Mikel Arteta’s strong criticism of VAR after Arsenal’s loss to Newcastle has drawn criticism from the club’s former long-serving vice-chairman, David Dein.
Dein believes that Arteta’s outburst was unnecessary and has damaged the club’s image. The Arsenal manager expressed his frustration after his team’s unbeaten streak in the Premier League was halted at St James’ Park. The match was not without controversy, and Arteta was particularly perplexed by the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s eventual winning goal to stand.
Arteta went on to describe the VAR call as ’embarrassing’ and a ‘disgrace,’ prompting Arsenal to issue a statement in support of the ex-Everton midfielder and condemning what they deemed as ‘unacceptable refereeing.’
Following Arteta’s charged remarks by the FA, Dein, who served as Arsenal’s vice-chairman from 1983 to 2007, contends that the Spanish manager was in the wrong.
Arteta’s comment were unnecessary, claims David Dein
Speaking on the Sunday Edition with Shaun Custis & Henry Winter about Arteta’s outburst, Dein was asked if he was at Arsenal, would he have defended him.
To which he said : “It wouldn’t have happened. But we’re in an emotional game and these things do happen, I think it’s unfortunate, and you live and learn.”
Pressed as to whether he would have taken Arteta aside and warned him about his conduct, Dein remarked: “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.”
Though Dein was full of praise for Arteta turning Arsenal into legitimate title contenders once again, stating he has brought ‘hope’ back to the Emirates.
He remarked: “I think under Mikel they’re doing a good job, I think there is a freshness there, you can see there is new belief – certainly the crowd have got it.
“There is a definite buzz about the place now that we haven’t seen for several years, and it’s the four-letter word – hope.
“You can see the team have got something good going for them, I think there’s something positive, it’s a bit of a renaissance going on at the moment at Arsenal.”
