Mikel Arteta admitted he has “run out of ideas” after watching his Arsenal side reduced to 10-men yet again during the win over Wolves.
The Gunners moved up to fifth in the Premier League table with Gabriel Magalhaes’ first half goal the difference between the two sides at Molineux, but were forced to grind it out after yet another petulant dismissal.
In a game of few clear-cut chances, the Brazilian defender poked home following a scramble in the box after a corner.
Wolves dominated much of the ball, but struggled to truly test Aaron Ramsdale in a game between two sides who both find goals difficult to come by.
Only Norwich and Watford have scored fewer than Wolves, whilst Arsenal ’s solitary strike in the Black Country was the first since their New Year’s Day defeat to Manchester City.
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And so it always looked likely that one goal would settle it and so that proved, with Arteta’s side hanging on despite ending the game with one man less.
Arsenal were reduced to ten men when Gabriel Martinelli was handed two yellow cards in less than ten seconds in the same passage of play.
The Brazilian was sanctioned firstly for trying to block a quick throw, before referee Michael Oliver played advantage allowing the forward to foul Chiquinho in the subsequent break.
It’s the 15th time Arteta has seen a player sent off since his appointment and he admitted that he is struggling to arrest what is becoming an increasingly unwanted trend.
And he sent a stark warning to his players by reminding them that, in the context of their top four bid, winning Premier League games with 10 men is never an easy task.
"I've run out of ideas I think (to stop the red cards)," Arteta told BT Sport. "The character, how we dug in, the spirit we showed, I'm really proud of the boys. There was togetherness and unity.
"We put ourselves in trouble with the red card and we had to dig in. Wolves threw seven players up front and it was difficult to maintain a clean sheet but we defended the box extremely well.
"The character, how we dug in, the spirit we showed, I'm really proud of the boys. There was togetherness and unity. We need to play with 11 players in the last 16 games and that is key. To win games with 10 men is very unlikely."
"We have to go game by game and there are small margins to win games. We have to keep improving. Our reality is the next game."
On the red card itself, he suggested that he had never seen a comparable incident : "I've never seen that. I've been 18 years in this country and I've never seen something like it.
"We made it even more difficult for ourselves playing with 10 men. We suffered a lot in the last 10 minutes. I've never seen something like it."
