‘Managers, CEOs, Presidents’—Mikel Arteta Takes Aim at Arsenal Critics

The Spaniard explained his selection decisions against Manchester City in frosty terms.

Mikel Arteta was unimpressed with the response to Arsenal’s 1–1 draw with Man City. / Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta took on all comers with a fierce defence of his team’s display against Manchester City last weekend, insisting that while fans may have been unimpressed, managers, CEOs and presidents from around the footballing world had a rather different message.

The Gunners battled out a 1–1 draw with City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, securing a precious point thanks to Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time lob. Arsenal had fallen behind to Erling Haaland’s ninth-minute opener and struggled to carve open any chances of note against a curiously defensive Pep Guardiola rearguard.

Arteta was lambasted for his starting XI—particularly a midfield three made up of the cautious trio of Mikel Merino, Martín Zubimendi and Declan Rice—and generally accused of playing with “the handbrake on” by disgruntled supporters online.

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The Spanish boss had a very different reaction—one which was supposedly shared by several other figures in football. “I heard a lot of things using my phone, they could not believe what we did to Manchester City,” Arteta boasted. “People who are coaches, managers, CEOs, presidents.”

Arsenal limited City to just 33% possession, the lowest figure ever recorded by a Guardiola team, which Arteta seemingly took as an example of his side’s perceived dominance.

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Arteta: Dominance and Handbreak Two Different Words

Mikel Arteta (left) and his former mentor Pep Guardiola (right) went to battle last weekend. / Carl Recine/Getty Images

“I don’t read it [the reaction], but I do get told a little bit what the narrative is around it,” Arteta told assembled media ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Port Vale. “If you tell me that this [negativity] is the main one, if I’m surprised, I will be extremely surprised. With my knowledge and my know-how, and how I analyse a football game, it was impossible for anybody to predict such a dominance from Arsenal throughout 96 minutes because it never happened in 17 years of Pep [Guardiola] as a manager.

“So if the narrative goes somewhere else and we talk about dominance, about something else, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have a handbrake? Dominance and handbrake are two different words, but I accept everything. I will learn more to have a different vision,” he sarcastically concluded.

Arteta also turned his ire on those questioning his selection decisions. “I don’t think that one player makes that,” he snapped. “When you see the behaviour of our team, if you’re going to define that with one player playing one position, I understand a collective sport in a completely different way.

“Then we played Ebz [Eberechi Eze] on the right-hand side. Could he play 90 minutes? That’s a question I put to myself because none of you know the load that he can do. So it’s easy to say he could have played with the start, maybe not, because he already played two games from the start and he’s never played as a right attacking midfielder.”

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