Maradona’s ex-agent slams Arsenal boss Arteta for getting one thing ‘very wrong’

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A former agent of Argentine icon Diego Maradona has now criticised Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.

Former agent, Jon Smith, has now had his say on how Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta conducted himself in the wake of the Gunners’ recent defeat against Newcastle United.

Arteta launched into a tirade about the standard of refereeing in the Premier League after his side slipped to defeat at St James’ Park. He branded the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s contentious match-winning goal to stand a “disgrace.” 

Journalist Oliver Holt recently claimed that Arteta’s comments were irresponsible and that the Arsenal boss ought to face some sort of punishment for his outburst. Former Newcastle United striker Michael Owen deemed the Spanish coach’s actions to be “classless.”

Smith, who enjoyed a long career in the game as an agent and at one time represented Diego Maradona, has now weighed in with his thoughts on the matter. Writing in CaughtOffside, he said, “I’m a big fan of Mikel Arteta, but against Newcastle, he was wrong. Very wrong. If you have a referee, he’s in charge and he may make mistakes. We all do. And that’s just the way that it is.”

Arsenal loss and Mikel Arteta comments need to be left in the past

In the aftermath of the game, PGMOL technical director Howard Webb discussed the VAR process that took place to review the decision on the Newcastle goal, and stated that in his opinion the correct final call was made, based on the video evidence available to officials. 

Plenty of fans will doubtlessly still believe that the north London club were somewhat robbed. However, it must also be remembered that Arsenal did not do enough to win the match in their own right. Their attacking play was stilted and lacked penetration, and ultimately they paid the price for failing to test Nick Pope often enough.

The time has come for this issue to be put to bed for good now. Arteta will certainly have moved on and the matter can only now be considered an unwelcome distraction for the club. Nothing can be done to change what happened on Tyneside, and the Gunners’ full focus must now be on stringing together a run of good form on the other side of the international break.

Arsenal take on Brentford on Saturday and it is vital that they take all three points from that clash, in order to keep up with the pace at the top end of the Premier League table.