Mikel Arteta was caught in a ludicrous incident in Arsenal v Aston Villa [Credit: Sky Sports Premier League]
Mikel Arteta was caught in a ludicrous incident in Arsenal v Aston Villa [Credit: Sky Sports Premier League]

Mikel Arteta Exclusive: 'Ludicrous' footage in Arsenal v Aston Villa emerges

Keith Hackett

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

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Mikel Arteta's actions in the Aston Villa draw against Arsenal were "frankly ludicrous", Keith Hackett has said.

The Gunners manager was booked after complaints towards the fourth official in the 2-2 against Villa at The Emirates Stadium on 18 January.

Hackett hit back, insisting that Arteta needs to control himself with yet more disrespect shown towards the officials over a simple matter.

Speaking exclusively to Villa News, the ex-PGMOL chief raged after the incident where Arteta was correctly punished for his actions.

"He left the technical area and was both verbally having a go and animated in his dismissive gestures towards the assistant on a throw-in decision," Hackett said.

"Frankly ludicrous and a showing of disrespect towards the match officials.

Mikel Arteta in ludicrous Arsenal incident v Aston Villa

"Referees and players make mistakes and this manager needs to start to demonstrate some self-control."

Unai Emery
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery [Credit: Imago]

Unai Emery was also guilty of a booking in the high-intensity draw, picking himself up a touchline ban in the process for kicking the ball away.

This is not the first incident with Arteta either, with the pressure clearly getting to him.

Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz scored the opening goals, but Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins fired back to pick up a battled point on the road.

With Champions League football set to return, injuries have started to take their toll on Aston Villa, but Emery has somewhat kept his cool throughout.

For Arteta, he seems to have some sort of complaint every week.

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