Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior has been in the news since his unnecessary rant about Arsenal.
The Englishman led his side to the Emirates Stadium for the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, and Arsenal deservedly won the game.
Before kickoff, however, Rosenior took offence to someone from Arsenal crossing the halfway line during warm-up and had an X-rated go at him.
Later, in a press conference, the Chelsea boss accused the Gunners of disrespecting his side, but a new detail has now emerged which shows that it was Rosenior who was in the wrong.
What was your immediate reaction after watching Liam Rosenior’s outburst before Arsenal vs Chelsea?
Liam Rosenior needs to apologise for his outburst – Arsenal did nothing wrong
When footage first emerged of Rosenior shouting at someone from Arsenal, you would’ve thought that a player was deliberately disrupting Chelsea’s preparations.
However, Sam Blitz of Sky Sports has tweeted an image showing that it was a member of the Gunners’ coaching staff who crossed the halfway line to help the goalkeepers practice their long kicks.
For those who don’t know, every club in the country does this during warm-ups because a long kick cannot be practised within a team’s own half.
Multiple journalists, including Henry Winter and Charles Watts, have confirmed this while having a go at Rosenior after listening to him call Arsenal disrespectful.
A part of Winter’s tweet read: “Rosenior should be smart enough to avoid observations that lead to headlines unhelpful to him and his players. Coaches, especially goalkeeping ones, do step into the opposition half to deliver long kicks to warm up their keeper. It happens often.
“Crossing the halfway line isn’t crossing the line. The media was always going to pick up Rosenior’s spiky comments towards Arsenal staff at the time – TV cameras everywhere, let alone fans filming the warm-up at the Emirates – and then follow up in his press conference yesterday.”
Watts added in his tweet: “I can’t believe how big a thing Liam Rosenior has made out of an absolutely nothing incident. To follow up his obvious ‘for the cameras’ fake outrage on Tuesday night with his ‘lack of respect’ comments yesterday was so ridiculous.
“You see that sort of thing happening with a keeper’s warm-up kicking drill every week, up and down the country. It happens all the time. No-one bats an eyelid. It’s just really bizarre.”
Rosenior was completely in the wrong to lash out at the Arsenal staff member and then making an even bigger issue out of it in his press conference by accusing the Gunners of disrespect.
The Chelsea manager should issue a public apology to Mikel Arteta, the staff member and also Arsenal as a whole the next time he speaks to the media.
If you could say anything to respond to Liam Rosenior right now, what would it be?
Mikel Arteta issues a classy response after Liam Rosenior’s outburst
Arteta is often portrayed as the villain by some sections of the media just because he steps out of his touchline during games.
However, the Arsenal manager is as classy as they come, and his response to Rosenior’s comments shows just that.
He said, as per Arsenal.com: “It’s his opinion, and obviously we respect everybody. At any point, if one of the staff members went through that, we apologise, and that’s it.
“It’s very common in football, especially with the keepers because they have to kick long balls and all that stuff, so nothing there to comment.”
Arteta responded to Rosenior’s outburst perfectly. The Chelsea boss now needs to show the same class and apologise for his behaviour.
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