Mikel Arteta was cleared by the Football Association following his misconduct charge (Picture: Hayters TV)
Mikel Arteta insists it’s not the responsibility of players to be more honest after Joe Willock inadvertently played a part in ensuring the Arsenal manager escaped a misconduct charge.
The Spaniard labelled the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s goal to stand in a 1-0 Premier League defeat at Newcastle on November 4 as ’embarrassing’ and a “disgrace”.
Arteta was later charged by the FA for breaking Rule E3.1 – which could have resulted in a ban but has instead been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The Gunner’s boss was, however, exonerated of any wrongdoing and in defence of their manager, Arsenal cited the fact that Joe Willock, a Hale End Academy graduate, felt the ball had gone out of play in the build-up to Gordon’s matchwinning strike.
Willock told his former teammates as much and when that information was relayed to Arteta it only served to heighten his frustration having watched his team slide to a contentious defeat.
Anthony Gordon’s goal against Arsenal sparked a furious outburst from Mikel Arteta (Picture: Getty)
Asked if Willock should have been more honest at the time of the incident Arteta, speaking ahead of Sunday’s game against Brighton, said: ‘The players have a lot of things they have to do – let’s not put more on their plates’
Asked if anything positive could come following the arduous disciplinary process he has been through, Arteta added: ‘It has to be. It was a really good process and gave the opportunity for them to explain how they felt, myself how I felt as well and the reasons behind it.
‘Okay, the outcome is that I’m not charged, but I think we have to draw a line and look for how we can be much more constructive and learn from it and move forward. That’s it. It was good.
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‘I felt a lot of sympathy to be fair once I explained how sometimes as managers, with the pressure that we’re under and how important details are for our job, because I love what I do so much and I want to continue doing it, but the reality last year was that 14 managers lost their jobs, which is incredible.
‘We depend on results, that’s it. When the outcome at the end is that important, I’m really emotional about.
‘Now no-one remembers what happens three weeks ago when you lost a game, you lost another one because of a different reason. I think it was a really good process.’
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