Mikel Arteta made a huge mistake that not even Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson would have made after Arsenal dropped crucial points in the Premier League title race.
That is according to BT Sport pundit Chris Sutton, who believes Gunners boss Arteta might have been “emotional” when he made his remarks about Arsenal.
Arsenal still lead Manchester City in a nail-biting title race and hold a four-point lead at the top of the table, though Pep Guardiola’s men have a match in hand.
However, the Gunners have dropped points in recent weeks after blowing a 2-0 lead against Liverpool at Anfield, with Jurgen Klopp’s men rescuing a point at home.
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And Arsenal then went on to pick up a second 2-2 draw against West Ham at the London Stadium, despite taking a 2-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes.
The Gunners will be hopeful of bouncing back at the Emirates on Saturday against Southampton before travelling to City for their huge clash on 26th April.
Sutton claimed that Arteta made an error by suggesting that Arsenal looked “too comfortable” after Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard scored against West Ham.
He added that the 41-year-old Spaniard should have taken a page out of Ferguson’s playbook and deflected the damage away from Arsenal.
“Arsenal’s players will have felt sick going into the dressing room at London Stadium at full-time last Sunday and dropping points like that is a very different feeling to when you draw after trailing 2-0,” he told BBC Sport.
“I don’t think Gunners boss Mikel Arteta got it right when he said afterwards that his side looked ‘too comfortable’ when they went ahead early on against the Hammers.
“He might just have been emotional at the result but he seemed to be questioning his players’ mentality and I don’t think we ever saw Sir Alex Ferguson doing that at United -- he would have blamed the referee, or anything, instead.
“Maybe the pressure is getting to Arteta too, but his side need to start dominating games again, or at least controlling them -- starting with this one.”
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Topics: Mikel Arteta, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsenal, Premier League, England, Football
Adnan Riaz