Mikel Arteta spoke to Sky Sports after the 0-0 draw with Newcastle at the Emirates this evening.
Here’s what he had to say.
Overall thoughts?
“Extremely proud of my players. The way we played, the way we dominated the game, the way we tried, we continued, the way we controlled the game.
“We just missed in the final third that spark to find the final pass because we had so many situations to finish better.”
“Then we had two scandalous penalties.”
Which was the stronger claim?
“It’s not about stronger – they are two penalties. It’s that simple.”
Did the referee offer any explanation?
I’m not talking [about the ref]. I’m talking about what I’ve seen now. And it’s two scandalous penalties.
Why do you think VAR didn’t give them?
“I don’t know. I’m so proud of the work that we’ve done to see a team that plays the way we played again today.”
Did you have enough chances, or Newcastle credit for keeping you at bay?
“I think we generated a lot of situations, a lot of superiority, but we lacked the fact we needed an extra touch, an extra pass, an extra movement to get clear chances. But I think we had enough to win the game.”
Was it frustrating for you?
“No. I am so proud of this team.”
Will Arsenal have to deal with teams playing like Newcastle more often?
“I don’t think that Newcastle wanted to set up like this. This is not how they play. They haven’t played against any team like this, so credit to our players.”
Thoughts on a point?
“Well, if you cannot win, you don’t lose. We kept a clean sheet and had a good performance so now we go again.”
Is it two points dropped?
“I wanted to win, but we should have done certain things better – especially in the final third. And we should have had two penalties to win the game and that would be a different story.”
Did you have enough on the bench?
“We had some injuries, in attacking areas we don’t have many options, but I’m so proud of them.”
The window is open, do you need more and quickly?
“That’s something we always try, to improve our team. Every window is important because we still have a lot of things to do with this team.”
Glad he has got his point across and kicked off as some fines are worth it.
Yes the newcastle cunts, specially burn, should get some juicy fines
normally i am against punishment, but dan burn should be sent to stoke with the rest of the orcs
VAR is a great tool to spread the butter of a corrupt system across more than one person.
Exactly this. Another way for third parties to influence the game.
I counted more than 8 minutes extra time in that second half. Every single change Newcastle had to go down, they did. But what do we get? 5 minutes, if your lucky guys. Thanks a lot ref
By the way Man City got 11 minutes the other day, just to make things interesting for the league right? Do one.
Pps, I’m starting to really hate Newcastle, and can see a simmering rivalry that may continue for years to come. North vs South. Oil vs History. Bring it on baby. Bring it on.
I think the official time the ball was in play over the course of the entire 90 minutes is around the 43.00 minute mark. So to only get 5 minutes is beyond a joke. But the worst bit of officiating all night has to be that Gabriel penalty shout, when Burn is practically hauling his shirt of his back.. how thats gone to VAR and not been given geniunely screams inside narrative. I know you sound like a fucking nut job saying it out loud but how can anyone with actual refereeing credentials not awarded that after the fact? And… Read more »
Upvotet purley for the hate.
Spot on. Impossible to be that incompetent, something else at work.
Yeah like I get it’s difficult to comprehend. But given the lack of transparency and the money involved in the sport.
I do find it extremely convenient stuff like that happens and is always referenced as incompetence.
Is it really? Or did it not just suit a few agendas that we could be 10 points clear during a transfer window being open?
Would it be bad for the marketability of the brand I.e the most competitive league in the sport..?
Do you still remember the penalty awarded to spurs last season?
Also, as a boy I dislike man Utd because watching them cheat week-in week-out made me wonder if football is wrestling. Anyways, the boys played well and Newcastle was lucky. I am proud of the boys sincerely!
Yeah it was a total joke, it was awarded out of nothing..
Post of the century!
if we’d gotten a goal they would have had unlimited time to score, call it MBS time
The Dan Burn one was a clear penalty and how it gets overlooked by VAR I don’t know. What are they doing? They have one job. 2 points lost in a tight race because of shit officiating.
The handball one wasn’t. I hate when they’re given. They slow them right down and forget that in reality the player has far less time to process what’s going on, especially if it’s at point blank. The hands were in a natural position and he was turning away. You shouldn’t get a penalty for kicking a ball at someone.
