Arsenal have the worst disciplinary record in the Premier League this season, with their four red cards the most of any team.
None of the Arsenal players have been reprimanded by the police for their actions on the pitch, however, as happened to Ian Wright in 1997.
Playing against Coventry in April of the 1996/97 season, Wright scored a first-half penalty to cancel out Dion Dublin’s opener. The Arsenal forward played the full 90 minutes of the 1-1 draw at Highfield Road, but after playing up against Richard Shaw and Paul Williams all game, he soon had another battle on his hands – this time with the police.
Arsenal legend Ian Wright handed £15,000 fine
While walking off the pitch at the end of the game, after engaging with the Coventry fans and thanking his own Arsenal supporters, Wright entered the dressing room only to be encountered with law enforcement.
“I got reported after a game against Coventry City,” Wright recalled while speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. “I made a rude hand gesture to the fans.
“I went back to the dressing room and there were police – they came to say that I’d been reported. I used to go to certain stadiums, and you’d get a lot of booing but when you got close, they’d have a laugh, so I thought they [Coventry] were fine.
“So, what happened was that when the game finished, I clapped them and they were booing me, so I made the hand gesture and walked off. I got a £17,000 fine.”
The FA actually fined Wright £15,000 – one of the largest financial punishments ever handed out to a player in England at the time. The punishment related to two offences, however, with the FA deciding a fine was deserved rather than a lengthy ban.
A few days before his gesture at Coventry, Wright had also made remarks to referee Mike Riley that received a yellow card at the time and were later reported during Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Highbury.
David Davies, the FA’s director of public affairs, stated: “The Commission made it absolutely clear to Ian Wright that he could expect no sympathy whatsoever if he appeared before them again in similar and proven circumstances.
“The severest of penalties that would remove him from the game for a very long time would be inevitable.”
