RED SNAPPER
Arteta’s card count may not be in Wenger’s league YET... but Gunners boss tells his bad boys: We can’t win games with only 10 players v
MIKEL ARTETA has told his players to stop seeing red, even if they have some way to go to match former
Arsenal sides for ill discipline.
Thomas Partey yesterday apologised for the crazy rush of blood which got him sent off shortly after coming on as sub in Thursday’s
Carabao Cup defeat by Liverpool. It was Arsenal’s third red card – against just one goal – since the turn of the year, and Arteta insists they must cut it out ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Burnley.
The Spaniard said: “We cannot win football matches with 10 players. It’s extremely difficult.”
But while Arsenal are the current red-card kings, they can’t hold a candle to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team.
The Frenchman’s sides built a reputation for sexy football but they also had a notorious mean streak. And while it’s now 14 red cards in 760 days in charge of Arsenal for Arteta (below), Wenger had amassed 19 by that point. By the time the club’s most successful manager left the Emirates in 2018, he had seen an eye-watering 118 players sent off in all competitions.
Of course, Wenger had skipper Patrick Vieira to rely on for getting into a referee’s bad books.
No Arsenal player has ever received as many red cards as Vieira’s eight – a tally unbeaten in Premier League history.
By contrast, Arsenal’s Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka (above) has four.
And who can forget Wenger himself getting sent off at Old Trafford for kicking a water bottle in frustration in 2009?
Sent to the stands by referee Mike Dean (below), he climbed behind the dug-outs because they couldn’t find him a seat and stood there with his arms spread wide.
Partey’s latest misdemeanour, after getting back to London from an unsuccessful Africa Cup of Nations campaign with Ghana on the afternoon of the game, has left his side in the lurch.
With Xhaka also suspended for tomorrow’s clash with Burnley following his dismissal in the first leg of the semi-final tie with Liverpool (left), Albert Sambi Lokonga is the club’s only available central midfielder this weekend. It’s a headache for Arteta, whose side haven’t scored in their last three games
Partey wrote on Instagram: “I am responsible for what happened on Thursday night and will take all the criticism.
“I should be intelligent enough not to make a challenge when already booked but this is my personality, I like to fight for every ball. I came back with the mentality to make myself available for the team to get to the final but it did not happen as planned.
“I will continue to give my all when I am on the field of play because this is my life and this is what I chose to do.
“I am not happy with all that happened at the
AFCON but I will work hard to change this.”