After Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Stoke, Arsène Wenger told the media that Arsenal don’t get penalties.
The Gunners were denied one fairly clear shout for a spot-kick against the Potters, when Hector Bellerín was brought down by Mame Biram Diouf. Arsène went on to say the following when asked if a penalty should’ve been awarded: “Of course, but we know we don’t get penalties – we know that.
“Look at the numbers, you will see [we don’t get penalties]. Look at the statistics. Penalties we had last year the highest against us at home by a mile and the lowest number for us.
“I give you just the numbers, I don’t give you anything else. We don’t get penalties.”
Arseblog did some analysis of the figures from last season to try and see if this claim was backed up in reality, but missed a few details we’re going to take you through below.
In the article, they pointed out that Arsenal were awarded six penalties last season, and conceded 10. Based on stats from myfootballfacts.com, only five teams were awarded more than the Gunners.
On the other hand, Arsenal did concede almost more than anybody else, but came in second to Hull who conceded 12.
However, that analysis doesn’t quite answer what Wenger said. What he said was that Arsenal had the highest number of penalties against them at home.
So is this true?
It depends on exactly what he meant. If he meant in the entire league, then again Hull come out on top, with six conceded at home to Arsenal’s five (stats via eplreview.com).
However, if we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was only referring to the big six teams, then he’s right.
We’ve counted up the totals for the number of penalties conceded at home by each club below, and Arsenal are way out in front:
- Arsenal – 5
- Manchester City – 2
- Manchester United – 2
- Tottenham – 2
- Liverpool – 1
- Chelsea – 0
With any luck these figures will even out, as we’re always told they do over the course of the season. But we’ll have to wait and see.