Arsenal begin with another red dawn

Arsenal 2; Everton 1: Arsenal's season can again be taken as red. The number of blushing cards under Arsene Wenger having reached 50 the previous weekend, Saturday's dismissal of Sol Campbell leaves the manager one short of a full deck.

As much has been suspected of his team for some time now. In Arsenal's case a starter for 10 has become, if not quite the norm, then a reasonable assumption. Finishing a match with 11 men on the field is not yet a rarity but it rarely passes without comment.

The manner in which Arsenal exploited their superior pace and technique to beat Everton on Saturday after Campbell's 25th-minute exit said much for their powers of improvisation. Practice does, after all, make perfect.

Nevertheless, it is hardly the way for a team with Arsenal's wretched disciplinary record to start another season.

Campbell will get a one-match suspension for denying Thomas Gravesen a scoring opportunity by trailing a leg after the Dane had beaten two men, caught Campbell square, and was about to make the England defender a third.

Should the video panel decide that Campbell's retaliatory lunge against Eric Djemba-Djemba during the Community Shield against Manchester United (when Francis Jeffers was sent off for kicking Phil Neville) warrants action by the English FA then the Arsenal man could start the new season as he ended the old, with a four-game ban.

Wenger, needless to say, did not get a proper view of the incident but accepted referee Mark Halsey's decision once Campbell admitted he did make contact with Gravesen.

Taken in isolation, the Campbell incident would not warrant widespread condemnation. It is just that Arsenal's lengthening red carpet of cards, in spite of periods when their discipline has shown a marked improvement, is even now threatening to weigh heavily against their title hopes while making better progress in the Champions League.

Up to the moment of Campbell's dismissal David Moyes's side had contained Arsenal well and would have led after seven minutes had Nick Chadwick not seen his shot saved by Jens Lehmann's legs. But once Campbell went they conspired to make Arsenal's 10 men look like 11.

The sheer speed of Thierry Henry meant that Everton dared not push forward in greater numbers even if they did have an extra player. As Moyes observed: "Henry occupies all the players at the back on his own." Arsenal's capacity to counter-attack with verve was never depleted. If anything it thrived on the additional demands created by Campbell's departure. The outcome was never in doubt once Henry's penalty had punished Alan Stubbs's blocking of the ball with an elbow 11 minutes before half-time.

Robert Pires, drifting past defenders like smoke from a Gaulloise, added another on 58 minutes when he met the second rebound after Richard Wright had kept out successive shots from Henry and Patrick Vieira.

Radzinski snapped up a poor clearance, following a corner from Wayne Rooney, to score six minutes from the end but Everton held out only a token hope of salvation.