Mikel Arteta admitted that he was ‘animated’ with referee Chris Kavanagh and his assistants after Arsenal lost to Aston Villa, but it’s now emerged that the Spaniard was completely ignored at full-time.
Footage has appeared which shows Arteta heading to Kavanagh after the final whistle blew, seeking clarification for a couple of controversial decisions that went against the Gunners.
Lip-reading the clip clearly shows that the Arsenal boss marched up to Kavanagh and Co. before stating “I am talking to you with respect” – which has also been confirmed by ESPN.
Before Arteta could even make his case on the decisions, Kavanagh pointed the Spaniard away in a fairly harsh moment. Arteta was about as angry as we’ve ever seen him, but clearly wasn’t rude with his talk.
Arteta refused to comment on what was said in the conversation in the post-match press conference, after looking at the footage, it appears the Spaniard wasn’t even told anything to be ‘on mute’ about.
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A clip of the moment can be seen below:
Pictures from BT Sport.
Arsenal were on the wrong end of two game-changing calls; one being the fact that Ezri Konsa escaped a red card despite being the last man as he brought down Bukayo Saka and the other being a penalty shout from Alexandre Lacazette in an incident involving former long-serving Gunner Emi Martinez.
Lacazette even reacted to the moment after the match, with the help of Nicolas Pepe. It appears as though the Gunners stars are now sick of being punished by apparent poor refereeing.
A compilation of decisions that have gone against Mikel Arteta’s side recently emerged after the sending off of David Luiz in the defeat to Wolves, with the Brazilian also seeing an appeal questionably rejected.
From a neutral perspective, it does appear that the Gunners have found themselves punished by a few decisions, though these can’t be used as the sole excuses and way to detract attention from an inconsistent team.