Fair Play League

case n basket

Bolton and Blackburn finish second last and last respectively. SHOCKER! Bunch of thugs, their play is closer to wrestling than football.

http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?article=277189&lid=NewsHeadline&sub=Arsenal+top+Fair+Play+League+for+second+successive+year&navlid=&sublid=&Title=Arsenal+top+Fair+Play+League+for+second+successive+year

Arsenal win it for the second year in a row (at least that's a title they can retain... ), dirty bastards.

eirebhoy

Top half of the table is nearly all southern clubs and bottom half full of northern clubs. Interesting.

Pigman II

Perhaps that table goes some way to explaining the 'Liverpool away form' mystery?

Check it out ...

Liverpool (a) v 'Teams 1-10 (h)'

W = 4 , D = 1 , L = 4

Liverpool (a) v 'Teams 11-20 (h)'

W = 1 , D = 2 , L = 7

jank

Hopefully the myth that arsenal are dirty will be done away with now

therecklessone

jank wrote:

Hopefully the myth that arsenal are dirty will be done away with now

No, its dirty Leeds...


















...and boring boring Arsenal...

PHB

All teams are clean when they are winning, this reflects nothing really.
You can tell how dirty teams are when the chips are down, then the true character of a player comes out

sikes

this is up to november..arsenal didnt finish top...is was chelsea then spurs not sure the rest tho

redspider

case n basket wrote:

http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?article=277189&lid=NewsHeadline&sub=Arsenal+top+Fair+Play+League+for+second+successive+year&navlid=&sublid=&Title=Arsenal+top+Fair+Play+League+for+second+successive+year Arsenal win it for the second year in a row... dirty bastards.

I dont think this is a valid fair play table. First, its subjective and judged by a panel. Second, it gives points for positive play, so Arsenal gained points when they beat "hungover" Everton 7-0. And given the number of high scoring matches Arsenal have had this season, its little wonder that they are up at the top.

An objective method is needed based on fouls, yellow cards and red cards. There must be one out there somewhere.

Looking at the opta stats shows the following:

Liverpool
Tackles 1234 10 (ranked)
Tackle % 73% 8
Fouls 476 19
Yellow Cards 43 16
Red Cards 2 11

Arsenal
Tackles 1250 7
Tackle % 71% 14
Fouls 473 20
Yellow Cards 45 14
Red Cards 1 18

Chelsea
Tackles 1136 17
Tackle % 73% 9
Fouls 523 13
Yellow Cards 52 10
Red Cards 0 20

Man Utd
Tackles 1131 19
Tackle % 69% 20
Fouls 514 14
Yellow Cards 46 13
Red Cards 5 3

Using a scheme of -1 pt for a foul, -5 pts for a yellow and -10 pts for a red, produces the following table:

Team-Fouls - Y - R - Points
ARS -- 473 - 45 - 1 -708
LIV --- 476 - 43 - 2 -711
CHE -- 523 - 52 - 0 -783
MAN -- 514 - 46 - 5 -794


And given there is some subjectivity in the decisions by refs, linesmen, in terms of giving fouls, yellows, and reds, it would seem that Liverpool and Arsenal are more or less the same. Man U would seem to be the dirtiest and I'm a bit surprised by Chelsea being up so high. Whenever I've seen them play this year they seem to be reasonably fair, but perhaps in this case the stats dont lie.

I've included the tackles figures so you can judge that the number of fouls is not just because a team has done more tackling. In fact both Liverpool and Arsenal have executed more tackles (about 100 more) than Man U and Chelsea. Liverpool have succeeded at the same rate as Chelsea with 73% of tackles.

Redspider

Xterminator

case n basket wrote:

Bolton and Blackburn finish second last and last respectively. SHOCKER! Bunch of thugs, their play is closer to wrestling than football...

Thats a load of crap!

A couple of seasons ago, blackburn had Duff and Dunn getting the sh|te kicked out of them every week, and no-one said anything.

