Mikel Arteta’s outburst against VAR following the defeat at Newcastle United will have damaged the ‘image’ of Arsenal. That is the view of former long-serving vice-chairman David Dein, who believes the Gunners boss used ‘misdirection’ to distract from a poor display from the title chasers.
Anthony Gordon scored the only goal of the game to settle another feisty affair between the sides at St James’ Park earlier this month. The forward’s strike was allowed to stand after a lengthy VAR review, with checks on the ball going out of play, a potential foul on Gabriel and an offside cleared.
The decision prompted outcry in certain quarters following the full-time whistle, with Arteta making his views clear in his post-match interviews. The Arsenal boss said he felt ‘sick’ and ’embarrassed’ by the VAR review, and was backed by a club statement a day later.
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Arteta has now been charged with misconduct by the Football Association for his rant. Dein was asked if he would have warned the Gunners manager over his actions, and agreed he would while accepting his words came in the ‘heat of the moment’.
Dein told talkSPORT: “Probably. But you don’t want to undermine the manager either. The manager in the heat of the moment – that’s what he believed in – I was at Newcastle that game, he felt aggrieved that he felt the decisions go against him.
“In the final analysis, I think it was a bit of misdirection, because the fact is, there was 101 minutes – three minutes added on in the first half and eight minutes in the second. In 101 minutes of football we only had one shot at goal, so you can’t really say that the team deserved to win. It is what it is.
“There is a process in place for how they deal with these things and I just think it was a little bit unnecessary. I don’t think it did the image of the club any good.”
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