Why Arsenal wear the third kit at home to Rapid Vienna

Arsenal are wearing their blue third kit for their Europa League match against Rapid Vienna instead of their traditional red jersey, despite being the home team.

The decision was made because the white in their home strip is a clash with the visitors’ home kit and the red is a clash with the Rapid Vienna away kit.

As a result, the Gunners have had to wear their third dark blue uniform.

In his most recent Premier League match against Wolves there was another strange situation in the uniform, with Bernd Leno not being allowed to wear the traditional green goalkeeper jersey due to a clash with his opposite number.

Rui Patricio also wears green for Wolves and Premier League rules dictate that there cannot be a kit clash, even for goalkeepers.

Leno was also not allowed to wear the other Arsenal goalkeeper kit because the black collided with the referee and the German instead wore the Gunners’ white field strip.

Speaking before the game against Rapid Vienna, manager Mikel Arteta addressed his team’s lack of goals.

“Well, there are many factors, if you compare the Premier League to the Europa League, it is different,” he said. “If you look in the last few years, how the team has shared goals in the Premier League, it has been quite limited.

“That is not a problem that is happening now, it is a problem that has been going on for years. That has to be solved. It is not fair to put almost 80 percent of that responsibility on a man.”

“As a team, we have to figure that out. As a team, we get into a lot of situations and sometimes the service is not right, sometimes the timing is wrong, sometimes the last run is wrong, but like team there are certain things that we have to do better.

“Again, it comes a long way. We have been winning matches producing similar numbers, but we have been very efficient. That is sometimes a state of energy, a state of mind, a state of confidence that you are doing everything right.

“When it’s time to hit [the ball] And it doesn’t hit the post, and if it hits the post, it goes in. That is the difference. Soccer, in the end, is about team cohesion, energy and faith.

“When you lose matches that are played and that is one of the beauties of this sport, how do you react to that adversity.”