Mikel Arteta has revealed how he plans to overcome Arsenal's ongoing disciplinary issues this season.

The Gunners have received three red cards in just eight Premier League games so far and while all three dismissals have been controversial, there is little doubt over the impact they have had. Arsenal have won every league game in which they have kept 11 players on the pitch, but dropped crucial points after Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were sent off against Brighton and Manchester City respectively, before suffering their first defeat of the season after William Saliba was given his marching orders at Bournemouth.

No side has won the Premier League after receiving so many red cards since Leicester in 2016, and speaking ahead of Tuesday night's Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk, Arteta reaffirmed the urgency with which Arsenal have to overcome their disciplinary problems. "Playing with 10 men, obviously there is an issue," he admitted. "The truth is when you analyse the three very different actions and the outcome of them, the reasons are very different.

"Regardless of that, we cannot continue to play with 10 men, especially at this level. And you see how struggling, all the teams have to win football matches. When you want to do it against 10 men for 65 minutes, the task becomes almost impossible. So, we need to eradicate that."

Arteta will take heart in the fact that he has overcome disciplinary problems at Arsenal before. In his first two and a half seasons at the club, the Gunners received a whopping 16 red cards, before having just two players sent off in the entirety of the following two campaigns. Having cracked the code once, Arteta is keen to return to a tried and tested method of prevention.

"The most effective way, I have to be very honest, is not talking about it," he said. "Because we tried and we showed and we talked and we repeated the message that we had to play with 11 and it happened again after a week or after three weeks and they said, 'guys, let's try something else'. And then it disappeared. So I don't know if it's the right way or not but that's what happened, that's the reality."

football.london understands that the Gunners are set to begin that approach by not appealing Saliba's red card against Bournemouth. This means that the Frenchman will be absent for Sunday's top-of-the-table clash with Liverpool.

Arteta though, is insistent that his side will use the feeling of injustice at all three dismissals so far this season in a positive way going forward.

"(The team is) absolutely galvanised and they show their teeth and they fight against the situation," he said. "They say, 'OK, this is what we have to play, how we have to do it. We're going to do it and we are happy with that'. But we understand as well the margins of being successful and earning the results that we want minimises and obviously we need to change that."

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