Arteta slammed as ‘the problem’ in plea for Arsenal boss to face ‘punishments’

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has once again been singled out for his criticism of referees.

On November 4th, Arsenal suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season so far as they went down 1-0 against Newcastle United. In his post-match comments, Mikel Arteta launched into a fierce diatribe against the standard of officiating in the game.

The Gunners lost the game by virtue of a controversial Anthony Gordon goal. An extensive VAR review ultimately sided with the on-field decision, allowing the strike to stand.

There were certainly contentious elements to the goal. At first, it seemed that the ball had gone out of play before Joe Willock could recover it. When the ball was then swung into the box, Joelinton was able to get a useful touch on it, assisted by what looked to be a push on the back of Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes. There was also a question as to whether Gordon himself was in an offside position before he fired into the back of the net.

Arteta branded the decision not to chalk the goal off a “disgrace,” as quoted by the club’s official website. He also claimed to “feel embarrassed” on behalf of the standard of refereeing and VAR implementation in the Premier League. 

In the wake of this outburst, the club put out an official statement in defence of the manager’s comments. Arteta’s rant also attracted plenty of critics, with former Newcastle United striker Michael Owen deeming his actions to have been “classless.”

Recently, PGMOL technical director Howard Webb dissected the VAR process that reviewed the goal. Whilst he felt the officials got that call right based on the video evidence available to them, which was of very limited use, he also admitted that mistakes were made in the match.

Mikel Arteta comments have far-reaching impact

Now, journalist Oliver Holt, writing for the Daily Mail, has had his say on Arteta’s handling of the affair. He said, “the stink is not referees. The problem is managers like Arteta who are scared to take responsibility for their own shortcomings. The stink is managers like him who think nothing of the human cost of what they do.”

“The stench is people like Arteta who think they can throw other people far less powerful and influential than them under the bus and expose them to ridicule and violence because they do not have the courage to take responsibility for a football result.”

Holt is here referring to the “direct line between the kind of abuse that Arteta aimed at officials and the physical and verbal attacks that are visited on referees every single day in grassroots football.”

“Those attacks are largely learned behaviour and they are learned from watching some of our elite managers at work.”

Holt offers his own solution, “it is time to stop indulging their tantrums and their abuse and to come down hard. It is time to stop Arteta and people like him putting referees across the country in danger. It is time to start levelling proper punishments at managers who persist with this behaviour.”

Holt raises a valid point about the trickle down effect of negative behaviours from the highest level of the game down to Sunday league and kids’ football. Whether the buck for that societal ill stops with managers is another matter, though.

Privately, Arteta may regret the strength of the language he used, or he may not. He certainly isn’t the only manager to have let his emotions inflame his quotes on referees.