Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent off as Arsenal succumbed to a 3-1 defeat to Rennes to leave their Europa League hopes hanging in the balance.
Alex Iwobi handed the Gunners a dream start in France inside three minutes but were soon pegged back after Sokratis was sent off for a second yellow card.
Benjamin Bourigeaud’s stunning strike put the French side back level minutes before the break before Nacho Monreal’s own goal handed Rennes a deserved lead.
And Ismaila Sarr piled further misery on the Gunners with a late third to ensure the second leg will be a tough tie for Unai Emery’s side.
Emery made a number of changes to his line-up including German playmaker Mesut Ozil in the starting XI.
And the Spaniard couldn’t have wished for a better start when Iwobi sent a cross in from the left-hand side. The speed and direction on the cross fooled everybody and to Tomas Koubek’s horror, it nestled in at the far post.
Then came the game-changing moment when Hatem Ben Arfa slid a clever pass into the left channel and Sarr raced in behind Sokratis. The Greek defender, already on a booking, hauled down the Senegalese winger and could have no complaints as referee ivn Kruzliak pulled out the red card.
From the free-kick, Bourigeaud hit the wall with his first attempt but on the rebound found the top corner with a stunning 20-yard strike.
The hosts piled on the pressure and it soon got too much for Arsenal when Medhi Zeffane’s cross was diverted by Monreal past his own goalkeeper to make it 2-1.
And late on, Arsenal’s hopes took a huge dent when substitute James Lea Siliki sent a cross to the back post to find Sarr to emphatically head home to deal a major blow to the north London side ahead of the second leg at the Emirates Stadium