Arsenal returned to Premier League action on Tuesday, with the North London giants traveling to Nottingham Forest in a must-win game.
While the Gunners came away with the crucial three points after dominating the ball, Saka and Co. endured a nervy final few minutes, with the game ending 2-1 thanks to goals from the English star, Brazilian ace Gabriel Jesus, and Forest's Nigerian forward Taiwo Awoniyi.
In fact, a lovely save from David Raya at the death prevented Arsenal from dropping points despite the commanding display, leading to relief from the visitors and the traveling fans at the final whistle.
However, while Arteta and most of his men were all smiles at full-time, two players clashed on the pitch in front of the cameras. Those men were Ben White and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
While this bust-up did not turn physical, the coaching staff and Arteta himself had to intervene to prevent things from taking a turn for the worse. This incident did not go unnoticed, with TNT Sports asking the Spaniard what led to this incident.
The Gunners boss revealed that it was due to the goal Arsenal conceded. Mikel stated that his side were frustrated with letting the clean sheet slip, hence the confrontation.
While the manager did not reveal more than that, the clip appears to show White confronting Zinchenko, much to the Ukrainian's anger. A review of the goal lends to this belief.
Saliba directly contributed to the goal thanks to his poor attempt to head the ball out of play and, in all honesty, was more at fault. However, the left-back broke the team's offside trap and failed to deal with the ball initially in the build-up.
Nonetheless, Arteta was quick to play this down during the post-match press conference, instead pointing out the upsides, arguing that his players are not pleased even in victory. Check out his reaction in the clip below.
Furthermore, the frustration was understandable. Arsenal's backline cannot tolerate any slip-ups given their fixtures list. Next up for the North London giants is a home encounter with league leaders Liverpool and tricky trips to West Ham, Burnley, and Porto in the UEFA Champions League round of 16.
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