

There was a familiar feeling during Arteta’s early years. Luiz was sent off three times in Arteta’s first two years, Xhaka and Gabriel twice in the same period. It tends to be the same face.

This season, the culprits are even more obscure. Rice, Trossard and Saliba have all been dismissed for the first time in their Premier League careers. The latter was also unbeaten by the forward once this season before being sent off against Bournemouth on Saturday.

It makes sense that Arsenal’s surge in red cards is not the old Achilles’ heel of indiscipline, but rather the Gunners falling victim to the unfortunate situation of increased scrutiny over minor incidents.

“What happened in the three cases, it has nothing to do with aggression,” Arteta said. “Everyone has their own opinion. We want to be super competitive, if we show that it’s good.

The most famous example of Arsenal’s misfortune is the yellow card for delaying the start again, in the form of the dismissal of Rice and Trossard, but then sent by Saliba it looks like the challenge of Tosin Adarabioyo for Chelsea in Liverpool a day later, the yellow card is enough.

On Monday, Arteta cited “another very clear example in the same position” as the reason why Arsenal could appeal Saliba’s call.

But does the sympathy with Arsenal stop at the red card offense and not what they are going to do? Can Arteta’s team still win despite being light?

“Are they really brave enough with 10 people?” said Carragher. “You can still win football games with 10 men, as well as Mikel Arteta morphing into Pep Guardiola-style, for more pragmatism?”

“When you do this for 65 minutes with 10 men, the task becomes impossible,” Arteta said – and Arsenal’s specific context around three red cards has some big challenges.

In August, 10 Arsenal players gave up a 1-0 lead against a Brighton side who had more possession at the Emirates than the Gunners before Rice’s red card.

Arsenal struggled the same way against Bournemouth. The Cherries come into the match sitting fourth in the Expected Goals Dominance Table, showing just how tough a challenge their opponents in the league are making.

Then there’s the added context of Arsenal’s injured squad last weekend. Two of the best creative players in Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka are absent and Gabriel Martinelli is also half fit, Trossard is needed. Arsenal can only name three sitting midfielders in the starting line-up, even with talented youngster Ethan Nwaneri as an attacking option.

“We have to adapt in midfield,” Arteta said. “Saturday’s game was not the best game to take that away.”

Even light players, Arsenal have a chance to win the games with Brighton and Bournemouth. Kai Havertz missed two big chances on the break against Brighton, while Martinelli managed to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead at Bournemouth after coming off the bench. An enemy that can barely use the extra player to their full advantage.

Arteta spoke of the excellent defensive nature of the players. “The team’s composure and attitude was incredible,” he said on Monday.

“I told the players (on Sunday) – I watched the game twice – and the way we played with 10 men in those conditions, so the third time you have to experience those emotions, coming back from the international break, it’s incredible.”

But Arsenal showed how good he is with 10 men when he came a few seconds away from beating Manchester City away when the player is light – the most difficult context European football can produce. Is there a feeling that Arsenal could have done more?

Speaking of City, they have only received two Premier League red cards in the past two seasons – and Pep Guardiola’s side have won both of those games. This is the standard Arsenal and Arteta are competing against.

Watch Arsenal’s next Premier League match with Liverpool on Sky Sports Premier League this Sunday from 4pm; kick-off 4.30pm. Stream the game with NOW TV pass.