Arsenal completed the 2025/26 Premier League season without receiving a red card or conceding a penalty, becoming the first club to achieve both in a full Premier League campaign since the competition began in 1992.
This marked the first time Arsenal — or any Premier League side — had completed an entire season with zero red cards and zero penalties conceded, giving them the cleanest disciplinary record of the 2025/26 campaign.
Arsenal officially lifted the Premier League trophy after a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, although they had already secured the 2025/26 title on 19 May 2026 with one match remaining after title rivals Manchester City drew 1-1 away to Bournemouth.
Conceding no red cards or penalties highlighted the exceptional discipline instilled by Mikel Arteta, especially compared to the previous season, when Arsenal received six red cards and conceded three penalties.
Several clubs joined Arsenal among the teams with the fewest red cards. Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester City, and Fulham also finished the season without a dismissal, while conceding six, two, and four penalties respectively.
Chelsea recorded the highest number of red cards with eight, while Everton and Tottenham Hotspur each accumulated four. Several other clubs finished with three red cards, including Sunderland, Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Ham United, Burnley, Newcastle United, and Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Brentford conceded the most penalties with eight, followed by Burnley, Crystal Palace, and West Ham United with seven each. Aston Villa and Manchester City each conceded two penalties during the campaign.
Arsenal also enjoyed their most disciplined Premier League season in recent years in terms of yellow cards, collecting just 50 across the 38-match campaign — the lowest total among all top-six clubs.
That represented a significant improvement from the previous season, when they received 70 yellow cards in 2024/25.
Concerns Over Refereeing Decisions Allegedly Favouring Arsenal
Arsenal’s remarkable disciplinary record became a major talking point throughout their title-winning season, with some critics arguing that refereeing decisions occasionally worked in their favour.
Several incidents during the 2025/26 Premier League campaign led the league’s independent Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel to conclude that refereeing or VAR decisions had incorrectly benefited Arsenal.
One notable example came during Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Everton on 20 December 2025. William Saliba appeared to kick Thierno Barry inside the penalty area without making contact with the ball, yet neither the referee nor VAR awarded a penalty. The KMI panel later voted 3-2 that the decision was incorrect and that VAR should have advised the referee to review the incident, describing it as a clear and obvious error.
The panel also identified other controversial moments involving Arsenal in closely contested matches. These included a non-awarded penalty for a Declan Rice handball incident against Chelsea and a challenge by Gabriel Martinelli on Brighton midfielder Mats Wieffer inside the penalty area, both in matches Arsenal won by narrow margins.
While on-field referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR official Michael Salisbury initially rejected the appeals, the KMI panel later ruled that Brighton should have been awarded a penalty.
In West Ham United’s match against Arsenal later in the season, a late equaliser by Callum Wilson was ruled out by VAR for a foul on goalkeeper David Raya following grappling inside the box. The decision helped Arsenal secure an important victory and drew criticism, although it was not formally confirmed as an error by the KMI panel in the same manner as other incidents.
These cases emerged amid wider debate over refereeing consistency throughout the league, with the KMI panel reportedly identifying around 23 VAR or refereeing errors across the Premier League season.
