Mikel Arteta has been heavily criticised by former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein (Picture: Getty)
David Dein has criticised Mikel Arteta for tarnishing Arsenal’s reputation after his now infamous post match meltdown following the recent defeat against Newcastle.
The Gunners boss branded the VAR decision not to rule out Anthony Gordon’s goal in his side’s 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park ‘an absolute disgrace’ and has now been charged by the Football Association.
VAR made a triple check to see whether the ball had gone out of play before Joe Willock’s cross, whether Joelinton had fouled Arsenal defender Gabriel and whether Gordon had been offside.
Regardless of a decision that PGMOL chief Howard Webb subsequently explained and defended last week, Dein, who served as Arsenal’s vice-chairman for nearly two decades, felt Arteta took his protestations too far.
Speaking on talkSPORT about Arteta’s outburst, Dein was asked if he was at Arsenal, would he have defended him.
Mikel Arteta has been charged by the Football Association (Picture: Getty)
‘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,’ said Dein.
Pressed as to whether he would have taken Arteta aside and warned him about his conduct, Dein added: ‘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.
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‘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.’
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‘I don’t think it did the image of the club any good.’