{"id":293286,"date":"2023-11-06T19:23:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T19:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/?p=293286"},"modified":"2023-11-06T19:23:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T19:23:58","slug":"oliver-holt-arsenal-are-irresponsible-in-backing-mikel-artetas-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/soccer\/oliver-holt-arsenal-are-irresponsible-in-backing-mikel-artetas-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"OLIVER HOLT: Arsenal are  irresponsible in backing Mikel Arteta&apos;s fury"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Arsenal are meant to be a bastion of elegance and class. To release a statement doubling down on Mikel Arteta&#8217;s emotional incontinence is shamefully irresponsible<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mikel Arteta fumed at the refereeing in Arsenal&#8217;s defeat against Newcastle<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Gunners later issued a statement supporting the manager&#8217;s critical remarks<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Arteta\u2019s tantrum told us that he does not deal with pressure particularly well<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>CHRIS SUTTON: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is a clown &#8211; It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A message from a fan account called the Arsenal Therapy Show, which was originally posted earlier in the year, was getting renewed traction on X on Monday. \u2018Like this tweet if you would sign a petition to have @GNev2 (Gary Neville) banned from commentating on Arsenal games,\u2019 it said.<\/p>\n<p>By late afternoon on Monday, more than 25,000 people had done exactly that. Others suggested Neville and his Sky Sports colleague Jamie Carragher should both be prevented from entering the Emirates for future games. I don\u2019t know if the petition has materialised yet but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if it did.<\/p>\n<p>Neville\u2019s crime \u2014 and Carragher\u2019s \u2014 was to say he believed the decision to allow Newcastle\u2019s bitterly-contested winning goal against Arsenal to stand at St James\u2019s Park on Saturday evening was correct. Their wider crime was to fly in the face of more hysterical attacks on the standard of refereeing in the Premier League and say that VAR got it right.<\/p>\n<p>VAR in particular, and referees in general, have become the easy out for every manager, every fan and every club who cannot handle defeat and need someone else to blame. If you\u2019re Mikel Arteta and you want to pass the buck because your goalkeeper has had a nightmare again, you pass that buck to VAR.<\/p>\n<p>And you pass that buck with increasing vehemence and passion and conviction and emotion so that your club mistakenly feels the need to get involved, too, as if a defeat is some incredible miscarriage of justice that goes to the very core of the system and infects football\u2019s body politic.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467297-0-image-a-11_1699291768295.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta was animated as ever in the dugout during Arsenal&#8217;s defeat against Newcastle<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467299-0-image-a-12_1699291772730.jpg\" height=\"454\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Referee Stuart Attwell had to deal with a host of controversial decisions between the high-octane match<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467293-0-image-a-13_1699291778384.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Arteta fumed at the standard of refereeing on show during his side&#8217;s weekend defeat at St James&#8217; Park<\/p>\n<p>That is how we get to a point where Arsenal, a club that remains revered by most in this country for being a bastion of elegance and class, somehow believes it is right to release a shamefully irresponsible statement doubling down on Arteta\u2019s emotional incontinence.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal played to the gallery. Nothing more. The statement talked about \u2018yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors\u2019. Calm analysis showed that those errors they talked about \u2014 there were none.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches and supporters, all of whom deserve better,\u2019 Arsenal\u2019s statement continued. Three points at last because this was a win for over-reaching pomposity.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the Premier League and its fans deserve better: they deserve better than a fine club like Arsenal making fatuous, self- serving, crowd-pleasing statements that undermine the authority of officials and encourage the lunatic fringe who see corruption and conspiracy everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>You see the thing is, it\u2019s not just VAR that is flawed; it is our attitude to it, too. The weekly histrionics about VAR say more about us than they do about the system. They tell us about our inability to deal with adversity. They tell us about our desire to deflect blame. They tell us about our desire to vilify others and our failure to take responsibility for our shortcomings.<\/p>\n<p>The tail is wagging the dog in English football. We spend more time analysing decisions and assasinating referees than we do enthusing about Erling Haaland or Bukayo Saka. Moaning and whingeing about what is usually a correct offside decision or a penalty call takes up more time than praising a match where there is often much to praise.