Ex-Man Utd star urges Arsenal not to make injury excuses

Arsenal's title challenge suffered another blow due to their ill-discipline. Mikel Arteta's men have had a man sent off in three of their opening eight matches of the Premier League campaign and gone on to drop points in all of them.

Arsenal gave up leads against Brighton and City when Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard saw red and even worse was to come when William Saliba was dismissed after just 30 minutes.

Bournemouth took full advantage as goals from Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert in the final 20 minutes inflicted Arsenal's first defeat of the season in any competition.

"No Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard or Jurrien Timber against Bournemouth? I get that but we're talking about playing Bournemouth, who are a good side, but they have a squad of 20 to deal with Champions League football and a couple of injuries," Gary Neville told Sky Sports.

"Arsenal without Saliba against Liverpool - they had the excuse a couple of seasons ago [when he was out injured in the run-in] and that was accepted, he was a big loss. But they've added players to the squad to be able to deal with that now.

"Next week we can't talk about 'so-and-so isn't playing'. There's been a lot of money, a lot of improvement. Now's the time to go and show it. They're still in with a big chance. It's very early in the season," he went on to add.