Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta refused to be drawn into a debate over Takehiro Tomiyasu's sending off in Monday's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, but the Spaniard was clearly unhappy with the "obvious" decision.
The Gunners picked up their second win from as many Premier League games at Selhurst Park, following up last weekend's slender win over Nottingham Forest thanks to a second-half Martin Odegaard penalty.
However, Arteta's men had to see out most of the second half with 10 men, as Tomiyasu was controversially given his marching orders for two bookable offences within the space of seven minutes.
The Japanese defender was firstly cautioned on the hour mark for taking too long over a throw-in, before being sent for an early bath for an apparent tug on Jordan Ayew as Palace attempted to counter.
The decision to send Tomiyasu off was widely criticised, as replays showed that there was little contact between the Arsenal man and Ayew, but VAR officials cannot intervene to overturn a second yellow card.
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When asked about the incident in his post-game press conference, Arteta claimed that the call was "so obvious", but the Arsenal boss was overjoyed at the resilience his side showed after going down to 10 men.
"I prefer not to make comments because for me it's so obvious," arsenal.com quotes Arteta as saying. "The decision is made, we are not going to change it now.
"We adapted to it, unfortunately it made the game obviously much tougher and normally you drop points when you have to play in this league for 30 minutes away from home. To survive the way we did is not something that usually happens, but we are so happy that we overcame that big hurdle."
Elaborating on the new rules regarding time-wasting, Arteta stressed the need for consistency regarding punishments for such misdemeanours, adding: "For me it's not an issue.
"It's the referee's call, they are consistent with that, they explained it and the only thing we are asking for is consistency. If not, we have to play with a stopwatch to understand what it is and what it's not."
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Following Tomiyasu's dismissal, Gabriel Magalhaes came off the bench to help Arsenal shut up shop in the final 30 minutes, having curiously failed to make the starting XI for the second game running.
The Brazil international - whose partnership with William Saliba was key to Arsenal's title charge last season - has been linked with a move away from the Emirates amid his early-season struggles, with Real Madrid and Al-Ittihad said to be keen.
However, Arteta insisted that the decision to keep Gabriel out of the starting lineup was purely a tactical one, and he hailed the Brazilian for "absolutely dominating" the penalty area following his introduction.
"Nothing at all, it's about games that we were expecting, how we were going to defend and attack and what I believe is the best thing," the Gunners head coach added.
"He's played in both games and helped us to win both games for different reasons. He was really good today, he absolutely dominated the box when he came on and he's going to play a lot of games. That's the decision sometimes."
Arsenal sit third in the table as one of only three sides to win both of their opening games of the season - the others being Manchester City and Brighton & Hove Albion - and the Gunners are next in action at home to London rivals Fulham on Saturday.
Ben Knapton
