Mikel Arteta appeared to have a sneaky dig at media darling and Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou in his press conference on Tuesday morning.

For the last few days, there has been a sharp contrast between the media treatment of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou.

Arteta has been heavily criticised by many quarters for his comments about the refereeing in Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle United, whilst Postecoglou has largely received praise in the wake of Spurs’ match against Chelsea.

In many ways, that’s surprising, because Spurs weren’t good enough tactically, they were incredibly ill-disciplined, and they lost the match badly due to their own errors.

By contrast, Arsenal arguably deserved a draw, and Arteta had every right to feel aggrieved that the big decisions had gone against his team.

Spurs actually benefitted from the refereeing on the day, as both Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie should have been sent off earlier than they eventually were.

Yet Postecoglou still received a yellow card for his touchline conduct during the game.

Instead of digging into that, the media have been asking Arteta about his own touchline behaviour. In his pre-Sevilla press conference, the Arsenal boss had the perfect response.

“There is the answer, your colleague has mentioned how emotional I was after the game, and how I acted on the touchline,” Arteta began.

“I didn’t get a yellow, I didn’t get a warning from the referee. I stayed focused on the game, trying to affect the game in the best possible way for my players, that’s it.”

The comments could be interpreted as a subtle dig at those singing Postecoglou’s praises, despite the Spurs boss being the only one who was actually disciplined by the referee this week.

Arteta, meanwhile, didn’t receive a yellow card, and is reportedly set to avoid a retrospective charge because the FA can’t find any rules he’s broken. Funny how that works.