Mikel Arteta said Arsenal have no plans to appeal William Saliba’s red card against Bournemouth and insisted his side must blame themselves for the 2-0 loss on the south coast.
The 10-player Gunners slipped to their first Premier League defeat of the season after a late goal from Ryan Christie and a penalty from fellow substitute Justin Kluivert at the Vitality Stadium.
The goals came after Saliba had received Arsenal’s third red card of the season for a last-man foul on Evanilson in the first half which was initially deemed a yellow card offence by Robert Jones.
The referee upgraded his decision to a red after being instructed to go to the pitchside monitor by VAR Jarred Gillett, but Arteta did not take issue with the decision after the game.
Instead, he blamed the errors which led to the incident, when Leandro Trossard’s poor pass landed team-mate Saliba in trouble, and the Gabriel Martinelli one-on-one miss shortly before Bournemouth’s opening goal in the second half.
“We are obviously very disappointed with the result and gutted because we have to play again in that context,” he said. “This time was even more difficult than the previous two we faced this season.
“Playing for 65 or 68 minutes with 10 men at this level is just an impossible task. It’s an accident waiting to happen, not to get the points. I cannot fault the team for their effort, their commitment, how intelligent they are to play in the way that we have to do it.
“There is a big moment obviously with 0-0 when we have a big opening, one against one with the ‘keeper. We don’t manage to score and at the other end we do that. We have to fault ourselves.
“Football is a sport where errors are part of that. Tonight we made two big errors that have cost us the game unfortunately.”
On Saliba’s decision to pull down Evanilson, he said: “It’s a split of a second decision you have to make.
“The striker is on his back. Obviously, he doesn’t expect the ball suddenly to be coming his way. He just made a decision and that’s it.”
Asked if the club plan to appeal the decision, Arteta added: “That decision was changed and now the decision is not going to change twice. So, decision made.
“We have to accept it, move on and have that pain that we are feeling at the moment for Tuesday [against Shakhtar Donetsk].”
Arsenal were without the injured Bukayo Saka for the game but Arteta did not offer any excuses. “Again, it’s just about using the pain that we are feeling at the moment for Tuesday.
“That’s the best way to do it. Not feeling sorry for yourself about how it happened again three times in eight matches.
“We are missing our captain and one of our best players. That’s it. That’s not going to take us anywhere.”
Rice bemoans Arsenal ‘naivety’
Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice was frustrated that more “silly mistakes” cost his side against Bournemouth.
For the third time this season, Arsenal had a player sent off in the Premier League, the first time this has happened in the first eight games for 13 years.
Arsenal had escaped with a point when Rice and Trossard were sent off against Brighton and Man City respectively, but they could not hold on against Bournemouth.
“We’ve kicked ourselves in the foot now three times in eight game,” he told Sky Sports.
“We’ve got away with it twice – at home to Brighton, away to Man City – but luck doesn’t always go your way.
“I am proud of us for continuing to fight and believe. Thought we played really well even with 10 men.
“The naivety of it is, we need to stop making mistakes. We want 11 players for 90 minutes and that wins football matches. That wins football matches.
“With 10 men we showed a lot of character and personality.
“There are no regrets tonight, other than the fact we can’t keep making silly mistakes. You always need your best players on the pitch and [a red card] then gives the other players a mountain to climb when you are down to 10 men.
“The belief in the group is still so high. We will stick together.”
Redknapp: Arsenal were sloppy even before the red
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp felt Arsenal were not themselves against Bournemouth and put it down to the absence of Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka.
“Even before the red card Arsenal were sloppy, leggy, passive, all the things you don’t want to see. It wasn’t the Arsenal that we’ve been used to seeing this season,” said Redknapp
“I can’t remember Arsenal giving the ball away this many times at this stage of a game in a long time. They were wasteful, no-one was really getting hold of the ball. And it does make you think, and I really like [Martin] Odegaard, and he gives Arsenal a sense of control, how much they missed him today.
“They missed [Bukayo] Saka, because as soon as the ball goes out to him, something can happen. Raheem Sterling is obviously a right-footed player, he’s playing on the right side, he’s not got that same flow that Saka offers you. Straight away, you look at that team sheet and think, right, we’ve got a real chance today, let’s get after this Arsenal side – two of their biggest players aren’t playing.
“That midfield was, I would say, functional today. There was no-one that was going to give you that little bit of guile. And even when it went to 10 men, obviously they had the big Martinelli chance, but I didn’t feel they had any ingredients to really unlock this Bournemouth side, and they just struggled all game.
“It was a really difficult evening for them. A lot of that is due to Bournemouth and how good they were, but I think Arsenal will be really disappointed.”