Liverpool legend, Graeme Souness, has said he has complete sympathy with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta over his recent rant on referees, calling their decision making ‘bewildering’.
Souness, however, believes Arteta should not show his frustration so publicly from now on.
A lot has been made about Arteta’s statements on Premier League referees after Newcastle United were controversially awarded a goal in their 1-0 victory against Arsenal last Saturday.
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Arsenal’s subsequent statement, which backed their head coach and called out the PGMOL, has been widely criticised by pundits, but Souness is part of a minority that has backed what Arteta and the Gunners said.
“I had sympathy with Mikel Arteta over his reaction to a flagrantly poor refereeing decision last weekend. I have been in his shoes,” Souness wrote in his column for the MailOnline.
“The conclusion that Anthony Gordon’s goal for Newcastle should stand was plainly wrong to anyone with an ounce of knowledge of the game. And of course, Mikel was having to come to terms with the fact that those officials were equipped with the most sophisticated video technology known to man.
“It’s all very well for people to say, “Arteta’s let his great club down because they have a reputation for class”, but I don’t see it like that. Yes, for me Arsenal have always been one of the classiest clubs.
“But I saw Arteta as a man whose frustrations were so enormous that he just could not deal with it in the cold, calculated way that all the experts seem to think he should have done. Those criticising him do not seem to have considered the bewildering rationale that lay behind allowing that goal to stand.”
