You might not like Mikel Arteta, but I’m not sure he cares. George Graham may be the manager who left Millwall to lead Arsenal to great success in the 1980s and 1990s but it is the current Gunners boss who has really taken the famous mantra from The Den to heart.
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With his outspoken, sometimes uncomfortably brutal comments about the standard of officiating in Arsenal’s defeat at Newcastle, the Spaniard doubled down on the ‘us against the world’ attitude which has served him so well since his move to the Emirates.
With their unequivocal statement in support of their manager, Arsenal then showed they are all in with Arteta and never mind the consequences.
But does Arteta really think the issues around referees and use of VAR in the Premier League are worse than in his native Spain, where Rafa Benitez (pictured) threatened a sequel worthy of his infamous ‘facts’ rant when his Celta Vigo side were on the end of a rough one last weekend?
After Celta were given a last-gasp penalty – only for it to be taken away by VAR – Benitez invoked Newton’s laws of motion to question how much force is needed to fell a player and suggested (seriously, we think) Nasa should supply a physicist to sit in the VAR room to advise on future cases.
Celta captain Iago Aspas went for the more rudimentary gesture of angrily throwing the pitchside VAR monitor to the floor, which must have taken a few Newtons. Let’s hope Arteta didn’t get any ideas.
However much the Arsenal manager believes his own hyperbolic claims about refereeing standards in England, he clearly does think the best way to defend his club’s position (and perhaps put them on the right side of any future benefit of doubt) is to come out fighting.
Branding match-day officials embarrassing and shameful seems a brave move when the same group of men will be overseeing Arsenal’s title challenge – starting with tomorrow’s visit of Burnley – but it just might work.
It is a strident approach that is in stark but not unreasonable contrast to near-neighbour Ange Postecoglou who, when poked for a reaction to Tottenham having two men sent off and a penalty given against them in their defeat to Chelsea, chose simply to moan that VAR checks led to ‘too much standing around’.
Spurs fans can use this to draw a line (red or green, we can’t say) between Postecoglou and Arteta but, in all likelihood, the Australian has simply recognised he has gone from virtual unknown to ‘manager you’d most like to bring home to meet your mum’ in three months and sees that happy place as the best position from which to promote his own club’s case. Arteta, never interested in the neutral vote to start with, has no friends left to lose.
But both approaches can be corrosive as Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino – who has more dug-out experience of London derbies than most managers – seemed to hint at after Monday’s chaotic game.
Excitedly attack every decision on a micro or macro level from throw-ins to systemic VAR failings and you get the interminable delays Postecoglou and every armchair viewer with a bed to go to were left bemoaning on Monday night.
Laconically pressure officials to speed things up and you end up with the garbled, rushed, confused mess which led to Liverpool incorrectly having a goal disallowed at Spurs in September.
Complaints about the quality of referees – like Arsenal’s goalkeeping and Cristian Romero’s tackling – are nothing new, but elevating it to the level of national injustice does nobody any favours. It’s time to take the temperature down, before any more TV monitors get hurt.
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