Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted the squad must take the blame for Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth after making too many costly mistakes on the pitch.
The Gunners fell to their first defeat of the campaign courtesy of goals from Ryan Christie and Evanilson, who both found the back of the net after William Saliba’s first-half red card for a professional foul.
Saliba’s foul came after a misplaced pass from Leandro Trossard while, at the other end, Arteta also highlighted a missed opportunity for Gabriel Martinelli as an avoidable mistake which ultimately cost Arsenal the game.
“We are obviously very disappointed with the result and gutted because we have to play again in that context [with ten players],” he said. “This time was even more difficult than the previous two we faced this season.
“Playing for 65 or 68 minutes with ten 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.”
Arteta declined to be too harsh on Saliba following his dismissal but confirmed Arsenal would not be appealing the verdict, which was dished out by VAR after the on-field referee initially deemed it a yellow-card offence.
“It’s a split-second decision you have to make,” Arteta reflected. “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.
“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].”
