Mikel Arteta sat down in front of the media at Vitality Stadium for his post-Bournemouth press conference on Saturday evening.
He was asked about how William Saliba’s red card changed the game, how we can bounce back and more.
Here’s everything he had to say on the following subjects.
on if the course of the game changed due to our red card:
Absolutely, we are obviously very disappointed with the result and gutted because we had to play a game in that context, even more difficult than in the previous two that we already faced this season. Playing for 65 or 68 minutes with ten men at this level is just an impossible task, an accident waiting to happen to not get the points and I cannot fault the team for their effort, commitment, how intelligent they play in the way they have to do it. There is a big moment at 0-0 when we have a big opening, one-on-one situation with the keeper and 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 has cost us the game unfortunately.
on his thoughts on the sending off:
Well, it was a decision made on the pitch, that decision was changed and now I don’t think the decision is going to change twice. So, decision made.
on the amount of red cards we’ve had this season:
There are things that we have discussed in relation to certain topics, what happens today is almost a very unpredictable thing to happen that the winger is going to play the ball to your centre back in the air one touch and there is going to be a challenge there, 35 metres from goal. It’s very difficult to plan for it, but certainly we need to play with 11 against 11 if we want to be in the position we want to be.
on the importance of small margins and the basics:
Obviously, they are the best intentions and Wilo has never done anything like this, and he doesn’t do it even on purpose. What happened on the second goal as well, it happened unfortunately, we couldn’t turn it around which is very unlikely when it happens, especially that often and for the third time this season. We’ve got to go away twice, we did, even though the context was a bit different because we were ahead in the result, but we have to accept it, move on and have that pain that we are feeling at the moment for Tuesday, and that’s it.
on if he expected more from our performance with ten men:
More with ten men? Well, I don’t know what more we can do when you have to play away from home in this league. It’s hard enough today with 11, so what we’ve done today with 10, I think it was quite remarkable.
on if he was surprised with Saliba’s challenge:
I don’t know, it’s a split second decision you have to make, the striker is on his back. Obviously, he doesn’t expect the ball and then suddenly it’s coming his way. He’s made a decision and that’s it, the referee has decided to give a yellow and then a red card.
on if we will appeal the red card:
The decision has been made, so that’s it.
on if we missed Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard:
I cannot assess a performance when you play 60 minutes with 10 men away from home. It’s something impossible.
on how we can bounce back:
Well, again, using the pain we are feeling at the moment for Tuesday, that’s the best way to do it. Not feeling sorry for ourselves, how it happened again three times in eight matches and we are missing our captain and one of our best players and Jurrien and this and that. That’s not going to take us anywhere – leave the energy, these boys deserve it because the way they try and want it, we go again on Tuesday.
on if VAR should have intervened:
I don’t know, they have their own process and decided to do it that way, that’s it.
