‘No clue’ — Mikel Arteta’s comment after Martin Odegaard’s penalty decision in Arsenal win

Arsenal came away with a hard-fought win on Monday night after edging past Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. A Martin Ødegaard penalty was enough to give the Gunners all three points, despite them going down to ten men following the dismissal of Takehiro Tomiyasu.

The Japanese international was given his marching orders after picking up two yellow cards in the space of seven minutes. The first came on the hour mark after a string of time-wasting saw referee David Coote brandish the card in Tomiyasu’s direction. He was given his marching orders just minutes later after a tug on Jordan Ayew’s shirt resulted in the red.

It will be a tough blow during his absence, especially with Jurriën Timber out of action after just one match with an ACL injury, but Mikel Arteta didn’t have too much to say on the matter during his post-match interviews and press conference appearance.

“I prefer not to make comments because for me it’s so obvious,” the Arsenal boss said on the sending off. “For me that [time-wasting rules] is not an issue. We just want consistency.”

Arteta also commented on Ødegaard’s decision to take the spot-kick after Eddie Nketiah was brought down following a free-kick opportunity. The boss admitted he was “surprised like everyone else” about the choice and had “no clue” the players were going to come to that decision between them on the pitch, rather than Bukayo Saka stepping up as he usually does.

While it certainly got more intense between Arsenal and Crystal Palace towards the end of the match, Arteta seemed unshaken by the close margin win, and the fact his side clung on with ten men. The Spaniard admitted he was “really happy” with the outcome of the fixture as the Gunners earned their second win from two matches and keep their streak alive.