Mikel Arteta has suggested he’s compiling footage of other Premier League managers after being targeted by the media and officials for leaving his technical area.
Mikel Arteta received a booking for leaving his technical area during Arsenal’s win over Everton on Saturday, but the Gunners boss suggested afterwards that he’s far from the only one to do it.
According to Arteta, some Premier League managers leave the technical area as often as 36 times in the space of 10 minutes, and he’s putting together a compilation of the offences.
“I do have to be careful, put sensors there [on the edge of the technical area]!” Arteta said. “There are managers that have the record in the league, 36 times in 10 minutes they leave the touchline, no yellows.
“I’m clipping all of that, I have a massive storage of images, I don’t have the record yet.
“Let’s see – then it’s 36 yellow cards in 10 minutes for managers, where are we going to be then? Let’s see.”
There’s been a bit of an unfair focus on Arteta leaving his technical area during recent weeks and months, considering it’s such a common thing throughout the Premier League.
As one of the division’s top teams and current champions, perhaps it’s to be expected that Arsenal would be the team the league use to make an example for the other managers. But that’s hardly fair on the Gunners, giving them a different rulebook to the rest of the league.
The occasional yellow card here or there shouldn’t do too much to Arsenal’s Premier League title chances. But if it starts leading to suspensions, and the Gunners have to play matches without their manager for the same offence that’s going unpunished elsewhere, then that’s a problem.
With any luck, Arteta bringing his compilation of images to the Premier League will lead to a fairer application of the punishment across all 20 teams.
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