Are they really against us?

[Lee_Kinda]

Just found this, very interested. We are the most fouled team in the premier league and get the most yellow cards give to the opposition team....

The boys at Opta have been looking into this and have given us the following list detailing how many yellow cards have been awarded to the opponents of each Premier League team this season. As you can see, the most bookings are dished out to teams playing Manchester City with Arsenal in second place.

1. Manchester City (62)
2. Arsenal (58)
3. Tottenham Hotspur (57)
4. West Ham, Wigan Athletic (56)
6. Liverpool (53)
7. Manchester United (52)
8. Hull City (51)
9. Sunderland (46)
10. Blackburn Rovers, Everton (45)
12. Birmingham City (43)
13. Stoke City (39)
14. Aston Villa, Chelsea (38)
16. Burnley (37)
17. Portsmouth (36)
18. Bolton Wanderers, Fulham (34)
20. Wolves (32)

Using the updated data for fouls for last week's column, we have calculated how many times each team is fouled before a yellow card is shown. As you can see, Fulham have the most cause for complaint. On average their players are fouled more than 10 times before a yellow card is shown. Meanwhile, Arsenal are statistically one of the most protected teams. Only Manchester United, Wigan and Manchester City are fouled fewer times before a yellow card is shown.

1. Fulham (10.32)
2. Wolves (9.81)
3. Bolton (9.33)
4. Chelsea (9.18)
5. Everton (9.02)
6. Burnley (9.00)
7. Portsmouth (8.63)
8. Birmingham (8.52)
9. Aston Villa (8.11)
10. Hull City (7.76)
11. Blackburn Rovers (7.51)
12. Stoke City (7.20)
13. Liverpool (7.11)
14. Sunderland (7.00)
15. Tottenham (6.82)
16. Arsenal (6.79)
17. West Ham (6.79)
18. Manchester United (6.46)
19. Wigan (6.09)
20. Manchester City (5.77)


If people would stop bloody fouling us all the time, we might win more!

[Im_Spartacus]

Just a thought, but maybe its because we wait for the opposition to lose posession rather than tackle that we have so few fouls and cards?

[BlueMoonAwoken]

ive noticed this when watching the games i thought when we played the rags they was really bad and stopped us playing by consistent fouling.

[Ted Hughes]

It's probably because we've just played Liverpool & Stoke, the two dirtiest sides in the PL.

[Swales4ever]

Very interesting take, thanks OP. And numbers don't lie.
Tough, I can't miss to compare, let's say, Mascherano on Gareth/Gerrard V sign - versus - Vieira and Ade multiple bans.

Tbh times are close when they will love us of the same Big4 love... :-)