Everyone knows that the best chance to win a football match is to have all 11 players on the field at the same time, right?
Of course, teams will also need to take their chances when they are presented to them, however there is no denying that the general consensus is that a club will have a much better opportunity of obtaining three points or advancing to the next round of the competition being played will be to have every single player on the pitch allowed.
Admittedly, that did not help Arsenal over the weekend as they were humiliated and embarrassed by Nottingham Forest as the Tricky Trees dumped Mikel Arteta’s side out of the tournament in what was a huge surprise and almost the biggest giant-killing; that honour can go to Cambridge United who managed to defeat Newcastle United at St. James’ Park a day prior. Indeed, many who would have been checking out SportsBetListings.com due to the detailed EPL betting information page they have would have found those results hard to predict but rather rewarding if they had made the most of the bonuses on offer through the platform.
With the FA Cup defeat aside, there will be some that will have noticed that the Gunners have had a rather abysmal time keeping 11 players on the field all at one time. This is not a sly on Arteta’s side yet, though, as it would seem Arsenal have had issues for as long as the Premier League has been in existence.
A stat that ESPN had managed to uncover following Gabriel’s sending off in the controversial 2-1 defeat to Manchester City in the last league game was that the Brazilian’s red card was the 100th that the Gunners have acquired in the top-flight competition.
The defender’s sending off took the tally to a century, thus moving the north London outfit to the top of the pile, as they moved ahead of Everton, who sit on 99. Newcastle have 90 whilst Chelsea have 82.
Perhaps more shockingly, though, is that 11 of the 100 red cards have all arrived since Arteta took charge at the Emirates Stadium back in 2019. After taking charge of his first game on Boxing Day, no other Premier League team has had more red cards than Arsenal during the same time period; Southampton is the closest, with seven.
Furthermore, just seven players account for the 11 reds picked up (nine straight reds and two second yellows) in that time, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, David Luiz (3), Eddie Nketiah, Nicolas Pepe, Granit Xhaka (2), Bernd Leno and Gabriel (2).
Interestingly, the vast majority of those appear to have issues regarding their future at the club, whilst the worst offender is no longer with the Premier League outfit.
