Arsenal’s purple playing cards: Are Mikel Arteta’s crew turning into ill-disciplined or is it simply unhealthy luck within the Premier League?

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

William Saliba’s sending off in opposition to Bournemouth on Saturday adopted comparable dismissals for Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice earlier within the season. All of these video games have seen the Gunners drop factors, that means they’re already behind Liverpool and Manchester Metropolis within the Premier League title race.

“We cannot continue to play with 10 men, especially at this level and you see all the struggles teams have to win football matches,” mentioned Arteta in his press convention on Monday. “We need to eradicate that, it’s clear.”

Arteta’s frustration over extra dropped factors will probably be compounded by the very fact the Gunners have received each different Premier League sport this marketing campaign. They’re 5 from 5 after they hold their cool. However when the veil slips, it prices them.

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

“But when it does not change rapidly, they’ll have a giant downside. Regardless that it is early within the season, you do not wish to be three or 4 factors behind Man Metropolis.

“It may be a situation when it’s a freak – three red cards in eight games, it happens once in your career as a manager.”

Besides it’s not, as it’s not the one time we have now seen this sample with Arteta’s Arsenal. Pink playing cards do appear to return in bunches.

Initially of 2022, the Gunners picked up three purple playing cards in 4 video games as Gabriel was despatched off in opposition to Manchester Metropolis on New Yr’s Day – earlier than Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey got their marching orders in both leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool.

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

It means Arsenal have picked up 18 Premier League purple playing cards since Arteta moved to north London – considerably greater than some other membership. On high of that, the Gunners have obtained two first-half purple playing cards this season, the identical because the remaining 19 Premier League golf equipment mixed.

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

After Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996, his crew averaged practically 5 purple playing cards a season in his first six campaigns. After they received the double in 2002, they picked up six purple playing cards that time period, together with three dismissals earlier than the beginning of November.

Throughout that double-winning season, Wenger even admitted his crew skilled recurrently in a form of 10 gamers, so excessive have been the possibilities of getting a participant despatched off.

Again then Arsenal’s red-card culprits have been precisely who you’d count on. Martin Keown and Patrick Vieira have been recurrently down the tunnel prematurely, whereas Ray Parlour was despatched off twice earlier than Christmas in that 2001/02 season.

There was a well-known feeling throughout Arteta’s early years. Luiz was despatched off 3 times inside Arteta’s first two years in cost, Xhaka and Gabriel twice in the identical interval. It tended to be the identical faces.

This season, these culprits are extra unfamiliar. Rice, Trossard and Saliba have all been dismissed for the primary time of their Premier League careers. The latter had not even been dribbled previous by an attacker as soon as this season earlier than his sending off in opposition to Bournemouth on Saturday.

It creates the notion that Arsenal’s spike in purple playing cards just isn’t an previous Achilles heel of ill-discipline rising, reasonably the Gunners falling sufferer in unlucky circumstances to the elevated scrutiny on minor incidents.

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

Essentially the most notable instance of Arsenal’s misfortune surrounds yellow playing cards for delaying the restart, within the type of Rice and Trossard’s dismissals, however then Saliba’s sending off seemed much like Tosin Adarabioyo’s problem for Chelsea at Liverpool a day later, the place a yellow card sufficed.

On Monday, Arteta cited “other examples that are very clear in the same position” as a motive why Arsenal may enchantment the Saliba name.

However ought to the sympathy with Arsenal cease on the red-card offence and never what follows? Ought to Arteta’s facet nonetheless be getting wins regardless of being a participant gentle?

“Are they actually bold enough with 10 men?” mentioned Carragher. “You can still win a game of football with 10 men, so is Mikel Arteta morphing to a Pep Guardiola-style, to more pragmatism?”

“When you do it for 65 minutes with 10 men, the task becomes impossible,” mentioned Arteta – and Arsenal’s particular contexts surrounding their three purple playing cards had some large challenges.

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

Arsenal have been struggling in equal trend in opposition to Bournemouth. The Cherries got here into the sport sitting in fourth on the Anticipated Targets Desk of Dominance, exhibiting how tough a problem they pose any opponents within the league.

After which there was the added context of Arsenal’s injury-hit squad final weekend. Their two finest artistic gamers in Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka have been lacking and with Gabriel Martinelli additionally half-fit, Trossard was wanted out extensive. It left Arsenal solely in a position to identify three sitting midfielders of their beginning line-up, albeit with gifted teenager Ethan Nwaneri as an attacking choice.

“We had to adapt our midfield,” mentioned Arteta. “Saturday’s game is not the best game to take things away from it.”

Even a participant gentle, Arsenal had probabilities to win these video games with Brighton and Bournemouth. Kai Havertz missed two large probabilities on the break in opposition to Brighton, whereas Martinelli may have put Arsenal 1-0 forward at Bournemouth after coming off the bench. Their opponents nearly failed to make use of the additional participant to their full benefit.

Arteta put that all the way down to the spectacular defensive nature of his gamers. “The relentlessness and the attitude of the team is remarkable,” he mentioned on Monday.

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

However Arsenal confirmed how good they have been with 10 males after they got here a matter of seconds away from beating Manchester Metropolis away whereas a participant gentle – probably the most tough context European soccer may produce. Is there a sense that Arsenal may have carried out extra?

Talking of Metropolis, they’ve obtained simply two Premier League purple playing cards within the final two seasons – and Pep Guardiola’s facet received each of these matches. These are the requirements Arsenal and Arteta are competing with.

Watch Arsenal’s subsequent Premier League sport with Liverpool reside on Sky Sports activities Premier League this Sunday from 4pm; kick-off 4.30pm. Stream the sport with a NOW TV move.