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe we should devote a little more attention to players who appear to dedicate an inordinate amount of time to deceiving referees rather than the referees who are victims of that deception. It could be said Wolves have been the victims of two bad penalty decisions in recent weeks. It is more accurate to say they have twice been the victims of cheats.<\/p>\n<p>It was a different story in the North East on Saturday. The officials \u2014 the system \u2014 were traduced for getting something right. It didn\u2019t stop the histrionics. VAR must be banned. Enough is enough. On and on with the hissy fit. No one\u2019s saying you have to like VAR but much of the reaction to it is deeply irrational.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467289-0-image-a-15_1699291786947.jpg\" height=\"437\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>There were a series of flashpoints in the match and Arsenal later supported Arteta&#8217;s rant about the game&#8217;s refereeing<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467287-0-image-a-16_1699291791157.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The details of whether Anthony Gordon&#8217;s goal for Newcastle have been painstakingly pored over<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>We all know the details of Anthony Gordon\u2019s goal by now. It has been pored over more painstakingly than the Zapruder footage. Joe Willock retrieved a wayward shot by the goal-line, crossed it towards Joelinton, who leapt for it in a challenge with Gabriel and when the ball dropped, Gordon swept it over the line.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there are contentious aspects to it. Did the ball go out before Willock retrieved it? The footage is inconclusive. What isn\u2019t inconclusive is that when Willock chases the ball towards the corner flag, he is alone. There are six Arsenal players in the box. All of them stand and watch him.<\/p>\n<p>Was Gabriel fouled by Joelinton? Again, the footage is inconclusive. Neville and Carragher were both hugely accomplished defenders. They thought Joelinton\u2019s challenge was legitimate. Was Gordon offside when the ball dropped? Once more, technology could not provide the answer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467353-0-image-a-18_1699291834111.jpg\" height=\"365\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Arteta flew into a rant of almost comical petulance in which, inevitably, he sought to blame the officials for Arsenal\u2019s loss<\/p>\n<p>When Arsenal lost, the screaming started. From their fans, who said they had been cheated, but most of all from their manager, Arteta, who flew into a pathetic rant of almost comical petulance in which, inevitably, he sought to blame the officials for Arsenal\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n<p>Arteta grew so impassioned that at one point it felt as if he was blaming VAR for the state of the nation. He asked for help, as if he were caught in the midst of an emergency. \u2018I feel embarrassed having more than 20 years in this country,\u2019 he said, as if VAR would force him to flee to a civilised place where no one ever errs.<\/p>\n<p>He said he was embarrassed. He said it was a disgrace. He said that in China, in Japan, in Spain, in Italy and in Portugal, such a goal would not be allowed.<\/p>\n<p>Around the same time, footage emerged of Iago Aspas of Celta Vigo hurling a pitchside monitor to the floor after a late penalty award was overturned in a 1-1 draw with Sevilla. So that\u2019s Spain off the refereeing nirvana list then.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/06\/17\/77467347-0-image-a-19_1699291840276.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Arteta\u2019s tantrum told us, again, that he does not deal with pressure particularly well<\/p>\n<p>Arteta\u2019s tantrum told us, again, that he does not deal with pressure particularly well. In fact, he appears to deal with it particularly poorly. The cold truth is that Arsenal did not lose the match because of refereeing decisions. The truth is Newcastle deserved to win the game. They were the better team.<\/p>\n<p>And if there was one moment in the build-up to the goal that was more important than any other, it was the moment when the Arsenal goalkeeper, David Raya, the goalkeeper Arteta has chosen to replace an in-form Aaron Ramsdale, let Willock\u2019s cross sail over his flailing arm and on to the head of Joelinton.<\/p>\n<p>But that is an inconvenient truth. Far better to shoot the messenger or lambast the fourth official or scream about the system, to stoke an atmosphere where referees have already become figures of hate, to undermine VAR further, to blame someone else for your own shortcomings.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another inconvenient truth: Arsenal will not win the title until they have a manager who takes responsibility for his own decisions. If Arteta cannot become that man, Arsenal\u2019s drought will go on.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12716751\/Arsenal-mikel-arteta-var-oliver-holt-referee.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal are meant to be a bastion of elegance and class. To release a statement doubling down on Mikel Arteta&#8217;s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>OLIVER HOLT: Arsenal are irresponsible in backing Mikel Arteta&amp;apos;s fury - Sports Love Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/soccer\/oliver-holt-arsenal-are-irresponsible-in-backing-mikel-artetas-fury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OLIVER HOLT: Arsenal are irresponsible in backing Mikel Arteta&amp;apos;s fury - Sports Love Me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arsenal are meant to be a bastion of elegance and class. 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