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Its a conversation I had with my brother in law(Gooner) yesterday in the pub towards the end of the match....

In the last two games there has been TWELVE yellow cards issued to the opposing team... which as far as I know results in formal warning or disciplinary action against the clubs... anyway, that aside -

My brother in law reckons its a sign that we are an almost impossible side to beat and its frustrating the hell out of the opposition.

What does 12 yellow cards in two games tell you about Manchester City?

They're trying to kick us off the park, and failing. Those sides only ever do it in the big games.

Chelsea were top of the Fair Play league and could have had more than 6 cards. If Adebayor had done what Carvalho did, he would have got 3 games off. Most of the cards weren't even shown on Match of the Day. There was no reason to think they played a dirty game from the highlights.

But we're a much more intelligent side about dealing with those sort of situations now. It's great to see but there are still so many areas.

The 12 yellow cards they got or the other 12 they should have gotten?

Abu Dhabi wrote:The 12 yellow cards they got or the other 12 they should have gotten?

More to point then mate!

I was going to mention this, actually, but wasn't sure whether Arsenal had got 6, 7 or 8 in total. I was expecting that game to be a bit of an anomaly, in all honesty. But after 2 successive games against quality opposition, then I think there is something in it. These players are used to playing week in, week out against squads of a lower calibre than themselves, and possibly don't find it so easy to gear up a notch without adequate preparation. Could anyone pull up stats on top 4 v top 4 bookings per game compared to top 4 v non-top 4 bookings?

BlueinBosnia wrote:I was going to mention this, actually, but wasn't sure whether Arsenal had got 6, 7 or 8 in total. I was expecting that game to be a bit of an anomaly, in all honesty. But after 2 successive games against quality opposition, then I think there is something in it. These players are used to playing week in, week out against squads of a lower calibre than themselves, and possibly don't find it so easy to gear up a notch without adequate preparation. Could anyone pull up stats on top 4 v top 4 bookings per game compared to top 4 v non-top 4 bookings?

Rag Hater's the stat man I'm sure he can conjur something up...

But it has significant meaning... long may it continue...

The hardest team in Europe to beat.

Original Dub wrote:
What does 12 yellow cards in two games tell you about Manchester City?

That on our day we play a style of football that forces the opposition to foul our players in order to stop them and for example avoid getting caught out of position by our counterattacks.

Original Dub wrote:Its a conversation I had with my brother in law(Gooner) yesterday in the pub towards the end of the match....

In the last two games there has been TWELVE yellow cards issued to the opposing team... which as far as I know results in formal warning or disciplinary action against the clubs... anyway, that aside -

My brother in law reckons its a sign that we are an almost impossible side to beat and its frustrating the hell out of the opposition.

What does 12 yellow cards in two games tell you about Manchester City?

I think as well that a lot of our players are excellent at keeping the ball. Take our forwards for example. Tevez is a right tough little cunt, he won't budge for love nor mercy. Adebayor is another, excellent first touch when the ball comes to him and being so tall he can beat people to balls in the air and use his physical strength to hold the opposition off.

Robinho has been a little bit guilty of losing the ball at times recently but generally his skill and touch are first class. Barry is another who's excellent at keeping the ball.

SWP isn't too good at it (having said that he does take players on more than most).

Out of the back 4 the centre backs are very comfortable on the ball and Bridge is fairly decent, Richards at times is suspect but against Chelsea he kept the ball very well.

Overall we're a difficult team to take the ball off.

BlueinBosnia wrote:I was going to mention this, actually, but wasn't sure whether Arsenal had got 6, 7 or 8 in total. I was expecting that game to be a bit of an anomaly, in all honesty. But after 2 successive games against quality opposition, then I think there is something in it. These players are used to playing week in, week out against squads of a lower calibre than themselves, and possibly don't find it so easy to gear up a notch without adequate preparation. Could anyone pull up stats on top 4 v top 4 bookings per game compared to top 4 v non-top 4 bookings?

chelsea v scum = 3 yellows each
arsenal v chelsea = 2 yellows each
scum v arsenal = scum 3 - arsenal 6 (yellows)
scum v liverpool = 1 red each (vidic and mascherano 2 yellows each) 3 yellows for liverpool 4 yellows for scum
chelsea v liverpool = 1 yellow each
arsenal v liverpool = no bookings

Scum - 2 reds and 17 yellows - 10 yellows and 1 red against top 4 (red was 2 yellows)
chelsea - 1 red and 10 yellows - 6 yellows against top 4
arsenal - 0 reds and 15 yellows - 5 yellows against top 4
liverpool - 1 red and 15 yellows - 4 yellows and 1 red against top 4 (red was 2 yellows)

this is quiiiite accurate as far as i can work out and your welcome

your brother in law is right. we are very hard to beat. we are always told that the stats don't lie and the table tells the story. ok, they do indeed. 1 defeat (caused by bent refereeing) tells it all. 1 defeat and it's nearly christmas. ffs, amzing really. add in a cup semi, the barca win, etc and it is really impressive.

but then the bastard draws...shite, we are so close.

ronk wrote:They're trying to kick us off the park, and failing. Those sides only ever do it in the big games.

Chelsea were top of the Fair Play league and could have had more than 6 cards. If Adebayor had done what Carvalho did, he would have got 3 games off. Most of the cards weren't even shown on Match of the Day. There was no reason to think they played a dirty game from the highlights.

But we're a much more intelligent side about dealing with those sort of situations now. It's great to see but there are still so many areas.

I was thinking similarly, but also, what does it say about Arsenal's 'kids', vis a vis their first choice team.
That 'the kids' have more bottle, and more steel, than the 'fancy dan' first-teamers.

But as regards the cards issued to our opponents it perhaps proves that when we are on our game and in full flow, we frighten the life out of our opponents

Chelsea and Arsenal were forced to be quite cynical once we were in front. When you get so used to seeing them defend comfotably it does look quite surprising when these defenders are more than happy to dish it out.

They are all going nuts they can't beat us and its great we are officially striking fear into teams.

SHIT
C
A
R
E
D

I've been saying simmilar to the filth/gooners in the local. Lets not forget we got 4 in those two games which is pretty shyte for a Leslie side. Apparently it's 7 cards before an FA fine. We are still in the top 3 for the Fair play at present, ha ha ha

thats good to know, maybe we'll get in europa league via the fair play table.

petrov wrote:thats good to know, maybe we'll get in europa league via the fair play table.

Dont be a smart ass!! Are you trying to be a negative twat and saying we are not going to finish even high enough for a europa league place!

That teams are maybe getting impatient at our passing of the ball sometimes and they are trying to be aggressive. Maybe we are frustrating more teams now.

these teams can try kicking SWP, Tevez, Ireland, Robino off the park, but they've either got too much bottle, are too brave and are just so used to it that they just pick themselves up and carry on.

And if the worst came to the worst we could just let De Jong, Vinne & Bellamy off their leashes to dish out some retribution.

What i'm trying to say is we've got an excellant mix of flair and grit - so bullyboy tactics won't work against us!

Agree with a lot of the sentiments that we are frustrating the 'big' teams who are not used to having to chase the ball even with our wayward passing!! That said, the cards dished out in the last two games could have been a lot more. Take Anelka, he was warned right near the end of the first half, you could see the ref pointing all over the place re cumulative, niggly fouls - Comes out second half straight back in again and no booking. Arsenal was just as bad and they could have ended up with nine on the pitch at the end.