Arsenal star William Saliba was BANNED from taking a penalty against Manchester United after Diogo Dalot was sent off.
The Gunners slipped to their second cup defeat in a week after being eliminated by the Red Devils. Kai Havertz proved to be the villain after seeing his spot-kick saved by Altay Bayindir.
And while it only took five penalties for United to win, the shootout could have gone beyond that had Havertz scored. It would have meant that the penalties would have carried on throughout both teams – all the way to the goalkeeper.
But one Arsenal star from their XI would not have taken one anyway – Saliba. FA Cup rules dictate that each side have to have the same amount of penalty takers.
And due to Dalot’s red card for two bookable offences, that would not have been the case. It left Arsenal needed to name a player to be cut from the penalty order – and Saliba was the fall guy.
His forced omission was not the only penalty woes that Arsenal had to endure against United. Havertz’s miss contributed to Arsenal’s exit but Arteta refused to lay blame at his feet.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said after the defeat. “Obviously, you measure the performance and what we did in relation to the position, you deserve to win the game by a mile. But the reality is we are out and the only thing that’s going to be judged but internally I can’t.
“I love my players. I love our team and I love how good they are and what they do because in 1000 games like this, you lose one and probably it was this one. … It’s football and it is a part of that execution, you need things to go your way and tonight it didn’t
“When you go to penalties you know that it’s a flip of the coin and it can go either way. …. I’m so proud of my players. I love my players and I cannot be prouder because it’s very difficult to demand something else than the performance that they put in there.”
Meanwhile, captain Martin Odegaard had the chance to score in normal time after Havertz was adjudged to have been fouled by Harry Maguire. But he too saw his effort saved by Bayindir.
And United boss Ruben Amorim claimed that could have been the turning point for his side. He said: “It was really important because [it] gives us more strength, and then with less one player, he’s really hard to press.
“It’s really hard to press a team like Arsenal with 11 players, imagine with 10 players, and then you are in [a] disadvantage, [it] is really hard because they can control the ball. They were already controlling the ball in a lot of moments. So it was vital to win the game, to draw the game.”