Manager may have sought an edge with his fume after first-leg draw but Champions League semi remains in balance
M
ikel Arteta has felt the walls closing in on the domestic front in recent weeks. And it was surely a part of the reason why the Arsenal manager went on the offensive about refereeing decisions after his team’s Premier League win over Newcastle on Saturday.
Arteta insisted that the Newcastle goalkeeper, Nick Pope, ought to have been sent off rather than booked for a foul on Viktor Gyökeres, which he argued represented the denial of a goalscoring opportunity. And, while he was at it, Arteta went back to the previous league game – the 2-1 defeat at Manchester City – and made a similar point: he believed the City defender Abdukodir Khusanov should have been dismissed for a last-man foul on Kai Havertz.
Is Arteta feeling the pressure? Absolutely, because it is white-hot with Arsenal so close to a first league title since 2004. Also, there is just the way that Arteta lives each match – total immersion, off-the-scale intensity. When he feels wronged or if things do not work out, he can struggle to keep a lid on it.
