Discipline issues could cost Arsenal EPL title

Mikel Arteta

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta saw his right-back Ben White receive a yellow card in the first half of the Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday and quickly came to a decision. "White needed to be removed at half-time. We have played enough with 10 men in the recent period," Arteta said. It's becoming clear that Arsenal has a discipline problem and it might cost them the English Premier League title.

Arsenal have had three players sent off in the opening eight rounds of their league campaign. It ‘s a running theme under Arteta. Since he arrived as manager in late 2019, Arsenal has collected 18 red cards in the EPL. "We can't continue to play with 10 men, especially at this level. You see how we struggled," Arteta said this week. "We need to eradicate it, it's clear. Why or how, it does not matter. We have to focus that it has to happen anyhow."

It particularly has to happen on Sunday, when Liverpool visits Emirates Stadium in the headline match of the league's ninth round. Liverpool is in first place, one point ahead of second-placed City and four clear of third-placed Arsenal. A win would put Liverpool seven points clear of Arsenal already hardly an insurmountable deficit at this stage but one that would leave Arteta's players with little wiggle room. Perhaps more importantly, it would likely leave Arsenal six points behind defending champion City, which is expected to swat aside winless Southampton on Saturday.

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