Mikel Arteta says he has no regrets over his explosive reaction to Arsenal’s defeat at Newcastle in November and will continue to wear his heart on his sleeve if he feels his team have suffered injustice.
Arsenal face Eddie Howe’s side at the Emirates on Saturday evening and hope for a markedly different outcome to the one that so enraged Arteta three and a half months ago. Back then he branded VAR’s decision not to chalk off Anthony Gordon’s goal, which proved to be the winner, an “absolute disgrace”. The following day Arsenal supported him with a statement criticising the standard of officiating and Arteta, although charged by the Football Association for his comments, was eventually cleared by an independent commission.
Arteta semi-jokingly described it as “a good experience as a coach, to go through that” but will not alter his approach. “I said what I felt in the moment and how I felt it. You get criticised for being honest and many other people fully agree with that. You know that when you talk publicly, you are not going to please everybody. I was very pleased at the end that I felt that there was an understanding. People expect to hear our answers in an honest and straight way, and that’s what I did.”
Upon full time at St James’ Park Arteta ran his grievances past the Arsenal sporting director, Edu, and the executive vice-chair, Tim Lewis, as well as the match officials, before going public. “I have a duty to defend our players, to defend our club and to raise our voices when you feel something is not right,” he said. “You have to say it.
“I also said that privately, in front of everybody’s face. It’s not something that I did publicly when I had not said it before. The order was right. I did it internally, I did it in front of [the officials], face to face, then I did it publicly.”
Arsenal have been drawn into niggly affairs during their past two meetings with Newcastle, being held to a goalless draw at home in January 2023, and have just emerged from a similarly scrappy Champions League defeat in Porto. Arteta suggested there remained room for his players to cultivate a mastery of the game’s darker arts.
“You have to be tricky, you have to be smart, you have to be streetwise and you have to try to take advantages in every situation,” he said before elaborating on how that streak of nastiness may be taught.
“It’s the way you talk to them, showing them clips, training, putting them through scenarios, pinching them a few times as well, learning from other players who do it really well and from teams who are masters at it. There are ways to do it.
“It’s very important. That’s a way of competing for a team and you can tell that the best players in the world have the ability to take advantage, always.”
Having won their past five Premier League games at an aggregate of 21-2, Arsenal will hope for a rapid reversion to their domestic form. “I think we can still do a bit more for our players,” Arteta said when asked about the swift Wednesday-to-Saturday turnaround. He is waiting on the potential returns from injury of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Partey, although Takehiro Tomiyasu is unlikely to be ready.