The VAR ref did his job perfectly. That’s a 10/10 performance for the FA.
Good to see four people can read between the lines…hehehe!
Yeah, I don’t know why the handball is even being debated. Gabriel getting his shirt ripped off him is definitely a penalty.
What I thought was worse, was Joelinton and Almiron not getting booked in the first half, for the exact same offence Nketiah and Odegaard got booked for. You might argue that Burn could’ve had one for a foul on Saka as well, but I thought that was more of a coming-together.
The handball is being debated because we see those given all the time. I also don’t think that they should be given, but they are and the lack of consistency is incredibly frustrating.
burn should have had at least one booking for dissent, given that he spent the whole game alternating between fouling and yelling angrily at the ref like a spoiled child
The yelling is all part of the time wasting.
Yeah, this was my general feeling afterwards, too, with the handball feeling in the moment worse only because of what had been brushed off earlier (the pull on Gabriel). How that just gets dismissed so casually is what really gets to me. How in the world doesn’t the referee get called over to at least look at the monitor himself? It’s like they’re too lazy to do their job properly.
It’s because the referees don’t get called over to look at incidents to check if they made the right decision; they get called over because the VAR thinks they got the decision wrong.
It would be much better if it was an actual “check” rather than “you got that decision wrong, mate; why don’t you pretend to review your initial decision before reversing it?”.
sometimes making no decision is the worst because then the VAR won’t even review
I’m going to get downvotes here. But I don’t think either of them were stonewall penos and VAR rarely overturn that sort of foul.
I’m actually really happy with the performance and the desire. And I think it’s a pretty good point against a Newcastle side that were really good defensively and at times looked dangerous too.
I get why Arteta is creating a siege mentality. But I’m not going to lose my shit over anything that happened thought.
We march on!
COYG
Nah mate. Eddie and Marty both got yellow cards for doing exactly what happened on the penalty. Absolute Stonewall pen. Handball too IMO. Arm is away from the body out stretched. It’s a penalty.
same fouls, same part of the pitch, both within 5 yards of the ref and yet different outcomes. it felt like he was trying to even things out for correctly booking wilson and the other one for obvious yellow card fouls.
he also failed to even address newcastle’s rotational fouling or diving, or even their ‘injuries’
I just think we are becoming a fan base that always, always moans that it’s not fair. We did it when we lost to United, we did it when we drew with Saints…
Whenever a result doesn’t go our way we moan. And we quickly forget marginal calls that went for us in other games. The Liverpool one immediately springs to mind.
fair enough, but please can you explain why you don’t think that Burn trying to have Gabi’s shirt off during the match wasn’t a penalty or stonewall penalty, at that? After some reflection in the daylight, I can see why the handball wasn’t given and as Arseblog said earlier, if we’d conceded a peno for that, I’d be livid. But the lump that is Burn grabbing Gabi’s shirt – not a ‘tug’ like maybe Neville would like it to have seemed (can’t wait for the NE Branch of the Saudi PIF to turn up at Old Trafford and play the… Read more »
Isn’t that every fan base? I agree, last few years I got a bit sick of all the whining. However, this season the team is different and earning what they get, but they aren’t getting much. We have recieved 1 pen all season right? And last night I saw three (not two) clear pens (add in Saka getting thrown to the ground, when on ball in the area in second half). Bit frustrating and I just don’t trust the FA and PMGOL, They’re corrupt fuckers and full of arsenal haters
Maybe. I personally saw a pretty even game, Newcastle doing what they should do, suffocating our wide men and then trying to score from breaks and set pieces. On the refereeing, I remember a Granit foul when he was on a yellow that looked a little like it should have been a second. Plus there were a few fair tackles they made which were punished, giving us good opportunities around their box and yellow cards for their players. I think we look at all decisions through our red and white spectacles. I don’t want to see handballs given when the… Read more »
I’ll take on the handball part because this is one that needs fixing. Here you say – no handball within 4 yards. 4 yards being your definition of ball-to-hand (which obviously takes no consideration of ball speed). It’s totally arbitrary. I’ve been saying for years, that if a ball makes contact with ANY outstretched arm away from the body then it’s a handball – anywhere; irrespective of how far the player is from the kicker. If the arm is alongside the body and the ball strikes it then it’s not a handball as the arm is essentially a part of… Read more »
You might be right. I haven’t been back through the highlights so I’m just going on gut reaction from the final whistle.
