Wenger's Centenary

Arsenal reached their 100th red card under Wenger during our match against Bayern in the Champions League.

Although many have been debatable, others were stone cold killers, especially when we had the likes of Keown, Adams and Viera taking names and breaking hearts.

So here's a list of some of the best and the worst red cards seen under Wenger. 

3 of the best

1) Patrick Viera  (Premier League 02.10.99)

Having been fouled persistently by West Ham's Neil Ruddock, Viera decided enough was enough and left the boot in following a 50/50 challenge. Ruddock went sprawling and when he had the gall to reproach Viera (with some xenophobic remarks thrown in for good measure) the Frenchman retaliated by spitting in Ruddock's face.

2) Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor  (Carling Cup Final 25.02.07)

The animosity between Arsenal and Chelsea came to a boiling point during the 2007 Carling Cup Final. Following a foul on Toure, a full-scale brawl erupted on the pitch involving just about every player and the managers (Wenger coming on to calm things down, Mourinho to whisper words of encouragement). In the melee that ensued punches were alleged to have been thrown, resulting in three sending offs. 

3) Sol Campbell (Premier League 16.04.03)

In the days when Arsenal vs Manchester United was equivocal to a scene from Saving Private Ryan, Sol Campbell had the opportunity to elbow Solskjaer in the face, and guess what, he took it. At the time many Arsenal fans were incensed at the decision, but with the advantage of a few years to calm down and a bit of hindsight I'm sure we can agree that was the correct decision. Check it out on youtube where the cameraman has captured all the 'conversation' between players and referee.

3 of the worst

1) Robin V. Persie (Champions league 08.03.2011)

This will forever remain one of the most controversial sendings off ever. With Arsenal going through 3-2 on aggregate and Europe's poster boys Barcelona threatening to crash out of the Champions League when many had tipped them to win, it would take one of the worst refereeing decsions of all time to ultimately change the match.

Robin V. Persie was judged to have wasted time by kicking the ball at goal after the referee had already blown for offside. The fact that V. Persie kicked the ball less than a second (0.8 to be precise) after he had blown amidst the cocophony of noise inside the Camp Nou is farcical.

V. Persie was dismissed with a second yellow, Arsenal reduced to 10 men and surprise surprise Barcelona scored the goal that took them through.

2) Jens Lehman (Champions League final  17.05.06)

With less than 20 minutes played in arguably the biggest match of Wenger's tenure Arsenal were reduced to ten men when Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o was brought down by the big German. This was a poor decision as Barcelona had scored from open play enabling the referee to allow play to continue and punish Lehman with a booking. Instead the referee sent off Lehman and awarded a penalty, an early example of what Michel Platini would later call the 'Triple Jeopardy' of 'last man' decisions (as Arsenal had to bring off an outfield player and only had 2 more substitutions remainig for the majority of the match).

3) Mikel Arteta (Premier League 26.10.13)

Faced with the impossible task of marking Marouane Chamakh, Arteta fell foul of the wiley Moroccan's trickery when he allowed himself to be tripped up by the cumbersome forward. Rather than give a freekick against Chamakh for displying the same agility and lightness of feet that endeared him to Arsenal fans, the referee marched over, brandished a red and sent off our skipper for preventing a goalscoring opportunity (despite being a full 25 yards from goal).

Comment below and let us know your favourite Arsenal red card!

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