Arsenal will be without William Saliba for their crucial game against Liverpool on Sunday, live on Sky Sports – so how big will he be?

The French defender was shown a red card for bringing down Bournemouth striker Evanilson as the Gunners suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Cherries. The call was upgraded from a yellow card after VAR recommended Jarred Gillett Jones review the decision on the pitch.

A red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity results in a one-match ban, with Arsenal not planning to appeal the decision, but this one game is crucial as Arne Slots host Liverpool live at the Emirates Stadium this weekend Sky Sports.

Saliba played every minute of Arsenal’s Premier League campaign last season as the Gunners posted some of the best defensive numbers in the division last season.

Arsenal’s numbers with and without Saliba are stark. The Frenchman has only missed 11 Premier League games since joining the team two years ago. Most of these occurred towards the end of the 2022/23 season when he suffered a muscle problem.

The defender missed the start of the season and Arsenal were never the same defensively. Two-goal leads were squandered, as was an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League table, as Manchester City claimed the title again.

Who could replace Saliba?

Saliba’s absence comes at a critical time for the Gunners’ defense and Jurrien Timber’s fitness is another blow for Mikel Arteta.

The Dutch defender hobbled at half-time in Arsenal’s Champions League win over PSG on October 1 and has not appeared since.

If Timber can return in time for the weekend and further information is revealed after Arsenal’s Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday evening, Ben White could play alongside Gabriel at centre-back.

White has played at right-back for the last two seasons, but partnered Gabriel as Arsenal’s first-choice centre-back in the 2021/22 season.

If Timber is unavailable, Arsenal still have plenty of options. Jakub Kiwior filled the gap left by Saliba against Bournemouth – although his weak back pass in the build-up to the Cherries’ second goal is not ideal preparation.

Another way to fill this gap in defense is to use Riccardo Calafiori at right-back. This was the change Arteta made against PSG when Timber went off injured.

But then Arsenal would have to find a place at left-back. Oleksandr Zinchenko returned from injury and was on the bench against Bournemouth, but his defensive abilities have been questioned in recent seasons.

A prominent defensive error from Zinchenko came at Anfield last season when he allowed Mohamed Salah to cut inside too easily and score as Liverpool forced Arsenal to a 1-1 draw again in December. Arteta could use this moment as a reason not to use Zinchenko if possible.

Arsenal’s red card problem – lack of discipline or bad luck?

Saliba’s red card followed dismissals for Leandro Trossard against Manchester City and Declan Rice against Brighton.

No other Premier League team has been shown more than two red cards this season, and Arsenal have more first-half red cards this season than the rest of the 19 Premier League teams combined.

“To get three red cards in the first eight games is really bad,” Jamie Carragher said on Monday.

“But if that doesn’t change quickly, they’re going to have a big problem. Even though it’s still early in the season, you don’t want to be three or four points behind Man City.”

“It can be a situation where it’s a freak situation – three red cards in eight games, that happens once in your career as a manager.”

But that’s not the case, because it’s not the only time we’ve seen this pattern at Arteta’s Arsenal. Red cards seem to come in large quantities.

At the start of 2022, the Gunners received three red cards in four games when Gabriel was sent off against Manchester City on New Year’s Day – before Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey were given their marching orders in both games of their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool.

In January 2020 there were two red cards in the London derby within ten days for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz away at Crystal Palace and then at Chelsea. At the end of the year, Xhaka and Gabriel were sent off in consecutive league games against Burnley and Southampton within three days of each other.

This means Arsenal have received 18 red cards in the Premier League since Arteta’s move to north London – significantly more than any other club. Additionally, the Gunners have received two first-half red cards this season, just like the other 19 Premier League clubs combined.

But Arsenal’s history of red cards in the Premier League goes back much further – to the days of Arsene Wenger, when red cards were not uncommon in the Gunners’ ranks. So this is nothing new for the north London club.

After Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996, his team averaged almost five red cards per season in his first six seasons. When they won the double in 2002, they received six red cards that season, including three sending-offs before the start of November.

Wenger even admitted that his team regularly trained in a 10-man format during this two-win season, such was the likelihood of a player being sent off.

Back then, Arsenal’s red card offenders were exactly what you’d expect. Martin Keown and Patrick Vieira regularly failed early, while Ray Parlor was sent off twice before Christmas in the 2001/02 season.

There was a familiar feeling in Arteta’s early years. Luiz was sent off three times in Arteta’s first two years, while Xhaka and Gabriel were sent off twice in the same period. They were mostly the same faces.

This season, those culprits are more unknown. Rice, Trossard and Saliba were all sacked for the first time in their Premier League careers. The latter had not been overtaken by an attacker once this season before his sending off against Bournemouth on Saturday.

The idea is emerging that Arsenal’s rise in red cards is not an old Achilles’ heel of emerging lack of discipline, but rather that the Gunners have fallen victim to increased scrutiny of minor incidents in unfortunate circumstances.

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