Arteta frustrated with officials after Rice sees red and Brighton hold Arsenal

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Arteta frustrated with officials after Rice sees red and Brighton hold Arsenal  31/08/2024  Emirates Stadium, London, UK

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00:00What are your thoughts on the afternoon?

00:03Well, a very emotional afternoon for sure. I think we started the game really well, created

00:08three or four big chances that we didn't convert. After that we had a period of some issues

00:13basically with the ball after regaining the ball and we lost it in some difficult areas

00:18and we lacked some continuity and dominance in that period. We scored a really good goal

00:23in a moment that we took advantage of the opponent. And then we got to half-time, we

00:28come back, we are really strong and then obviously the referee makes a decision that

00:34changes the course of the game.

00:36And it's still like this with ten men, the team reacts unbelievably well, the stadium

00:40reacts unbelievably well and probably we should have won the game.

00:44The red card is obviously what everyone is talking about, what do you think of it?

00:48I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because how inconsistent decisions can be. In the

00:55first half there are two incidents, nothing happens. And then in a non-critical area

01:02the ball hits Declan Hill, he turns around, he doesn't see the player coming, he touches

01:06the ball. By law he can make that goal, but by law then he needs to make the next goal

01:13which is red card. So we played ten against ten. So this is what amazed me. At this level

01:19it's honestly amazing.

01:21Despite a 50-10?

01:23Yeah.

01:24What did he say?

01:25Obviously we had a reaction that it was back to goal, it's not in the middle of the path

01:29that they're trying to counter or anything. Anyway, I repeat myself, by law you want to

01:34do it, you didn't do it in the first half, do it. But then you have to play ten against

01:38ten. That's it. Very simple.

01:42You've said you need to be near perfect to beat Manchester City, you've had two chances

01:47at the end, Saka and Pavard. Is it frustrating that one of those didn't go in because it

01:53would have felt like a huge victory?

01:55Yeah, for sure. Because the spirit, how well we controlled the emotional part of the game.

02:01Because it was a really hard one to take, really, really hard one to take. But the team

02:05reacted that way. We showed a lot of discipline, we adapted to what we had to do, playing at

02:10home with ten men and we didn't want to be sitting deep for so long like this. But we

02:15read the game and we played the game that we had to play and we should have got rewarded.

02:20You're obviously not going to deck them out for the North London derby. How big a blow

02:26is that to be missing two players like that for a game?

02:29This is what happened, so we have to adapt to that constant. We have other players that

02:33can fulfil that and give the opportunity to somebody else.

02:36Raheem joined last night, he hasn't really had much football because of the situation

02:41at Chelsea. Are you hoping in these two weeks you can get him in shape to hopefully be involved

02:44for that?

02:45Yeah, we have to see. We have to see him, speak to him about what he's been doing, how

02:50he's feeling about it and try to find quick wins to get him up to speed as quick as possible

02:58and him understanding what we are looking for in him and the dynamics of the team and

03:03use that time to do that and as soon as possible get him involved.

03:09Have you spoken to the referee? Did he say to you why he didn't give the yellow card

03:14in the first half of the Brighton break?

03:16No.

03:17No he didn't.

03:18OK, we'll probably just do a couple more now.

03:21Just a couple of those inconsistencies, how has that improved? Obviously it's a very

03:25subjective call from a referee, but how do we change, how do we improve those inconsistencies?

03:32I don't know, this is not in our hands so we don't know.

03:36Could you just ask how you were intimidated?

03:40No, he was I think cramping. He got a kick in that area in the first half and then he

03:44was cramping so we had to take him off.

03:47I don't think so.

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