6 hours Ago By [email protected] (Samuel Meade)
Mikel Arteta claims he has every right to give his opinion on referee's decision with the Arsenal boss insisting it's done in a "respectful way". The Spaniard - and his team - have been in the spotlight this week after they were on the end of another contentious decision. Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off against Wolves last weekend, albeit they've since seen the red card overturned on appeal.
They managed to pick up the three points but were left fuming by the decision, taken by Michael Oliver. Arteta spoke openly post-match and said the decision was "so obvious that today you don't need my words". He later said he was "fuming".
The Arsenal boss has made his emotions clear after some of the season's more controversial decisions. He bemoaned red cards issued to them against Brighton and Manchester City with Gary Neville claiming, in light of abuse directed towards Oliver, that Arteta is stirring the pot. Neville said on the Stick to Football : "They [Arsenal fans] use language like corruption, which means they think he's getting paid and bought off – which is obviously not the case.
The difference is now with social media, when we were playing back in the day and doing similar things with referees, we weren't inflaming what would be a cause of corruption on social media. "Now you have a sway of Arsenal's anger, which comes from the players and from Mikel Arteta , and prominent fans. You now have a social media wave now which goes towards [allegations of] corruption and cheating.
In our day, we couldn't have that much influence – everyone was at home without a phone, and didn't have Twitter ." Arteta defended his right to an opinion and was asked if he is believe Arsenal are being refereed in the same way as every other team and replied: “For sure, and we all have to respect that, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to defend our position or give our views in a respectful way which is what we do, through the right channels, and the right communication with the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) or someone individual or the Premier League and that will continue to go on. “A lot of times that communication has been there to give very positive feedback and about things that we can change to make it better and that has happened.
It is always very constructive what we are trying to achieve here.” Arteta has often found himself in the firing line of referees. Previously he claimed he was being made an example of when it came to managers stepping out of their technical area.
The Arsenal boss was cautioned on occasion but insisted he was not the only one guilty of the offence last season. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
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