Now suddunly their akin to professional wrestlers, when they refuse to lie down to other teams?

LOOK their goes another bandwagon you might want to jump on ... whooosh!

X

redspider

Xterminator wrote:

Thats a load of crap! A couple of seasons ago, blackburn had Duff and Dunn getting the sh|te kicked out of them every week, and no-one said anything. Now suddunly their akin to professional wrestlers, when they refuse to lie down to other teams?

I dont think case-n-baskets point is wrong. He is not jumping on a bandwagon, he is talking about facts. Looking at Blackburn:

Tackles 1264 4
Tackle % 73% 7
Fouls 645 1
Yellow Cards 69 1
Red Cards 6 2

So, on the points scale I've suggested above, Blackburn would have
a total of -1050.

Blackburn have fouled the most - FACT.

It doesnt matter what happened a few years ago, that does not warrant fouling this season.

Redspider

jank

PHB wrote:

All teams are clean when they are winning, this reflects nothing really.
You can tell how dirty teams are when the chips are down, then the true character of a player comes out

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Chelsea should be well on top then.
I know what your getting at though and it wont work mate

Cianan2

Yes, i like this table.... Spurs in the Champions league!

case n basket

Xterminator wrote:

Thats a load of crap!

A couple of seasons ago, blackburn had Duff and Dunn getting the sh|te kicked out of them every week, and no-one said anything.

Now suddunly their akin to professional wrestlers, when they refuse to lie down to other teams?

LOOK their goes another bandwagon you might want to jump on ... whooosh!

X

Bollocks. Anyone who has watched them this season will have seen that their ability to kick a ball around is far surpassed by their ability to kick the shit out of their opponents.

However, Bolton for me, are worse. They also have Diouf, the bunch of charmers.

Guy:Incognito

well in fairness, Bolton should be bottom on principle due to Diouff alone. He's a knacker.

redspider

Cianan2 wrote:

Yes, i like this table.... Spurs in the Champions league!

I think Spurs can count themselves lucky to be in the draw for the Uefa Cup, as the "Fair Play" league is subjective.

Using some objective point scoring produces the following (not all teams included, anyone want to volunteer?) table:



Team Fouls Yellow Reds Points
Arsenal 473 45 1 -708
Liverpool 476 43 2 -711
Charlton 500 40 3 -730
Tottenham 495 53 1 -770
Chelsea 523 52 0 -783
Man Utd 514 46 5 -794
Everton 549 54 4 -859
Bolton 585 57 2 -890
Birmingham 573 61 3 -908
A Villa 629 57 2 -934
Blackburn 645 69 6 -1050


Spurs have 13 more yellows than Charlton, Charlton must be miffed!

As for Bolton, they aren't the worst, but were bad.
In terms of Diouf, it must be remembered that in the parts and tribes of Africa where he comes from (Senegal) spitting is part of their culture and is no more worse than swearing. Now, how many players dont swear in England? Granted he needs to learn fast never to do it again, but he has at least some excuse.

Redspider

MrJoeSoap

redspider wrote:

In terms of Diouf, it must be remembered that in the parts and tribes of Africa where he comes from (Senegal) spitting is part of their culture and is no more worse than swearing.

AAAAAHAHAHA! What a load of bullsh!t. So this 'tribe' that Diouf comes from, where he learned to play football, spit on each other regularly yeah?

Got any links?

~Rebel~

it does only ever happen when hes seriously pissed or aggrevvated so id imagine its part of his natural reaction, obviously still a scumbag for it, but just a slight point. Am sure it'll be stamped out by next season as hes gotten in some serious sh!t over it and Sam wouldn't put up with it.

MrJoeSoap

The guy has one of the worst attitudes to opponents and opposition fans I reckon I have ever seen. What is up with him? He's not a bad player so why does he have to go and do stupid things like spitting in opponents faces?

Anyway, thats off-topic, sorry.