{"id":3932,"date":"2026-04-09T07:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3932"},"modified":"2026-04-09T07:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:46:21","slug":"shocking-stat-from-sporting-vs-arsenal-spells-bad-news-for-max-dowman-and-bukayo-saka-read-arsenal-f-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3932","title":{"rendered":"Shocking stat from Sporting vs Arsenal spells bad news for Max Dowman and Bukayo Saka &#8211; Read Arsenal F.C."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Kai Havertz\u2019s 91st-minute winner snatched Arsenal a victory in Lisbon on Tuesday night, giving Mikel Arteta\u2019s side a lead to take back to the Emirates for next week\u2019s second leg.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Gunners dominated possession and territory throughout at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, although they found it difficult to fashion clear-cut opportunities. That was until Havertz\u2019s late dart into the box was picked out by a stunning clipped pass from Gabriel Martinelli, before the German cooly slotted beyond Sporting CP\u2019s goalkeeper Rui Silva.<\/p>\n<p>David Raya\u2019s heroics have grabbed the headlines in the aftermath of the Champions League showdown, while William Saliba\u2019s performance hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed. However, a more understated aspect of the game has been revealed, which will concern the likes of Bukayo Saka and Max Dowman moving forward.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p>\n          <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Havertz Snatches First Leg Lead \ud83d\udd34 | Sporting CP 0-1 Arsenal | UEFA Champions League Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ij2QUCFc9Do?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sporting defender makes Champions League history vs Arsenal<\/h2>\n<p>Sporting set out to disrupt Arsenal\u2019s flow and rhythm, and this deliberate ploy certainly worked to an extent. The Gunners\u2019 smooth build-up patterns were interrupted by relentless rotational fouling from Rui Borges\u2019 side, and the referee did little to quell this.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the German official, Daniel Siebert, essentially encouraged Sporting to keep committing these offences by not handing out cards. The home side committed eleven fouls on the night, and only Hidemasa Morita was shown a booking.<\/p>\n<p>The most egregious case was left-back Maximiliano Araujo. The Uruguayan made Champions League history on Tuesday night, becoming the first defender in the last nine seasons of the competition to commit seven or more fouls and avoid receiving a yellow card.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83e\udd37 | Getting away with it is an art<\/p>\n<p>Maximiliano Ara\u00fajo has tonight become the first defender to commit 7+ fouls and avoid receiving a yellow card in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UCL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UCL<\/a> match over the last nine seasons \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t say he didn&#8217;t have a plan for keeping Noni Madueke and Max Dowman at bay \ud83d\ude05 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BAFyJ6wuxd\">pic.twitter.com\/BAFyJ6wuxd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sofascore Football (@Sofascore) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sofascore\/status\/2041631203430740370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Pitted against Arsenal\u2019s two best one-on-one threats in Noni Madueke and then Dowman, the full-back clearly had a plan to deal with the two wide forwards, and he got away with it. Consistently bringing Madueke and Dowman down with cynical, and often bordering on reckless, fouls, he was extremely fortunate to avoid a card.<\/p>\n<p>Had he been reprimanded for his actions, Arsenal could have exploited this side more emphatically.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Araujo\u2019s card avoidance is worrying for Arsenal stars<\/h2>\n<p>In the Premier League, it\u2019s generally accepted that a player will be shown a yellow card if he accumulates multiple fouls, even if they are soft or involve minimal contact. This generally prevents defenders committing multiple offences in the same game.<\/p>\n<p>In Europe, on the basis of last night and in previous Champions League games Arsenal have taken part in, there appears to be more leniency. Siebert is an experienced and revered referee, yet he didn\u2019t opt to caution Aruajo despite a pile up of offences.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table class=\"has-fixed-layout\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td\/>\n<td>Madueke vs Sporting<\/td>\n<td>Dowman vs Sporting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Fouls Drawn<\/td>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><strong>All Statistics via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fotmob.com\/en-GB\/matches\/sporting-cp-vs-arsenal\/36af66#5205795\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FotMob<\/a> \u2013 correct as of 08\/04\/2025<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This spells bad news for Arsenal\u2019s primary dribblers in Saka and Dowman, who rely on their ability to beat a man to create chances. If referees in Europe aren\u2019t going to protect them by showing bookings to their opposing full-backs, then they\u2019re going to find it more difficult to impact games, while they\u2019re also going to be more susceptible to injury. <\/p>\n<p>Saka has suffered from this throughout his career to date, particularly in European matches, while Dowman will have to learn to deal with this cynicism. The 16-year-old was fouled three times in his 14-minute cameo in Lisbon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kai Havertz\u2019s 91st-minute winner snatched Arsenal a victory in Lisbon on Tuesday night, giving Mikel Arteta\u2019s side a lead to take back to the Emirates for next week\u2019s second leg. The Gunners dominated possession and territory throughout at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, although they found it difficult to fashion clear-cut opportunities. That was until Havertz\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}