Ian Wright labels Nicolas Pepe’s behaviour as ‘poor’ after headbutt earns red card in Arsenal draw

The Gunners held on for a point at Elland Road

Arsenal and Leeds have condemned racial abuse aimed at Nicolas Pepe (pictured) and Ezgjan Alioski (AP)

Ian Wright has criticised Nicolas Pepe for his “unprofessional behaviour” following his red card as Arsenal drew 0-0 with Leeds United.

The Gunners battled to a point after Pepe left his side down to 10 men when VAR deemed his headbutt on Ezgjan Alioski to be violent conduct and therefore worthy of a red card.

Mikel Arteta labelled the conduct of Pepe as “unacceptable”, while Wright concurred, calling the Ivorian “unprofessional”.

"I’m not saying that it’s a proper full-on headbutt but you can’t do that to people in this day and age," Wright told Premier League Productions.

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"You can’t get into people’s faces like that. Alioski has gone down like he’s really got a proper headbutt but at the same time that’s just totally unprofessional and just poor from him."

Pepe reacts to his red card (AP)

Arteta failed to hide his emotions afterwards, with Bukayo Saka’s injury exacerbating his anger.

He said: "I'm cross because I want to win and when I don't win, I get upset.

"We had it really difficult for different reasons because we lost two players on international duty. We have now lost two players to injury and one through suspension and we have an incredible amount of games coming up.

"Every team is going to face challenges with the amount of fixtures we have.

"We will see what happens but we will put a team (out against Molde) to compete in the way that we do now. Let's hope that we can get some (players) back."