Mikel Arteta is facing a backlash today after his angry reactions on the touchline during last night’s draw with Newcastle. Arsenal played out a 0-0 scoreline and were denied a penalty on two occasions in the game which in the 96th minute caused the Spaniard to come to verbal blows with Eddie Howe.
The pair shook hands at the end of the match, but Arteta continued his frustrations post-match describing the two penalty decisions as "scandalous". Arsenal dropped points for just the third time this season and moved eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table with the stalemate.
A number of footballing figures voiced their frustrations at Arteta. Alan Shearer told Premier League Productions: "I think Mikel Arteta needs to have a word with himself, or his assistant needs to have a word with him and calm him down.
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"I think he’s disrespectful to the opposition and he’s making it very difficult for the referees, who have a hard enough job as it is. I get he wants to be animated but if his players behaved like him, he wouldn’t like it and it would cost him. He needs to calm down.
"I get they’re top of the league and it’s a big game, but he’s making it very, very difficult for referees and he’s disrespecting the opposition. They know they’re under pressure but when you see your manager behave like that on the touchline..."
beIN Sports presenter Richard Keys took to Twitter to once again criticise the Arsenal manager. He tweeted: “Seriously - when is someone going to get control of Mikel Arteta? He’s an embarrassment. Totally out of control during games.”
Are they right? Was Arteta wrong to lose his cool quite as he did on the touchline?
Managers are often expected to maintain a level of control during games but this rarely is the case during high-profile moments. We’ve already seen Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel share a very intense altercation earlier this season.
Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City boss, has often been seen wildly gesticulating on the touchline. Just six days ago he was videoed kicking a bottle in frustration which accidentally flew into the Leeds United dugout.
Was anything said about this? Not particularly.
Therefore, perhaps we have to ask the question of why Arteta is facing these exaggerated criticisms. As one of the youngest coaches in the league, there’s perhaps some envy seeing someone so new to the position in the context of the sport achieving so much.
In reality his antics are, if anything, deserving of sympathy. It was a hard game to watch for most as referee Andrew Madley struggled to control proceedings and handed out seven yellow cards across the match.
The Gunners have been on the wrong end of mistakes by officials on numerous occasions. Some have even cost them big this very season.
Arsenal have already seen an investigation into the VAR decision at Manchester United deem that Gabriel Martinelli’s goal was wrongly ruled out. Whilst every week it seems mistakes continue to be made by officials at the highest level.
Perhaps frustrations would be lower and therefore dugouts calmer if the quality of officiating improved and provided consistency in games? Until then, perhaps we should also start to look for consistency of criticism that currently faces Arteta and whether that is shared equally when similar instances occur in other games by other coaches.
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