‘I have run out of ideas!’ – Mikel Arteta speaks out on Arsenal’s indiscipline after win at Wolves

Mikel Arteta joked he had ‘run out of ideas’ when it came to fixing Arsenal’s disciplinary issues after his side earned a hard-fought 1-0 win over Wolves, despite Gabriel Martinelli’s bizarre sending off.

Gabriel Magalhaes struck from close-range to break the deadlock midway through the first half and the Gunners held on to secure three points at Molineux, their third away victory on the bounce in the Premier League.

But the Gunners had to withstand a barrage of late attacks with just 10 men on the field after Martinelli was shown a red card for a pair of bookable offences in the same passage of play with 20 minutes remaining.

Martinelli’s first yellow was for a push on Daniel Podence and his second came after a foul on Chiquinho just seconds later while Wolves broke forward with pace in search of an equaliser.

Arsenal have now had four squad members sent off in 2022 – despite playing just six games since the turn of the year – and Martinelli is the 15th player to be given his marching orders since Arteta took charge as manager.

‘It’s tough enough to play against a really good Wolves team here, away from home, and we made it even more difficult to play again with 10 men,’ the Arsenal head coach told BT Sport shortly after the final whistle.

‘But overall, the result is really, really positive for us.

‘Obviously, we need to win it, we did it, but we suffered a lot in the last 20 minutes.’

Arteta suggested referee Michael Oliver had to be ‘very, very willing’ to send Martinelli off in such an unusual manner.

‘I’ve never seen something like it,’ he added.

‘The rules can say that probably it’s possible… you have to be very, very willing to do that.’

Arteta said winning games in the Premier League was difficult enough, let alone when