Mikel Arteta gave his honest verdict on Michael Oliver’s decision to issue Fabio Vieira a red card in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Burnley.
The 23-year-old midfielder, who replaced Kai Havertz in the second half, was given his marching orders following a dangerous challenge on Josh Bronwnhill. Vieira committed a late tackle and his studs made contact with the Clarets goalscorer’s knee.
Oliver, who hadn’t even dished out a caution until then, dismissed the Portugal international, reducing the Gunners to 10 men with just a few minutes to spare. Asked whether the referee was right to red card Vieira, Arteta, said: “With the red card, yes, thank you for asking me, VAR was right, the referee was right, really good decision, really positive from Mikel to speak about that, good decision.”
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On the outcome of the game, he said: “I’m really happy with the result, especially with the performance after playing 72 hours ago, with the last three games, how we played against Newcastle, how we played against Sevilla, how we played today, how dominant we were against teams who are very hard to dominant the amount of situations that we dominated, I think we fully deserved to win the game.”
On Trossard’s goal it being our 1,000th at Emirates Stadium: Arteta explained: “You have to put your body over the line if it’s necessary and he’s done it, and it’s the 1000th goal at Emirates Stadium, a beautiful number, so I’m very happy with him. I think every time you ask him to play, whether it’s wide or as a nine, it flows and he’s a real threat, so I’m really happy with him.”
Unless later overturned, Vieira will now miss the Gunners’ next three games due to suspension – Brentford, Wolves, and Luton Town before returning against Aston Villa.