Here's an interesting fact, brought to you by the wonders of social media:
Arsenal, Premier League Champions for 2025-26, had no red cards and no penalties awarded against them throughout the season.
Arsenal, Premier League Champions for 2025-26, had no red cards and no penalties awarded against them throughout the season.
And immediately, social media jumped on the bandwagon with the long-standing VARsenal - the claim that the Video Assistant Referees for the Premier League were in some way biased in favour of Arsenal, and hence any debatable or controversial decision would go in their favour.
So: how unusual is it for a team to have no red cards, and to have no penalties against them in a season?
To answer this one, we're going to need some data, and fortunately the internet is full of it. I've looked at football data before, and for some reason, gambling sites tend to keep the best records. Here's the data on red cards first, taken from MyFootballFacts.com.
Summary of initial findings:
Red cards
It's not impossible for a team to complete the season with zero red cards: Manchester City and Brighton also achieved this result. It's rare, with only three out of the 20 teams having a clean sweep, but it's not unheard of.Average per team is 2.2 red cards per season. Standard deviation = 1.88
Arsenal are only just outside one standard deviation of the mean, so it's certainly not a statistical outlier - it's still possible.
Chelsea fans might have more of a case of bias against them, with 8 red cards against the average of 2.2, as they are just outside three standard deviations from the mean, making them a definite outlier.
Yellow Cards
Arsenal had the fewest yellow cards (or "bookings"), with 51 against a Premier League average of 71.15. Spurs had 98, and Chelsea accumulated 90. It seems that their performance in the Red Card Table is consistent with their overall behaviour.Penalties Conceded
CLUB PKC
Brentford 8
Burnley 8
Crystal Palace 7
West Ham 7
Bournemouth 6
Brighton 6
Leeds 6
Nottm Forest 6
Newcastle 5
Wolves 5
Everton 4
Fulham 4
Liverpool 4
Man United 4
Sunderland 3
Tottenham 3
Aston Villa 2
Chelsea 2
Man City 2
Arsenal 0
Now this is a more interesting data point. Arsenal were the only team in the Premier League not to concede a penalty kick in the season. Whatever Chelsea were doing to get their cards, they were doing it outside the penalty area and hence only conceded two penalties throughout the season.
The average was 4.6 penalties conceded per team for the season, so 0 is a noticeable outlier. A follow-up question is - how many times did Arsenal's opponents have possession in their penalty area? The metric which is measured here is how many times did an opposition player touch the ball in Arsenal's penalty area? Arsenal had 1228 touches conceded in the season (32 per game, and third lowest in the League), so it makes sense that they conceded fewer penalties.
Now this is a more interesting data point. Arsenal were the only team in the Premier League not to concede a penalty kick in the season. Whatever Chelsea were doing to get their cards, they were doing it outside the penalty area and hence only conceded two penalties throughout the season.
The average was 4.6 penalties conceded per team for the season, so 0 is a noticeable outlier. A follow-up question is - how many times did Arsenal's opponents have possession in their penalty area? The metric which is measured here is how many times did an opposition player touch the ball in Arsenal's penalty area? Arsenal had 1228 touches conceded in the season (32 per game, and third lowest in the League), so it makes sense that they conceded fewer penalties.
Conclusion
So, Arsenal won the league by keeping their opponents out of their penalty area - leading to no penalties conceded - and by playing a careful game with few reckless challenges and no sendings off. There's no statistical indication of bias or unfair treatment towards them by the referees; the average for the Premier League was 2.2 red cards in the season, and zero is well within an expected distribution (unlike Chelsea, who have a stronger case for harsh treatment, based only the numbers). Protecting their penalty area enabled them to concede fewer penalties in the season, and they had no sendings off.
The follow-up question (for another time) is how often do teams win when they've had a man sent off, compared to keeping all 11 men on the pitch? I'll look into it!
The follow-up question (for another time) is how often do teams win when they've had a man sent off, compared to keeping all 11 men on the pitch? I'll look into it!
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