Arteta branded ‘a clown’ as Arsenal ‘compile list’ of three VAR decisions to outline frustration

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been branded “a clown” by Chris Sutton for his outburst following their 1-0 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Magpies ended the Gunners ten-match unbeaten start to the new Premier League season thanks to Anthony Gordon’s controversial winner.

Gordon’s strike survived a triple VAR check as Newcastle closed the gap on Arsenal to four points in the Premier League table with Arteta’s men now three points off leaders Manchester City.

VAR checked if the ball had gone out of play before Joe Willock’s cross, whether Joelinton had fouled Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes and if Gordon was offside.

The goal stood and Arteta was fuming in his post-match interviews, calling VAR’s decision to not disallow the goal as “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”.

“How the hell did this goal stand up? It’s incredible,” Arteta said in his post-match press conference.

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“I feel embarrassed. It’s an absolute disgrace that this was allowed. For many reasons it’s not a goal.

“It’s so difficult to compete at this level. This is nowhere near the [refereeing] level to describe this as the best league in the world. I feel sick to be part of this.”

And former Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea striker Sutton thought the Arsenal boss went over the top and labelled him “a bit of a clown” in the aftermath.

Speaking on the It’s All Kicking Off! podcast, Sutton said: “I thought he made himself look a bit of a clown. And I know everybody can say: ‘Well, it’s great and it’s emotional game’. And I get that.

“But while he’s berating the officials, what about him controlling things which he can control?”

Arsenal came out with a statement in support of Arteta’s post-match rant and urging the standard of refereeing in the Premier League to be “urgently addressed”.

The Daily Mail claim that Arsenal’s statement ‘has not gone down well among the refereeing fraternity, with one source describing their response as ‘over the top’ on Monday’.

And there is now ‘friction between the club and refereeing body’ with insiders at the PGMOL insisting that ‘the backlash from Arsenal has been totally unnecessary’.

The Daily Mail have revealed that Arsenal will also draw the PGMOL’s attention to three other incidents from last season, the report adds:

‘As well as flagging up Gordon’s goal in their next meeting, the club are set to mention examples from the previous campaign to further illustrate their frustration.

‘Mail Sport understands that they include the 1-1 draw against Brentford in February which saw PGMOL acknowledge that VAR Lee Mason did not draw the offside lines prior to Ivan Toney’s equaliser. Another is the 3-1 defeat by Manchester United in September of last year, when Gabriel Martinelli’s opening goal was wrongly disallowed.

‘A further example from this season is set to be Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic escaping a red card last month for his challenge on Martin Odegaard, which VAR chose to keep as a yellow, and then the subsequent tackle on Declan Rice which again escaped further punishment.’