The Spaniard did not appear to be best pleased with the officials (Pictures: Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta was in a rather untalkative mood after Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa, with the Spaniard seemingly unhappy with two key decisions but unwilling to risk another FA charge.
The Gunners suffered their second defeat of the Premier League season at Villa Park on Saturday evening, with John McGinn netting what proved to be the winning goal after just seven minutes.
Arsenal dominated the contest for large spells, particularly either side of half-time, but struggled to carve out any clear-cut chances.
They thought they had a penalty shout when Douglas Luiz made contact with Gabriel Jesus inside the box, skimming the forward’s calf with his boot, but both referee Jarred Gillett and the VAR did not feel the contact was sufficient to merit a spot-kick.
In the dying embers of the game, Arsenal had the ball in the back of the net through Kai Havertz but Gillett ruled out the goal for a handball from the German, with VAR confirming the decision after a lengthy check.
Arteta, who was serving a touchline ban, was clearly annoyed with the decision in the stands but, already dealing with a charge for his outburst after losing to Newcastle last month, held back from criticising the officials again.
Asked about both the penalty that was not awarded and the handball from Havertz, Arteta replied simply: ‘Clear and obvious.’
Probed further on whether he meant clearly wrong, he replied: ‘No, no, clear and obvious.’
Jesus felt he had been clipped by compatriot Luiz (Picture: Getty)
Asked again what he meant by that, the Arsenal boss said: ‘Clear and obvious, that’s what I mean.’
When asked if he felt the handball decision did not meet the clear and obvious threshold, he replied: ‘No, no, that’s my opinion, that’s all I can say.’
Later in his press conference, Arteta was again asked to clarify what exactly his position on the decisions was, and replied: ‘I’m not going to talk about it anymore, sorry.’
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In his TV interview with Sky Sports, Arteta also said he ‘preferred not to comment’ about either incident, though felt the Jesus penalty shout was ‘even clearer’.
When it was put to him that he had a strong opinion about both incidents but preferred not to say anything, he replied: ‘I do, a big opinion, yes.’
Reflecting on his side’s display against an in-form Villa team, he added: ‘Really good performance, I thought we were better team and didn’t deserve to lose the game at all but this is football.’
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The Spaniard did not appear to be best pleased with the officials.