Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was the talk of Twitter after the Gunners’ dramatic win against Aston Villa having appeared to mock referee Simon Hooper.
The North London side appeared set to be dealt another huge blow to their hopes of claiming the Premier League title after finding themselves 2-1 down at half-time at Villa Park. A strike from Oleksandr Zinchenko levelled matters before Emi Martinez put through his own net in stoppage time - Gabriel Martinelli securing victory in the final seconds via a lethal counter-attack.
The three points triggered wild celebrations both in the Arsenal dugout and in the away section of Villa Park - Arteta, in particular, toasting his side’s performance. The Spaniard wasn’t as happy earlier in the match though having been left hugely frustrated by a decision from referee Hooper.
With Arsenal hunting for a winning goal in the 90th minute, the Gunners were handed a free-kick near the dugouts. The kick was taken quickly and eventually made its way down to the right flank with the North London side putting together a promising break.
Referee Hooper halted the attack and gestured that the ball was moving before instructing the kick to be taken again. That left Arteta incensed as the Spaniard berated the official.
He then cranked up his complaints by sarcastically copying Hooper’s actions. Arsenal fans were left in stitches during the game and took to Twitter to share their thoughts.
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One Gunner wrote: “Arteta is comedy gold.” Another then claimed that Arteta’s amusing copying was their “highlight of the game”.
It did not take long for Arteta to be wildly moving about the technical area once again - but this time in celebration as Jorginho ’s long-range drive found the back of the Aston Villa net via Martinez. Speaking after the final whistle, Arteta claimed that nobody lost their temper for the Gunners - a claim that he may want to revisit considering his own actions. He said: “Obviously, the result is massive for us, especially after the way it happened,”
“Today we have to take some lessons. The first one in the first half, we did a lot of simple things wrong at an individual level which are right below the standards that are required to play in the Premier League and at the level that we want to play.
“We showed a lot of character, no one lost their temper. Emotionally, we really went for it in the second half and didn’t throw our toys away and individually, we raised our level so much that we played our game. I thought we were by far the better team and deserved to win the game.”
There was further controversy at Villa Park in the aftermath of Arsenal’s win. The celebrations of the away team’s staff in the press box sparked anger in the stands and led to stewards getting involved to calm things down.
Villa match analyst Victor Manas - a former Arsenal employee - was left furious and had to be held back from a physical altercation with Arsenal counterpart Miguel Molina.
