Arsenal’s red cards: Are Mikel Arteta’s team becoming ill-disciplined or is it just bad luck in the Premier League? Trending Global News

They say good things come in threes – try telling that to Mikel Arteta about Arsenal’s disciplinary issues this season.

Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice were similarly dismissed at the start of the season following William Saliba’s sending off against Bournemouth on Saturday. The Gunners have dropped points in all those games, meaning they already trail Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League title race.

“We can’t continue playing with 10 men, especially at this level and you can see how much teams have to fight to win football matches,” Arteta said in his press conference on Monday. “We have to eradicate it, that’s clear.”

Arteta’s frustration at more dropped points will be compounded by the fact that the Gunners have won every other Premier League game this campaign. When they are sober they are five out of five. But when the curtain slips, they have to pay the price.

“To get three red cards in the first eight games is really bad,” Jamie Carragher said on Monday.

“But if that doesn’t change quickly, they’re going to have a big problem. Even though it’s the start of the season, you don’t want to be three or four points behind Man City.

“It could be a situation where it’s strange – three red cards in eight games, that’s the only time that happens in your career as a manager.”

Except that’s not the case, because this isn’t the only time we’ve seen this pattern with Arteta’s Arsenal. Red cards seem to come in bunches.

At the start of 2022, the Gunners received three red cards in four matches, as Gabriel was sent off against Manchester City on New Year’s Day – before Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey were marched off in both legs of their Carabao Cup semi-final. The order was given. Defeat against Liverpool.

In January 2020, there were two London derby red cards in the space of 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 back-to-back league games against Burnley and Southampton within three days of each other.

It means Arsenal have received 18 Premier League red cards since Arteta moved to north London – significantly more than any other club. Additionally, the Gunners have received two red cards in the first half this season, which is the same as the remaining 19 Premier League clubs combined.

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

After Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996, his team received an average of almost five red cards a season in his first six campaigns. When they won the Double in 2002, he received six red cards in that period, including three dismissals before the start of November.

During that double-winning season, Wenger also acknowledged that his team regularly trained with 10 players, so the chances of a player being dropped were so high.

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

There was a familiar feeling during Arteta’s formative years. Luiz was sent off three times during Arteta’s first two years in charge, Xhaka and Gabriel twice in the same period. These appear to be the same faces.

This season, those criminals are more unfamiliar. Rice, Trossard and Saliba were all sent off for the first time in their Premier League careers. Before being sent off against Bournemouth on Saturday he had not been dribbled once by an attacker this season.

This gives the impression that Arsenal’s rise in red cards is not a chronic case of ill-discipline emerging, but rather the Gunners are becoming victims of unfortunate circumstances due to increased scrutiny over minor incidents.

“What happened in those three cases, in my opinion, has nothing to do with aggression,” Arteta said. “Everyone has their own opinion. We want to be super competitive, when we show it’s great. When you show it and it doesn’t suit you, that’s part of your decision.”

The most notable example of Arsenal’s misfortune involved yellow cards late in the restart as did the dismissals of Rice and Trossard, but then Saliba’s departure was similar to Tosin Adarabioyo’s challenge to Chelsea at Liverpool a day later, Where a yellow card was enough.

On Monday, Arteta cited “other examples that are very clear in the same situation” as a reason why Arsenal could appeal against the Saliba call.

But should the sympathy for Arsenal stop at the red-card offense and what not after that? Should Arteta’s side win despite being short on players?

“Are they really brave enough with 10 men?” Carragher said. “You can still win a game of football with 10 men, so is Mikel Arteta turning to Pep Guardiola-style for more practicality?”.

“When you do it for 65 minutes with 10 men, the task becomes impossible,” Arteta said – and there were some big challenges, with specific reference to Arsenal’s three red cards.

In August, 10-man Arsenal 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 similarly against Bournemouth. The Cherries came into the game fourth on the dominance expected goals table, which shows how tough of a challenge they pose to any opponent in the league.

And then there was the reference to Arsenal’s injury-hit squad last weekend. With two of his best creative players missing in Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli also half-fit, Trossard needed wide. This enabled Arsenal to name only three existing midfielders in their starting line-up, although talented teenager Ethan Nwaneri was an attacking option.

“We had to adapt our midfield,” Arteta said. “Saturday’s game isn’t the best game to walk away from things.”

Even with one player light, Arsenal still had a chance to win those games with Brighton and Bournemouth. Kai Havertz missed two big chances on the break against Brighton, while Martinelli could have put Arsenal 1-0 up at Bournemouth after coming off the bench. Their rivals almost failed to utilize the extra player to their full advantage.

Arteta attributed this to the impressive defensive nature of his players. “The tenacity and attitude of the team is remarkable,” he said Monday.

“I told the players [on Sunday] – I watched the game twice more – and the way we played in those conditions with 10 people, the third time you have to go through that emotionally coming back from the international break, it was unbelievable.

But Arsenal showed how good they are with 10 players when they came seconds away from beating Manchester City while being a player light – this may be the toughest context for European football. Do you feel like Arsenal could have done more?

Speaking of City, they have only received two Premier League red cards in the last two seasons – and Pep Guardiola’s side have won both of those matches. These are the standards Arsenal and Arteta are competing with.

Watch Arsenal’s next Premier League match with Liverpool live on Sky Sports Premier League this Sunday from 4pm ET; Kick-off at 4.30 pm. Stream games with NOW TV Pass.