Erling Haaland has revived the debate around his ‘stay humble’ comment to Mikel Arteta, but only to admit that Arsenal’s response was “fair enough”.
Erling Haaland made some headlines after Arsenal’s 2-2 draw away to Manchester City in the 2024/25 campaign, as he was caught on camera telling Mikel Arteta to “stay humble”, throwing a ball at Gabriel Magalhaes’ head and asking Myles Lewis-Skelly who he was.
The comments didn’t go down well with the Arsenal fans, nor with Gabriel and Lewis-Skelly themselves.
As the Gunners took on Manchester City again later in the season, Gabriel could be seen celebrating in Haaland’s direction immediately following the goals, and Lewis-Skelly performed Haaland’s signature celebration after scoring himself. The match ended 5-1 to Arsenal.
With plenty of time to reflect on the exchanges, Haaland has now admitted the response was justified.
“They won the game 5-1. So yeah, they got me,” Haaland admitted. “If he (Lewis-Skelly) wanted to use that moment to mock me, that’s fair enough for him. Whatever he wants to do, he can do.
“I think [‘stay humble’ is] an important phrase, which a lot of people should use, including myself. It’s one of the most important things, as individuals, to do.”
The fans understandably focused on the ‘stay humble’ comment to Arteta, singing about it in the stands and posting about it endlessly online.
But it’s worth remembering that Gabriel and Lewis-Skelly’s response was more about the personal insults they felt they’d received from Haaland. If it had been William Saliba or Declan Rice acting in the same way towards the striker, it would have felt a bit over the top and unprovoked.
Yet in reality, in those two cases, the two players were just responding in kind to the way Haaland had treated them. As the centre-forward himself admits, it’s hard to complain too much about that.