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Ex-Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein believes that Mikel Arteta damaged the image of his former club with his VAR outburst recently. The Gunners boss laid into the officials after his side were beaten 1-0 by Newcastle, feeling that the Magpies’ goal should have been ruled out for several different reasons.
Anthony Gordon scored the all-important goal at St James’ Park, smashing his strike past David Raya from close range. However, Arsenal have been left feeling aggrieved as they feel that Joelinton fouled Gabriel when knocking the ball down to his teammate.
VAR checked the incident and ruled that Gabriel had stooped down to head the ball rather than falling to the ground purely because of the pressure from Joelinton, leaving Arteta furious. The Arsenal boss called the officiating a ‘disgrace’ in a furious rant that has since landed the Spaniard in hot water with the FA.
Following Arteta’s comments, the Gunners then released a statement to ‘back’ their manager and insist that they wholeheartedly supported the sentiment of his message. Ex-vice chairman Dein was left surprised by the official message of support though, feeling that he would not have replicated the act whilst he was at the club’s helm between 1983 and 2007.
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Asked by talkSPORT whether he would have defended Arteta, Dein 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.”
Dein was then asked whether he would have pulled Arteta in for private talks to address his conduct, to which he replied: “Probably. But you don’t want to undermine the manager either.
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“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.” Dein then went on to praise Arteta for the way he has rebuilt his former side and breathed a fresh lease of life into the club.
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