Mikel Arteta was left furious with Nicolas Pepe after the Arsenal forward was sent off for a mindless headbutt in Sunday’s goalless draw with Leeds.
Replays showed the Ivory Coast international bringing his head towards Alioski – who went down clutching his face – and referee Anthony Taylor brandished a straight red to Gunners’ club record signing after watching the incident on a pitchside monitor.
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The incident will do no favours for Pepe, who has been criticised for failing to produce a consistent run of displays since his whopping £72million move from Lille in 2019.
Arteta was visibly seething after the match and said that the forward’s actions were ‘unacceptable’ and ‘let the team down’.
“I never like a draw but in the circumstances it’s a point. It (the red card) is unacceptable,” the Arsenal boss said.
Pressed for his view on Pepe’s actions, he responded again: “Unacceptable.”
Arteta also referred to Pepe when discussing a late chance for Bukayo Saka, saying: “It was the best chance in the game, I thought the keeper did well. The reality is they threatened a lot our box and we were lucky on some occasions.
“With 10 men it is a big disadvantage. I really liked the personality of the team when Pepe let the team down, how we stuck to do what we had to do and had a moment or two to win the game, but obviously it makes it really difficult.”
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Even though his side were able to thwart a wasteful Leeds, Arsenal offered little going forward and they have now found the back of the net only once in their most recent five Premier League fixtures.
They have not scored in open play since a 2-1 win over Sheffield United on October 4 and had just two shots on target at Elland Road, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a subdued figure after being given a rare central role.
“The fact we need to score more goals, it’s a concern,” Arteta said. “We need goals and a lot of goals to win football matches to be the top team that we want to be. Without that it is impossible.
“It doesn’t matter how we are defensively.
“It’s not the lack of attacking players we have or the attacking players we are putting on the pitch, but we need some moments where we have to make better decisions and be more ruthless.
“But it’s the most difficult thing in football and sometimes we go through these patches and we have to overcome. I have to help the players to overcome and do it as quickly as possible.”
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