It’s only paranoia when they aren’t really out to get you, right?

Arsenal fans don’t really like referees.

In fact, I’m not sure the fans of many clubs do, but Arsenal seem to see a higher number of red card offences against them go unpunished and never charged after the event.

Perhaps it only seems like that because I pay more attention to Arsenal than I do other clubs, but I would doubt it.

It is also held by Arsenal fans that their players get booked more easily than the opposition, something that was borne out on Tuesday night as Mike Jones put in a disgraceful display which saw Arsenal end the night with the same number of bookings as a Leicester side that spent the entire game kicking lumps out of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla.

When it comes to players being charged based on TV evidence it will come as no surprise, then, to learn that Arsenal also top that table with six players feeling the FA’s wrath, more than any other side in the division apart from Manchester City and Newcastle United – and I can think of at least one incident from matches against both those sides that should have resulted in a retroactive ban (Yaya Toure on Olivier Giroud last season, for instance, in the same game that saw Jack Wilshere get a two-game ban for flipping off the City fans).

Here’s how the clubs rated when it comes to TV-based charges made by the FA [stats via The Sun (£)]

• Arsenal 6
• Man City 6
• Newcastle 6
• Chelsea 4
• Man United 4
• Stoke 4
• Fulham 3
• Birmingham 2
• Blackburn 2
• Everton 2
• West Brom 2
• Wigan 2
• Bolton 1
• Cardiff 1
• Charlton 1
• Derby 1
• Hull 1
• Liverpool 1
• Reading 1
• Sheffield United 1
• Sunderland 1
• Swansea 1
• Tottenham 1

Do you find it as amazing as I do that Arsenal have been charged more than Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham? More than Stoke?

But we’re paranoid.

Right?