The Gunners have received three red cards in eight Premier League games this season, taking their total under Mikel Arteta to 18. This is alarming as the Emirates Stadium side have received at least five more cards than any other Premier League side in the same period.
Mikel Arteta has admitted that his side are indeed having problems with cards. The Spaniard does not want the Gunners to lose steam in the title race for such trivial reasons. Arsenal have won all five Premier League matches without a red card. However, in the three matches in which the Gunners played with one less man, they have drawn and lost.
Arsenal players are capable of overwhelming opponents physically. Arteta's squad has undergone a major transformation, recruiting tall and strong players. Even new signing Mikel Merino was surprised by the physicality of his new teammates, comparing the London team to a basketball team.
However, the truth is that Arsenal are simply making silly mistakes rather than violent fouls or dangerous situations. Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard both received second yellow cards against Brighton and Man City for "obstructing the restart of play", while William Saliba was sent off against Bournemouth for obstructing an opposition striker after Trossard accidentally kicked the ball back into his own half.
“When we analyse the situations where we received red cards, all three of those cases had absolutely nothing to do with a lack of discipline,” Mikel Arteta shared.
Arsenal's biggest problem may be that they have not adapted to the changes in refereeing over the past year. The Professional Referees' Body has banned behaviour that "impedes the restart of play" and stressed this to clubs before the start of the new season. However, it appears that the Gunners' players have ignored these warnings.
Trossard’s incident against Man City was the most obvious example, with the Belgian kicking the ball away as play was restarted. It was made even more absurd by the fact that Rice had been booked for the same offence just a few weeks earlier. When Arsenal have had similar problems with red cards in the past, Arteta has taken a unique approach of pretending it doesn’t exist.
“We tried talking about it, reminding the players that they need to play with 11 men but it continued after a few weeks. So the coaching staff decided to try something else and then it disappeared. I don’t know if it was the right way but it was the truth,” Arteta said.
Arteta and his Arsenal coaching staff will take a similar approach and hope the problem goes away. They can accept that each of these red cards is a surprise. However, red cards have a serious impact on Arsenal’s chances in games. To progress, especially in the Premier League title race, Mikel Arteta will need to find a way to keep his players focused and playing by the rules.
