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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

What Mikel Arteta did after Nicolas Pepe almost cost Arsenal a goal against Chelsea

Arsenal earned a credible draw against Chelsea with 10-men on Tuesday night.

A man down following David Luiz's red card for his tackle on Tammy Abraham, twice the north London outfit trailed and on each occasion they equalised through Gabriel Martinelli and Hector Bellerin.

During the game at Stamford Bridge, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was seen on camera reacting to how his team were getting on before and after Luiz's dismissal.

Arsenal fans celebrating Gabriel Martinelli's goal at Stamford Bridge

On the club's official YouTube account, Arsenal posted their regular 'Bench Cam' video, which captures the head coach's every move in the dugout.

And Arteta was animated as ever throughout the game.

Whilst the Spaniard was delighted with the response of his team come full-time, there were a couple of instances in the first-half which angered him.

The first sign of frustration came on the 0.27 mark as Mesut Ozil passes David Luiz the ball, but instead of the Brazilian moving the ball out to his left, he takes a touch inside which caused Arteta to jump up and down on the touchline.

Fast forward a few seconds and the Blues work a short corner between Callum Hudson-Odoi and Emerson Palmieri.

Arteta can be seen shouting at Nicolas Pepe, pointing at him to close down the Blues wonderkid who had kept his position on the left-wing.

Unfortunately Pepe doesn't follow those instructions and the ball finds its way back to Hudson-Odoi who tries to deceive Bernd Leno but is shot comes back off the crossbar - much to the relief of the Gunners.

However, the missed chance didn't let Pepe off the hook as he got a mini-rollocking from Arteta for not tracking his man.

With that said, Arteta's mood did improve come full-time as he was full of praise for his side.

"I am. The spirit they showed, the character, the fight and the leadership as well was there because you have to really stand up," he said in his post-match press conference.

"I asked them that when someone makes a mistake - it can happen in football, someone has to take a red card - what cannot happen is that after we don't stand up for him and every single did it with belief as well.

"I could sense at half time they believed they could get back in the game and I wasn't expecting Hector to score with his left foot obviously, but I'm very pleased."

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