Arsenal boss Arteta ‘needs stamping down’ after escaping ban with ‘nonsense’ excuse
Jamie Carragher insists Mikel Arteta should have been punished for his outburst after Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle at the start of November, describing his excuse as “nonsense”.
Arteta described the decision to award Newcastle their goal in the 1-0 loss as a “disgrace” after the game, in a rant that drew plenty of criticism from fans, pundits and Football365.
But having been charged by the FA, the Gunners boss escaped punishment by claiming his comments were lost in translation.
The Spaniard has already received a touchline ban for accruing three yellow cards, and Carragher believes the behaviour of managers like Arteta and Jurgen Klopp needs “stamping down”.
The pundit also told the Stick to Football podcast that Arteta should not have “got away” with his chastisement of the officials after the Newcastle game.
Carragher said: “I think it’s bubbling [the issue of manager behaviour] and I think it does need stamping down. Maybe a couple of managers, Jürgen Klopp being one, might be the ones who get the full force of it – maybe Arteta.
“The thing that fascinates me with Arteta is what I see on the touchline, it’s almost a completely different person to the person I played against. He wasn’t that emotional. We played derby games, he was one of Everton’s best players – he was a silky player – but you’d never think he was at a referee or into his own players.
“I think some of the bookings he’s got – the over celebrating, the odd thing where you think, ‘Come on, there’s no need for that’. But I do think he shouldn’t have got away with – once he’d been charged with what he said after Newcastle, and the defence was there was a translation difference between what you’d say in Spain about something was a disgrace, it means something different in Spain. That was nonsense.
“He [Mikel Arteta] was obviously shouting at the referee, and the fourth officials said he’s overstepped the mark. There’s no doubt they’re looking for Arteta because he is lively. I sometimes think he is that close to the pitch that, if I was playing, it’s like he’s going to close you down!”
Ian Wright believes that the Arsenal players won’t be bothered by Arteta’s passion while it’s not having an adverse effect on them.
He said: “If you look at Arsenal in respects of how their players are playing and performing, with the way their manager is so-called over passionate and over emotional – we’re number one in the Fair Play League. It’s not like it’s transmitting onto the pitch and our players are out of order, like we just saw at Villa.
“I think [the Arsenal players] are getting used to how the manager is. George Graham would be livid if you’re not doing stuff. If he’s got the hump with me, he’d be like, ‘Lee! Tell Tony to tell Nigel to Ray to tell Wrighty to make some runs!’ But I never held it against him because he’s in the game, in the passion of the game.”
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