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mikel arteta praised him armory The squad endured an “extremely difficult” week after playing to a 1-1 draw with 10-man Chelsea. Stamford Bridge,
The Gunners started a Premier League match with neither William Saliba nor Gabriel in defense for the first time this season, with Martin Odegaard and Victor Giocares only fit enough for the bench and Leandro Trossard injured, they had to come from a goal down to take a point that gave them a five-point lead at the top of the table.
The sending off of Moises Caicedo for a stud-up tackle on Mikel Merino’s ankle in the first half looked like the match would stop there, but after Trevoh Chalobah took Arsenal ahead, there was a sense of relief as the leaders escaped with a point thanks to Merino’s leveller.
Despite playing against 10 players for almost an hour, Arteta reflected on what his team had achieved in the last seven days after beating Tottenham in the North London derby and winning in the Champions League. Bayern Munich,
“It’s been a big week,” he said. “The derby, how emotional and the need to win, then Bayern Munich.
“We lost players in those games, today we had to play a partnership that we haven’t had before in a really tough match. The captain still isn’t here, Nine isn’t here, Kai (Havertz) isn’t here, we lost Leo.
“The team had to respond to that. It’s been a positive week because the difficulty was so high. But I think today we should have won the game, but we didn’t.”
Saliba was missing after picking up an injury in training and will be re-assessed ahead of Wednesday’s game against Brentford, while Gabriel is set to be out for a long time.
“It has been a headache because we have had a lot of options and changes in the last few months,” Arteta said. “It (Saliba’s absence) was unexpected. Today was a great learning match for all of us.”
chelsea boss Enzo Maresca Caicedo accepted the dismissal, but questioned why Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur was not sent off for a similar challenge on Reece James when the teams met earlier in November.
Piero Hincapie’s elbow on Chalobah also seemed to leave the Chelsea defender’s face bloodied but only resulted in a yellow card.
“Moise got a red card, but why not Bentancur against Reus?”. Maresca said. “As managers we try to understand why they make decisions in different ways. We have a hard time understanding.
“Trev One, I asked the ref, he said it wasn’t an elbow. They make decisions in different ways. He has a black eye, he was covered in ice at half-time.”
James was excellent in the center of midfield but when asked if he would be able to play at Leeds on Wednesday, Maresca said: “The reality is not.
“We have a game on Wednesday, for Reus we need to manage him and control his situation.”