Has Arteta crossed a line?
There’s passion and then there’s being a clown...
YES
THERE is a fine line between being passionate and a clown, and Mikel Arteta was the latter on Tuesday. It can be entertaining but it can be embarrassing, too. should Arsenal have been awarded a penalty for Dan Burn’s pull on Gabriel? Absolutely. should they have had one for Jacob Murphy’s handball? Absolutely not. Yet Arteta lost all control in stoppage time. I took my daughter to see Matilda The Musical yesterday and Miss Trunchbull did her best impression of Arteta, stomping, screaming, growling and gesticulating.
Thank God the fourth official Jarred Gillett didn’t have pigtails or he’d have been getting swung around in circles. I can understand getting caught up in the heat of the moment. It happens. You’re angry. You vent. But Arteta was at it all game, protesting against every decision. newcastle’s eddie Howe comes across as a mild-mannered man but he was within his rights to tell his counterpart to zip it. Arteta went over the top in his behaviour and Arsenal’s players responded by surrounding the referee to claim Murphy handled the ball late on. They probably thought, ‘Well, if the boss is getting up in the fourth official’s grille, why shouldn’t we?’ This could all come back to bite Arsenal. Arteta is risking being suspended from the sideline when his team need him most. Arsenal’s next five fixtures are Tottenham, Manchester United, everton, Brentford and Manchester City. If Arteta is this wound up by a 0-0 draw with newcastle — which is no disaster by the way, given the form they’re in — how will he behave in those matches? How will his players behave if they see their manager acting like this?
Maybe Arsenal will look to use the ‘us against the world’ mentality to their advantage, if Arteta and Co truly feel that the Premier League’s referees are consciously going against them. But it’s not a good look when your manager is acting like a clown.
HAVE YOUR SAY: WAS ARTETA OUT OF ORDER WITH HIS TOUCHLINE ANTICS? SCAN THIS CODE