Referee for Arsenal’s game against Sunderland has an interesting early season trend
Arsenal travel to the Stadium of Light on Saturday night looking to make it four Premier League wins from four.
The man in the middle for the game is John Brooks, with Stuart Attwell on VAR duty.
To be fair, Brooks isn’t a referee who comes with frequent controversy, but Arsenal’s record under him is slightly concerning.
In eight games with Brooks in charge, Arsenal have won four, drawn one and lost three. However, they have had more success recently.
After losing three of their first four games under him, Arsenal have gone undefeated in three of the last four, winning at West Ham and Brighton and drawing at Brentford.
Notably, he’s never sent off an Arsenal player or awarded a penalty against them across those eight games.
But there is one early season pattern worth pointing out.
Referee for Sunderland vs Arsenal likes to dish out yellow cards
John Brooks has been notably strict to start the 2026-27 campaign. Across just two Premier League games so far, he has issued 11 yellow cards — five in Fulham vs Chelsea and six in Everton vs Manchester United.
That is an average of 5.5 yellows per game, significantly above his typical average of around 3.7 from last season.
In front of a raucous Sunderland crowd under the lights, Arsenal will need to be disciplined, particularly their midfield.
With Declan Rice expected to partner either Bruno Guimaraes or Myles Lewis-Skelly from the start, they’ll have to resist the temptation to make quick tactical fouls to disrupt Sunderland’s play.
Although, fortunately for Arsenal, they’re not short of midfield options from the bench if early bookings do start to mount. As Rice said himself, Arsenal now have six incredible midfielders to choose from.
Brooks also averages around 21.8 fouls called per match over the last two seasons, meaning both sides can expect a stop-start game if the tackling gets fierce.
Sunderland, playing at home, have won four of their six games under Brooks, including two victories over Everton last season. This won’t be an easy game, by any means.