I just think, if this game was Huddersfield vs Wigan, I wouldn’t walk away from it thinking one side was robbed.
No, he’s mostly wrong and you’re mostly right. We should have had one penalty and the referee should have added much more time, but those things happen to every team. Klopp thought the officiating was instrumental in Liverpool’s loss to Brentford and I assume most Liverpool supporters agree with him. I thought he was ridiculous.
That should never be a handball. Of course his arm is not tucked into his body–he is turning. Your proposed change makes it worse–how can you jump without using your hands for leverage. The intent of the law, as it has been seen football was codified, is you cannot gain an advantage by using your hands. That means both a deliberate handball and where you deliberately create a situation where an “unintentional” handball will result. Of course both of those questions are subjective, as is every other infraction. The Gabriel pull-back is a penalty. It is not grappling, where both… Read more »
Tell them Mikel. The anti-Arsenal sentiment is strong at Sky.
That montage of “Arsenal disappointment” at the end of a draw which put us 8 points clear.
Disgusting.
No mention of the youngest team in the league being 8 points clear either..
Now you see why they spend all week bigging us up, so they can cut us right back down.
Proud of Mikel.
That’s exactly the response you need from the manager after what happened.
Top manager, top bloke.
And bollocks to Sky, VAR, Newcastle United and Eddie Howe, the fat cunt.
You’re right he has become a fat f##k
that every supporter for every team has issues with officiating consistency and a lack of transparency (or honesty) from the pgmol or fa this season tells the story. the refs are badly trained, badly managed, and overall bad at their jobs.
if you or i were this bad at our job this consistently there would be some sort of accountability, and there isn’t any for these guys from the greater manchester area.
also i fully expect arteta will be fined and suspended for these remarks, because the fa have thinner skin than piers morgan
Not sure about either pen really..given against us and we would be fuming.
Against a very good defence just proves we need more fire power be it off the bench or as a starter. Team the whole played brillaint.
The handball yes, the shirt-pull no. Nobody can ever have any complaints if they get a pen called against them for hauling someone to the ground by their shirt.
No way would we have complained if that shirt pull was by one of our players and it was given. Half the fan base would already be on about how Saliba shouldn’t get a new contract or how Big Gabi is a liability that has let us down in 30 matches this season.
Perhaps you don’t remember the shirt pull by Xhaka (or Gabi) on Gundogan a season or two ago. Nothing close to this bus was given.
Fair point.. I thought they were going on about the handbills. Yes the shirt pull was a pen
I agree that handbills are a scourge. Keep them off my car windscreen!
Mik is spot on here. We go again.
This Ref looked out of his depth tbh. And yes this is a club that we will grow to hate. That’s a shame as they have always, in the past, been a club with a history without any real malice. I can understand that their supporters have suffered for years, but their ship has now turned in to an oil sodden raft with a false charted course. This is not of a true Tyneside making. Even so it looks like this has all gone to their supporter’s heads & some of their half naked, drunken fat bodies 😀
We really should have rules about states of undress in the stands. Nobody needs to see a fat, drunken, shirtless guy shouting obscenities on television, let alone in the ground. It’s behavior that makes the sport unwelcoming for new fans, young fans, and female fans
I can take the handball not being given because of proximity specially since one was ruled out for us in one of our recent games, but the tug on gabriel?
The FA doing everything they can to not let arsenal run away with the league this season.
I see people commenting on the handball as being too close, but Granit, doesn’t blast the ball at him, he lifts it, the player turns away and puts his hand there. It’s a handball.
No debate on the shirt pull, it’s a penalty. Remember 12 months ago vs Man City? Xhakas challenge that was given?
So the whole if it was given against us I’d be unhappy, well a much softer one WAS given against us, so that’s not even a valid argument,
It’s good to have some perspective. Shows how far we’ve come that a draw vs best defence in league hurts so much. But we didn’t draw at home to Everton or Leeds, nor lose at home to Villa. And thinking of Leeds it’s still amazing that we came out of that game with 3 points. VAR got some wrong that day in our favour. It hurts yes but let’s go again. Get ESR fit and buy another threat.
Yeah, that Leeds result was a freaking huge three points!