ANGRY Mikel Arteta stormed off BEFORE the end of Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa – then raged at “clear and obvious” decisions that went against his team.
John McGinn’s early hammer strike stopped the Gunners returning top of the Prem as the banned Gunners boss was forced to watch from the box.
And Arteta’s reaction left Arsenal supporters fearing for their players – although he later revealed it was yet more controversy over refereeing decisions that he had a “big opinion” on.
After the boss disappeared into a backroom in stoppage time, one fan wrote, “He’s fuming” and another added: “Cooking up another fine.”
That follows Arteta being charged over a blast at officials after last month’s 1-0 loss at Newcastle – although that FA verdict is not yet in.
This time the Gunners boss controlled his temper in his post-match interview.
But about both decisions, Arteta said: “Clear and obvious” and admitted he had “a big opinion”.
Referee Jarred Gillett did not see enough in Douglas Luiz’s challenge on Gabriel Jesus to give a spot-kick.
But he did penalise Havertz for handball in the 90th-minute scramble that ended with the ball in the Aston Villa net.
On both occasions, VAR Michael Salisbury saw no reason to ask Gillett to reconsider.
Arteta refused to explain what he meant by “clear and obvious”.
But in a separate interview, on the disallowed goal, he said, “I prefer not to comment” and on the potential penalty, he added: “I think that one was even clearer.”
Arteta is waiting to learn his fate after being hit with a misconduct charge for his extraordinary outburst about VAR and the quality of match officials after his team’s other league defeat at Newcastle.
And the Spaniard served a one-match touchline ban at Villa Park last night because he picked up his third yellow card of the season for overcelebrating Arsenal’s late, late win at Luton on Tuesday.
Arteta said: “I’m very disappointed with the result after the way we played. We deserved more than what we had. I think we were the better team.
“I haven’t seen my team do much more than what we have done to Villa today since we were here in February.
“It wasn’t enough to win because we lacked the accuracy in the opponents box to put the ball in the back of the net with the amount of situations that we generated.”
FREE BETS – BEST BETTING OFFERS & NEW CUSTOMER BONUSES
