Arsene Wenger would appear to be asking the same questions following the game. He said:
"We have to accept the point of the referee that he had to send the players off. The only thing I would say is that he was more lenient with van Bommel than anyone else on the pitch.
"If you look at the number of fouls he made without being punished, it was surprising. He made many deliberate fouls. Only the referee can answer that question, but that's how everyone feels in the dressing room."
He also commented on the two dismissals, saying:
"For Lauren's second yellow card, he was a little bit late. We felt that Patrick got the ball, but we can't argue with these kind of decisions.
"We have to accept the point of the referee that he had to send the players off. The only thing I would say is that he was more lenient with van Bommel than anyone else on the pitch.
"If you look at the number of fouls he made without being punished, it was surprising. He made many deliberate fouls. Only the referee can answer that question, but that's how everyone feels in the dressing room."
He also commented on the two dismissals, saying:
"For Lauren's second yellow card, he was a little bit late. We felt that Patrick got the ball, but we can't argue with these kind of decisions.
"When you're down to 10 men, you know you have to fight harder to win the ball back. Patrick felt it was for him to show he was the captain and fight even harder, so he went for the ball. It's his game to be committed."
"I feel it's a one-off. It wasn't that we didn't play in the right spirit or tried to spoil the game. We were very committed but we didn't deliberately make bad fouls or have bad behaviour. We didn't try to kick people, both red cards were because we tried to play the ball but were a bit late."
"It's still in our own hands, the last game is at Highbury and I'm confident that we will have the strength to go through."