Mikel Arteta has demanded 'explanations' from Premier League referees after Gabriel Martinelli's controversial red card for Arsenal against Wolves on Thursday night.
The decision, which occurred in the 69th minute at the Molineux, set the Gunners back but they were ultimately able to show the resilience needed for a top-four spot by grinding out a big three points with a 1-0 win against the West Midlands outfit.
However, on another day, a decision like that could cost the north Londoners vital points, with Gabriel Magalhaes an example of this when he got sent off in the 2-1 Man City loss.
Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey on top of this have already received red cards in different competitions, with the current Premier League count up to three this term.
It is a record that will be of some concern to manager Arteta who was questioned about the red cards in his post-match press conference.
"Very worrying. To be fair, it’s the first time I’ve seen a red card like this in 18 years that I’ve been in this league," the Spaniard said.
"I think you have to be pretty willing to give a red card in that situation. But still it happened. We know that playing with 10 men in this league you’re not going to get points, enough points, the points that we want and we have to stop it.
"But to be fair it’s difficult to find more arguments and more ways to transmit that to the players. Everybody says it’s the most disciplined group they’ve seen in the last 15 years, but still we are getting red cards for other things."
Arteta has now called for red card 'explanations' ahead of his side's next Premier League outing against Brentford next week.
"If you ask me if I’m happy with the decisions we’ve had this season, I’m not at all," Arteta admitted.
"But that’s a conversation I will have privately with the officials. We need explanations, we need explanations with what happened in VAR and I need explanations with what happened today."
He then went on to add on whether he's had these said conversations already: "No, but they are going to happen soon."
