Gabriel Magalhaes posted an apology message on social media after his red card against Southampton on Wednesday.

Gabriel Magalhaes became the latest of many players to pick up a red card on Wednesday, this time for a second yellow against Southampton.

After a harsh yellow for kicking the ball away – despite plenty of Southampton players doing the same without punishment – Gabriel deserved the second for pulling Theo Walcott down on the counter-attack. He took to Instagram to apologise afterwards.

“I want to apologize for what happened today,” Gabriel said. “I keep my head up to continue helping my teammates!”

Personally, I’m not that bothered whether a player apologises publicly or not. As long as they’re making up with the squad and the manager before making amends on the pitch, that’s all that matters. But I suppose it’s nice to see some accountability.

There are certainly those in the Arsenal fanbase still fuming about the fact Granit Xhaka hasn’t made any public comment on his red card. Mikel Arteta said they resolved the matter internally, but for some, that’s never going to be enough.

The end result is roughly the same. Another game where we lose momentum right when we looked more likely to score, another suspension to deal with.

The Arsenal players need to start learning from their mistakes so they don’t have to post these apologies in the first place.