The ten-man Gunners were moments away from sealing a memorable victory at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday when Man City substitute John Stones scrambled home a 98th-minute equaliser.
Arsenal led 2-1 thanks to Riccardo Calafiori’s stunning strike and Gabriel’s towering header, which both came after Erling Haaland opened the scoring with his 100th goal for Manchester City.
But the game completely changed on the stroke of half-time when Trossard picked up a second yellow card for delaying the restart and was therefore sent off.
The Belgian winger was already on a booking for a tactical foul and then, perhaps naively, kicked the ball away after Man City were awarded a free-kick to be shown a second yellow by referee Michael Oliver.
Arteta essentially refused to comment on the incident in several post-match interviews but was clearly furious with the decision, particularly as City’s Jeremy Doku escaped punishment for a similar incident earlier in the half.
Asked for his take on Trossard’s red, Arteta said: ‘It is very obvious, I don’t need to talk about it. I think the red card is very clear, very obvious what people think.
‘It is not my job to come here and judge what happened. My job is to survive in one of the most difficult environments there is in football for 55 minutes and try to get things done to survive.’
‘The rest is not my job, but it has already happened twice in five games which is very worrying to see in the best league the Premier League.
‘[The red card] makes the situation impossible. It is very, very hard to play with 11 players, with ten it is impossible. With ten you have to defend your six yard box time and time again.’
'I prefer not to comment', says Arteta following Trossard red card
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