Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta caused a storm for his comments aimed at Premier League referees following his side’s defeat to Newcastle, and David Dein has now criticised him.
Arteta has been charged by the FA for his comments, which, followed by a club statement in support of him, have received a lot of criticism.
The Spaniard felt his side were undone by poor refereeing decisions, which saw Newcastle score a controversial winner to hand Arsenal their first league defeat of the season two weeks ago.
Former Arsenal chairman David Dein has now criticised Arteta for his comments, which he felt were damaging to the reputation of the club.
David Dein criticises Arteta for referee outburst
Speaking on TalkSPORT, Dein claimed that Arteta’s outburst was unnecessary given the context of the game.
“I think it’s unfortunate, and you live and learn,” he stated of the decisions in the Newcastle game.
“The manager in the heat of the moment – that’s what he believed in – I was at Newcastle that game, he felt aggrieved that he felt the decisions go against him.
“In the final analysis, I think it was a bit of misdirection, because the fact is, there was 101 minutes – three minutes added on in the first half and eight minutes in the second.
“In 101 minutes of football we only had one shot at goal, so you can’t really say that the team deserved to win. It is what it is.
“There is a process in place for how they deal with these things and I just think it was a little bit unnecessary.
“I don’t think it did the image of the club any good.”
Were Arteta’s comments damaging for Arsenal?
Although he has been criticised and charged for his comments, Arsenal have stood by Arteta in clear support of their manager, and clearly, the club do not believe that his words would have damaged their reputation.
Arteta’s comments have increased scrutiny into wider referee decisions within the Premier League, and if they end up being a catalyst for change to lead to an overall improvement, then his words may end up having a positive effect.
He will now wait and see what his punishment from the FA will be, but even if he is banned from the touchline or handed a heavy fine, it seems that he does not regret what he said.
Arteta has been defiant in the weeks since, which saw Arsenal win all of their matches since the Newcastle loss, and this siege mentality running through the club amidst this battle with the FA and parts of the media could end up galvanising his squad to deliver.
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