Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will have to watch his side’s match at Aston Villa from the stands due to his suspension. The Spaniard received earned his third yellow card of the season on Tuesday night when he celebrated the 97th-minute game winning goal by Declan Rice on Tuesday night Luton Town. Apparently, he celebrated with too much zeal for the officials, who handed him his third booking of the season, and with it a one match ban.
“Yeah, I could not be sitting on my seat, unfortunately,” Arteta said in his a postgame television interview.
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Kick: Sat Dec. 9, 5:30pm, Villa Park, Birmingham, UK
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“So I left there, I had no spatial awareness at all. It was just pure emotion. So if that’s a yellow. Okay, it’s a yellow.”
Sounds like he has no regrets about it, at all.
Arsenal Team News
Elsewhere Arsenal have a new fitness concern in Takehiro Tomiyasu, who has suffered a calf strain. The Japanese international is expected to miss the entire festive period, and perhaps even more than that. He could be out of action for up to six weeks.
Thomas Partey, Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith Rowe all remain out as long-term injury absentees; and of course Jurrien Timber is out for the season.
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