Mikel Arteta seemed to have a cheeky dig at the media in his post-match press conference on Saturday, praising VAR and Michael Oliver.
Following Arsenal’s win over Burnley on Saturday, one of the talking points was Fabio Vieira’s late red card.
Vieira had come on as a second-half substitute, but he was shown a straight red after connecting with Josh Brownhill high up on the Burnley player’s leg with his studs.
It was a deserved red card, but with all the talk about VAR and Mikel Arteta’s reaction to last week’s controversy in Newcastle, it was no surprise to see Arteta asked about the sending-off after the game.
“With the red card, yes, thank you for asking me, VAR was right, the referee was right,” Arteta said.
“Really good decision, really positive from Mikel to speak about that. Yeah, good decision.”
"VAR was right, the referee was right, really good decision, really positive from Mikel to speak about that" 🤣
Mikel Arteta on whether it was right for Fabio Vieira to be sent off against Burnley ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wIf58weY5W
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 11, 2023
Arteta seemed to be making a joking reference to the last week’s punditry on his reaction to the Newcastle match.
A number of former players criticised Arteta for his angry response to the decisions in that game, before praising Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou for accepting the calls against his team in their 4-1 defeat to Chelsea.
Of course, they missed the key context that Postecoglou had nothing to complain about.
The red cards his players received were entirely deserved, and the only calls you could argue were that both Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero should have been sent off earlier in the game.
By contrast, Arteta had valid complaints on Bruno Guimaraes’ missed red card and the foul on Gabriel Magalhaes in the build-up to Newcastle’s goal, as well as the potential offside that couldn’t be confirmed by VAR.
It’s easy to accept the referee’s decision when it’s clearly correct, or when it benefits your team. Arteta’s comments on the Vieira sending-off seemingly emphasised that.