Reason explained why Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta shouted at Calafiori during their last match defeat against Bournemouth

deserved to lose

A lot of the talk about this game will be about William Saliba’s red card, and we will talk about that too. But deep down, Arsenal probably knows that they could have easily lost this game if it had stayed 11vs11.

Before the red, they had to have had their worst game of the season so far. Martin Odegaard’s security was missed in the middle of the field, and Bukayo Saka’s absence made the attack less dangerous. Most importantly, they didn’t have any direction in their play.

Arteta could also tell something was wrong. In the first three minutes, he yelled at Riccardo Calafiori for trying to move into center when it wasn’t his time. Not long after, Mikel Merino got his goat when he threw a bouncing Thomas Partey pass into Bournemouth’s hands without any purpose.

Looking back, Arteta might have thought twice about playing Partey, Declan Rice, and Merino as the three defensive midfielders. Someone could say that Merino is much more than that, but there’s no question that Arsenal’s play isn’t very vertical. The 4-4-2 formation that had been working so well in recent weeks was thrown out. Without Leandro Trossard up front with him, Kai Havertz looked alone for long periods of time, even before he was the only Arsenal player who could pass into the Bournemouth half.

Mikel Arteta says that his team has to earn the right to win every time. At the Vitality, Arsenal failed to really do that against a Bournemouth team that seemed eager to prove a point against very good teams.

Following a similarly poor showing at West Ham last season, Arsenal then put on an even worse show at Fulham. Arteta needs to make sure that his team doesn’t make the same mistake again. They have been very consistent since then, but even this early in the season, another mistake like that could not be forgiven.

Does Arsenal not follow the rules?

One good case could be made for Arsenal having 24 points this season, assuming they haven’t been sent off yet. Any opinion you have on how tough the penalties were will not change the fact that they cost the Gunners seven points.

This season, Arsenal has had a lot of different shades of red, but William Saliba’s was possibly the strongest. It was a long way out, and the bar for VAR to step in may have seemed low, but the Frenchman freaked out after Leandro Trossard’s stupid back pass and definitely intentionally tripped Evanilson.

So far this season, Arsenal has been able to get away with sending off players, but the situation has been different. They were ahead of both Brighton and Manchester City. But at 0-0, the damage was too much to fix this time.

Mikel Arteta said after the game, “To do it in 65 or 68 minutes with 10 men at this level, it’s just impossible.” “It’s an accident waiting to happen not to get the points.”

Declan Rice said the same thing that Arteta did, but he was even more clear when he said that Arsenal had a problem.

“Three times in eight games, we’ve let ourselves down, but we got away with it at home against Brighton and away at Manchester City,” he said. “Bournemouth dug in and made it 2-0.”

“I’m proud of the players for fighting, even though they only had 10 men on the field. But we need to stop being so naive and start making smart moves, because you need 11 players for 90 minutes to win football games.”

“We can’t do stupid things. Everyone on your team needs to be on the field at all times. We have a lot of faith and will stick together. When you play football, staying together and going in the right way is more important than anything else.

Saliba’s lack of control has a clear cost: he will miss next weekend’s important game against Liverpool. It’s hard not to think about how bad these seven lost points could be over the course of the season.