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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta(Image: Getty Images)

Mikel Arteta has claimed that "rules have changed again" in a bizarre statement after Arsenal picked up their FIFTH red card of the season and suffered a major blow in their Premier League title hopes.

The Gunners were beaten 1-0 at home against West Ham on Saturday - a result that left them 11 points behind leaders Liverpool after Arne Slot's side won 2-0 at Manchester City.

Although second-place Arsenal have a game in hand on the Reds, it's already feeling like a massive mountain to climb with 12 fixtures to go.

Jarrod Bowen scored the winner in the first half for West Ham, although Myles Lewis-Skelly's 73rd minute red card did not help Arsenal's cause.

The 18-year-old, who has made quite the impression in his breakthrough season, was shown his marching orders following a VAR review after pulling down Mohammed Kudus.

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Referee Craig Pawson initially gave Lewis-Skelly a yellow card but upgraded it to a red card after he was advised to look over at his pitch-side monitor.

It marked Arsenal's fifth red card of the season - no Premier League side has more - and that has been a major contributing factor behind their inability to keep up with Liverpool.

Declan Rice was sent off in the controversial 1-1 draw with Brighton in August, Leandro Trossard saw red against Manchester City in September, William Saliba was handed a straight red card in a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth and Lewis-Skelly has been shown his marching orders TWICE in the last month.

Although Lewis-Skelly's first red card was overturned, Arsenal's disciplinary record is still damning and would keep them at the top of the Premier League sending off table, Arteta has decided to question the rules behind why his team are falling foul of the guidelines - admitting it's "not considered what it was before".

Speaking ahead of his side's trip to Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, Arteta said: "Yes there are things in certain red cards that we had that we could have done differently.

It’s very difficult to change that."

Despite sitting 11 behind Liverpool in the table, Arteta has been proud of his team's efforts and believes this season has been "one of the proudest moments" since taking over Arsenal in December 2019.

"It’s one of the proudest moments, because this could have gone…" said Arteta.

So if somebody tells you at the start of the season, by this time, you have played five times with a red card over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players, what's the bet?
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