Arsenal and Mikel Arteta are not unhappy. Liverpool may ask where the energy was at the start of the season, but it’s more than that.
Arteta changed his mind about refereeing following the Liverpool controversy earlier this season. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has changed his mind about refereeing compared to the Liverpool controversy earlier this season.
It hasn’t been the best week for Mikel Arteta. The Arsenal manager made a fool of himself and the club with his glowing post-match comments after watching his side lose 1-0 to Newcastle.
Arteta called the decision to award Anthony Gordon’s goal “disgraceful” and “disgraceful”, forgetting that Kai Havertz was lucky to avoid a red card in the same game. Arsenal unnecessarily doubled down on Sunday, with a club statement saying there were “unacceptable further refereeing and VAR errors” (although it did not mention the Havertz incident).
The only “peniant” thing about all this was the way Arsenal handled the situation. It’s one thing to get angry minutes after the final whistle, as Arteta does, but it’s another to get angry twice when it’s cool.
The hypocrisy was only compounded by Arteta’s claim that “mistakes happen” after watching Liverpool deny Luis Diaz’s legitimate goal at Tottenham. Mistakes happen. But it should be the same for everyone, not just when it’s convenient.
Moreover, the Diaz case was a unique and unprecedented case in which officials knew immediately that a mistake had been made but could do nothing about it. The events quoted about Newcastle were both subjective and unequivocally accurate. As if the outrage over Arteta and Arsenal’s subsequent comments wasn’t embarrassing enough, the Daily Mail reports that he has now listed the situations the Gunners have faced in previous matches.
According to the press release, this will be addressed at the next meeting with PGMOL. It’s one thing for Tribe fans to conspire on social media, but it’s quite another for a Premier League club to feel the same way.
Ask the club about the decisions you consider against them. Many appeals can be filed upon request. As both Liverpool and Diaz know, mistakes are never 100% made up for. But every team has problems sometimes.
PGMOL believes that Arsenal’s reaction after the Newcastle game was disproportionate and completely justified. A quick response to Havertz could have exposed Arsenal’s shenanigans, but they decided not to respond publicly.
But all of this leads to a bigger problem in football right now. Although VAR was recently introduced with the hope of improving it, there are always subjective judgments and mistakes.
