BACK in the day at Arsenal, red cards were regarded as signs of a winning mentality — not a failing that could cost them titles.

The Gunners go into Sunday’s clash with Liverpool without defender William Saliba after he became the THIRD player in Mikel Arteta’s squad to be sent off this season.

When fellow Frenchman Patrick Vieira was dismissed in a home game with the Reds in August 2000, there was indeed talk of crisis in Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team.

Despite a 2-0 victory over a Liverpool side reduced to nine men, Vieira’s second red in three days — following one at Sunderland — stole the headlines.

The World Cup winner threatened to leave the English game and team-mate Dennis Bergkamp was concerned enough to voice fears on the combative midfielder’s future.

But for Arsenal’s captain that day, Tony Adams, Vieira’s disciplinary record and reaction to his latest misdemeanour were water off a duck’s back.

Adams recalled, chuckling: “It was par for the course, Patrick getting sent off — everyday occurrence.

“He’s been hurt, he’s reacted, ‘Oh, I can’t play in this league if I’m going to get sent off every week!’

“It’s a childish thing to say but I wouldn’t expect it any other way.

“We footballers aren’t known for emotional maturity, and Dennis was always worried about something!

“If I thought Patrick was being out of order, I would have had a quiet word. But I wasn’t going to go up to Patrick and say, ‘Calm yourself down, for God’s sake!’

“Because that was half of his game. I needed that from him.

“And if sometimes we got red cards — and Arsene said, ‘Oh, I didn’t see it’ — then that’s the way it was.”

Arsenal’s red mist tally during Wenger’s 22-year reign really was something with 118 dismissals — 78 of them in the Premier League.

In almost six seasons ex-England centre-half Adams played under the Gunners’ most successful boss, the team racked up 43 red cards.

There were 11 in all competitions in 2001-02, with three dismissals in the league before November — just like this season.

Yet that campaign ended with the second Double of Wenger’s tenure as Adams completed over two decades of service to the club in style.

Adams said: “It was never a thing internally, it was never on the agenda to say, ‘Let’s not have too many red cards today’.

“We went out to score goals, keep clean sheets and win matches.

“If we picked up reds along the way, even with ten men we more than likely beat teams anyway.

“It was always in Arsenal’s handbook you’d have to pay a fine for reds for verbals but not for tackles.

“When they were closing down people, putting in tackles and getting involved, putting pressure on teams and maybe mistiming a tackle to get a yellow or a red, I didn’t have a problem with that.

“I would rather have had that than have no-one getting sent off and accepting losing every week.”

But Adams, 58, acknowledges that the current situation at the Gunners is different.

Saliba was sent off for a professional foul at Bournemouth, while Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were shown second yellow cards for kicking the ball away against Brighton and Manchester City, respectively.

The latter two incidents were part of a crackdown by refs on players delaying restarts.

Adams agrees with the criticism of Rice’s second booking, calling it “ridiculous”.

But he reckons that Trossard could have no complaints about his and Arsenal now need to “smarten up”, individually and collectively.

Adams said: “You are expected to be competitive.

“If that leads to yellow or red cards, any manager in the country would tell you, ‘Well played’.

“But if you are doing it for misunderstanding rules then it’s a lack of discipline really. So smarten up, guys. Learn the rules.”

As for Saliba and the foul on Evanilson that led to him being sent off last weekend, Adams has been there and done that.

Back in November 1996, he was shown a straight card for hauling down Alan Shearer on the edge of the box at St James’ Park.

Adams recalled: “I got my positioning wrong and Shearer went in behind me and I took him out.

“I got such a roasting for that one. Arsene said, ‘He has still got to beat David Seaman — one of the best goalkeepers in the world — why have you done that and put us a man down?’ I learned from that and never did it again. Saliba has to learn, too.

“When you’re not so quick, like me, you have to be really alert to the situation and give the forward a few yards.

“But when you are quick like Saliba, then you can get yourself out of jail.”

Arsenal could not salvage the situation when Saliba was sent off with an hour left at Bournemouth and slipped to their first league defeat of the season.

In contrast, on the day Adams was sent off at Newcastle, the Gunners won 2-1 thanks to Ian Wright’s second-half winner.

In that August 2000 game against Liverpool that prompted Vieira’s meltdown, Arsenal took an early lead through Lauren and Reds midfielder Gary McAllister was sent off before half time.

Vieira was shown his second yellow card in the 73rd minute to make it ten vs ten but Liverpool’s Didi Hamann received his second booking soon afterwards and Thierry Henry scored at the death to seal the 2-0 win.

Vieira’s threat to quit English football proved empty as he stayed to help Arsenal win the Double in 2002 and captain them in the Invincibles season of 2003-04.

The Gunners have not won the title since and Adams reckons they need to show more of that Vieira fire — and risk getting the right kind of red card — if they are to end that drought.

Adams added: “I’d like Arsenal to be more aggressive in making tackles and closing down.

“George Graham always said, ‘If you kick someone, pick them up. Then kick them again. Then pick them up again. And then kick them again.’

“Under George and Arsene, we were a team of winners. Sometimes we walked the line because we were fiercely competitive.

“But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”