Arsenal will be looking to bounce back from their Premier League defeat to Bournemouth with fixtures against Shakhtar Donetsk and Liverpool to come in the next seven days for the Gunners
It was not the weekend Arsenal would have dreamed of after defeat to Bournemouth.
The Gunners saw their unbeaten Premier League record end at the Vitality Stadium but must recover quickly ahead of an important week. The north London side first welcome Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League before hosting fellow Premier League title challengers Liverpool on Sunday.
They face the task of overcoming Arne Slot’s team without the services of William Saliba, after his red card against the Cherries. Whether the Frenchman warranted the sending off has proven a big talking point following the game.
Regardless, Arsenal cannot afford to offer any more advantages to their rivals. Mirror Football takes a look at some of the biggest stories around the Emirates.
Thomas Partey’s message
Thomas Partey has echoed the comments of his manager and called on Arsenal to learn from their mistakes after seeing William Saliba receive a red card before falling to defeat against Bournemouth.
It is the third time that the Gunners have dropped points while being down to 10 men in the Premier League this season. Arteta has pleaded with his team to keep their discipline and Partey is in agreement.
“We have to learn from our mistakes and not let them happen again,” he said. “We are working hard, we are trying to win our duels and sometimes these things happen. We have to stick together because red cards can happen in games and we must learn from every mistake.
“Every time we have 11 players one the pitch, we always dominate the game.”
Dressing room verdict to Arsenal defeat
Jamie Carragher believes that Liverpool and Manchester City dressing rooms would have received a boost after Arsenal’s defeat to Bournemouth, even at this early stage of the season. The former Reds defender suggested ahead of Liverpool’s game against Chelsea that the title race is already down to three teams.
“It looks like a little bit like last season where three teams are going for the title,” he said on Sky Sports. “If you’re Man City or Liverpool, the same way City and Arsenal would’ve reacted to Liverpool losing to Forest.
“If you’re going for the title, when you lose a game that’s not expected, it gives an energy or buzz about maybe Anfield or City that if you get three points to gain on Arsenal when they’ve come against a team you’d expect to be in mid-table.
“It’s a bad one losing against someone you’re not supposed to. That’d give a boost to Man City and Liverpool.”
Ex-referee rubbishes red card decision
Ex-Premier League referee Mark Halsey does not believe that William Saliba’s challenge on Evanilson met the criteria for a red card. The former official disputes that the Frenchman denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity as the Premier League’s Match Centre and VAR suggested.
It read: “The referee gave Saliba a yellow card for a challenge on Evanilson. The VAR deemed that Saliba denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and recommended an on-field review. The referee then upgraded the yellow to a red card.”
Halsey notes the challenge may have failed to meet three of the four criteria required. “It’s a subjective decision, so I didn’t think VAR Jarred Gillett needed to get involved,” Halsey told the Sun.
“For the denial of a goalscoring opportunity, we look at four key criteria. And I had doubts over three of those.
“The distance between the offence and the goal was lengthy, the general direction of play saw the ball coming across Evanilson and not in front of him and also the location and number of defenders was questionable.
“The likelihood of him keeping or gaining control of the ball would have probably been in the favour of the Cherries forward because David Raya was back-pedalling towards his own goal.”
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