Former Premier League referee Graham Scott has hit back at Mikel Arteta after his comments around managers and leaving the technical area.
During Arsenal‘s 2-0 win over Everton in the Premier League, the Spaniard was booked for leaving his area.
It was his second booking of the season, meaning one more would lead to a one-match touchline ban.
But in his post-match press conference, he bizarrely claimed that he had been collecting clips of other managers who had also left their technical areas.
But former Premier League referee Scott has been doing his own research on Arteta, and revealed it all exclusively on Hawksbee and Jacobs with Max Rushden and Perry Groves.
Scott said: “He’s got a bit of cheek if I am honest. I watched the Everton game back, and he left his technical area 44 times before his yellow card.
“Those are separate occasions of him going back in and back out. Whenever Everton had the ball anywhere near him, it was like he was part of the press.
“The fourth official kept warning him, and he didn’t respond.
“If anything, the yellow card has come much too late, so I hope if he actually has someone clipping managers, they add him in and see where he is in the league table because I will be amazed if he’s not top of it due to the sheer number of times he leaves that box.”
What did Arteta say?
When asked about his yellow card, Arteta implied that he has been collecting evidence against other Premier League managers.
He said: “I do have to be careful. I am going to put sensors there.
“There are other managers who have the record in the league – 36 times in ten minutes, they left their box – no yellows.
“I am clipping all of that, so I now have a massive storage of images.
“So, I am nowhere near the record, somebody else has the record, can you deal out 36 yellow cards in ten minutes? I don’t know where we are going to be.”
Mitigation
During the conversation ex-Arsenal star Perry Groves pointed out that the area at the Emirates is actually huge, so there aren’t too many excuses for Arteta.
He said: “The technical area at the Emirates is probably the biggest in the Premier League.”
However, Scott did come to Arteta’s defence regarding one element of the technical area.
Scott said: “The one tiny bit of sympathy I have is that there is quite a big slope on that technical area, and if you are not right at the top of it, you are going to physically fall backwards.
“If you watch the other box, David Moyes is always right on the line, and he is always right out there.
“But the line is there for a reason. If we aren’t going to have a technical area, then get rid of the lines and let them do what they want.”