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Are Arsenal Dirty?

Introduction

Following the Arsène Wenger's recent reaction to media claims that Arsenal have a discipline problem, Marc Norden decided to do some research into the matter, by comparing Arsenal's disciplinary record with that of our opponents (looking only at matches involving Arsenal).

Marc's analysis encompasses league matches only. It provides much food for thought, showing that Arsenal have actually had less of a disciplinary problem than our opponents have had in their matches against us. Given that AFC did pick up a lot of cards last season, does this mean that games involving Arsenal tend to feature lots of cards? And is this Arsenal's fault or is it just that everyone's so keen to beat us? We can hardly claim that the refs are biased against us on the basis of this data, but could it be that refs are conditioned to expect dirty matches when we're playing?

over to Marc...

League matches 1998-99

  • This table is based on the 8 matches up to & including AFC vs Newcastle on 4th October 1998.
  • "Home" and "Away" refer to the Arsenal. ie the cards indicated on the "home" line were all collected at Highbury, those on the "away" line were all collected at the opponents' grounds.
  • Note that so far this season the record is remarkably symmetrical.

Team Arsenal Opponents
cards yellow red yellow red
Home (4) 4 1 12 2
Away (4) 12 2 5 1
Total (8) 16 3 17 3

Since this is only 8 games, and to make the statistics more viable, I then looked at all of last seasons games...

All League matches 1997-98

  • Once again, the results are highly symmetrical.
Team Arsenal Opponents
cards yellow red yellow red
Home (19) 27 1 56 1
Away (19) 45 2 24 3
Total (38) 72 3 80 4
  • So far this season (98-99) we have received no cautions in 2 out of 4 home games, but have received cautions in all 4 away games.
  • Last season (97-98) we received no cautions in 7 out of 19 at home and 3 out of 19 away.

So the questions are:

  • do teams in general become dirty away from home? (this would not appear to be specifically an AFC problem, unless it only applies to AFC games)
  • Are referees heavily influenced by home crowds?
  • Do winning teams get less bookings (opponents frustration)?
I think this last question has an element of truth in it.

Anyway if anybody should bring up our disciplinary record just show them the numbers that prove we are more sinned against than sinners (provocation?).

Cheers,

Statinho - Chairman of the Bored

(Marc Norden)

copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV

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