Official tackles and yellow card stats shown to have major flaw. Arsenal v Sheffield U

And of course, there could be the explanation that Arsenal are getting yellows for things like pushing a player rather than tackling. Maybe that’s the answer. If so, it is a shame that they don’t tell us. Perhaps they think we might not understand.

To see if we could spot where the problems in the stats are arising we had a look at a different set of stats: Tackles home v away.

Tackles home Tackles away Difference

Arsenal 17.6 17.5 0.1

Manchester City 12.5 15.4 -2.9

Sheffield United 16.4 19.5 -3.1

Tottenham Hots 18.5 21.0 -2.5

Arsenal are actually making fractionally more tackles at home than away, but the difference is tiny. The other three are all tackling more away than at home, which is what we would expect.

We also tried one other approach: yellow cards and goals conceded. Arsenal come out on this one ok, and Tottenham’s figure is ludicrously high – that looks as if they are tackling like mad in desperate attempts to keep the ball out.

Yellows Goals conceded Yellow per goal conceded

Arsenal 15 8 1.88

Manchester City 17 7 2.42

Sheffield United 26 24 1.08

Tottenham Hots 29 8 3.65

If these figures are right, Sheffield United are letting in goals because of breakaways rather than through a crowded penalty area. We shall see tomorrow.

But overall the stats are hard to reconcile with reality – although perhaps that is just for us, since none of these highly paid newspaper people seem to have noticed.