'The don at the moment': Jamie Carragher makes big claim on Arsenal man after 2-0 win vs Sunderland
Liverpool legend-turned-pundit Jamie Carragher has described Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta as a don following his comments after the 2-0 Premier League win at Sunderland.
The Gunners continued their perfect start to the season with a hard-fought victory at the Stadium of Light. Things could have been different if Sunderland had converted their penalty.
The Black Cats were awarded a spot-kick after Ezri Konsa was adjudged to have fouled Dan Ballard by holding onto his shirt, but replays clearly showed that was not the case.
Ballard was instead performing a Judo roll on the Arsenal centre-back. The 26-year-old grabbed Konsa’s shirt by the left arm to pull him to the ground, which VAR surprisingly didn’t spot.
David Raya went on to make a world-class save to deny Enzo Le Fee before Bruno Guimaraes scored a sublime goal two minutes later. Bukayo Saka netted a penalty in the final seconds.
On another night, it could have been a 1-1 draw for the Gunners. Arteta made sure to point out the referee’s error on multiple occasions during his post-match comments on Saturday.
Speaking on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports, Carragher said that Arteta is becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League and believes he is ‘the don at the moment’.
The former Liverpool star added that the Spaniard is in a position of power to say that it was not a penalty, and he was determined to put the point out like Ferguson in the past.
He said: “This was Mikel Arteta becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League right now. He’s the don at the moment; he’s the Premier League champion.
“A lot of new managers about… he’s been in his role for six or seven years, and he feels he’s in a position of power to say, ‘Yeah, it wasn’t a penalty’. And I don’t think it was a penalty.
“But it’d be interesting to see how long it takes for another referee to give a penalty against Arsenal in a similar situation.
“I thought it was very interesting in the press conference; one of the journalists made a point about, no matter what question you asked him, he kept going back to the penalty, so he was determined to get the narrative out that this won’t happen again to his club.
“But that’s a manager – we’ve seen it with Sir Alex Ferguson, we’ve seen it with Jose Mourinho.”
Arsenal have had multiple decisions go against them early in the season. They should have clearly had a penalty against Aston Villa at Villa Park last month.
Similarly, the Sunderland penalty was another dismal refereeing decision. On both occasions, the Gunners came on top with 1-0 and 2-0 wins, respectively.
Still, Arteta is right to question the standard of refereeing in the Premier League this term. On Sunday, we saw Manchester City benefit from a poor VAR decision.
The Cityzens won the game by a 1-0 scoreline after a controversial Erling Haaland goal. Enzo Fernandez clearly influenced play from an offside position in the build-up, but VAR ignored it.
Pro Ref have released a statement to apologise to United for the error, but it won’t make a difference as Enzo Maresca’s side have been handed two points more due to the solitary goal.
Arsenal only need to focus on themselves and their league title defence, but will hope the VAR does its job better in the forthcoming matches, without any questionable decisions.
The Gunners start their Carabao Cup campaign against Ipswich Town in the third round tonight. We believe Arteta could make as many as nine changes from the Sunderland trip.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com
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