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4 months ago
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Mikel Arteta faces Newcastle United tomorrow.
Almost four months since his absolutely embarrassing behaviour following the 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park.
Mikel Arteta on that day shaming himself and his club with the comments he made, due to him not being able to handle the fact Arsenal had lost their first Premier League match of the season and hadn’t had a single proper effort on target.
Mikel Arteta now quizzed on that embarrassing behaviour once again when speaking to the media on Friday morning – 23 February 2024:
“I talked the way I felt and I was very straight.
“I did it in a way that was strong.
“But within the law.
“As I didn’t get charged [Mikel Arteta WAS charged but shamefully the authorities bottled it in failing to find the charge ‘proven’, as per below] for that.
“What we all wanted in the end was decisions that are better.
“The last statistics we have seen showed a significant improvement [in decision making].
“Hopefully that is the case and we continue to see that.”
Obviously, when Mikel Arteta says what we all want are ‘decisions that are better’, he of course means, decisions made that are better for Arsenal…
The Mag report – 14 December 2023:
It is 40 days ago since Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season.
An excellent Newcastle United performance seeing them deservedly win at St James’ Park against the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta reacting in the most embarrassing manner, the very epitome of a bad loser, as he attempted to deflect attention away from the fact that his Arsenal team hadn’t managed a single proper effort on goal, just a single on target shot that was effectively a pass back, straight at Nick Pope.
The shameful Mikel Arteta behaviour quite rightly ending in a misconduct charge.
Now almost six weeks later, the FA have announced the result of the misconduct hearing.
Incredibly, Mikel Arteta having the the charge found to be ‘not proven’ against him.
Unbelievable.
Even more so when you hear some of what Mikel Arteta was claiming in his defence.
As you can see below, in the written reasons for the charge not being proven, it was revealed Arteta claimed that: “The word ‘disgrace’…’has a very similar spelling and pronunciation to the Spanish ‘desgracia’…the Spanish word has connotations of misfortune, tragedy or bad luck rather than the connotations of the English equivalent which suggest contempt, dishonour or disrespect. While the English meaning may lead to interpretations of abuse or insult, this was not the intended meaning.”
You have to laugh.
This sounds like a total farce, a way out of this for both The FA and Mikel Arteta without losing face, although the reality is that this surely just makes the whole thing look even more of a… disgrace.
This is Mikel Arteta who had lived almost his entire adult life from 2002 onwards in the UK, playing for Rangers, Everton and Arsenal, then working under Pep Guardiola at Man City, before becoming a manager himself at Arsenal.
Yet we are all supposed to believe he didn’t mean ‘disgrace’, when he said… ‘disgrace’.
BBC Sport report on Mikel Arteta – 14 December 2023:
‘Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has avoided punishment from the Football Association over comments he made about refereeing following last month’s 1-0 defeat by Newcastle.
Arteta called the video assistant referee’s decision to allow the Magpies’ winning goal at St James’ Park “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”.
He was later charged with misconduct.
But the FA said on Thursday that an independent Regulatory Commission had found the charge to be not proven.
“It was alleged that his comments constituted misconduct in that they were insulting towards match officials and/or detrimental to the game and/or brought the game into disrepute,” the FA added in a statement.
“The Regulatory Commission came to its decision following a hearing.”
In the written reasons for the charge not being proven, it was revealed Arteta claimed that: “The word ‘disgrace’…’has a very similar spelling and pronunciation to the Spanish ‘desgracia’…the Spanish word has connotations of misfortune, tragedy or bad luck rather than the connotations of the English equivalent which suggest contempt, dishonour or disrespect.
“While the English meaning may lead to interpretations of abuse or insult, this was not the intended meaning.”
The outcome of Arteta’s charge being found not proven means he can return to the dugout for the visit of Brighton on Sunday, after serving a one-match touchline ban in last weekend’s 1-0 loss at Aston Villa for accruing three yellow cards this season.’

 
