Mikel Arteta responds to Joe Willock’s admission that Newcastle’s goal should not have counted.
Mikel Arteta feels it is not the job of players to be more honest after Joe Willock unintentionally helped the Arsenal manager avoid a misconduct charge.
The Spaniard called the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s goal in Newcastle’s 1-0 Premier League defeat on November 4 “embarrassing” and a “disgrace.”
The FA eventually charged Arteta for violating FA Rule E3.1, which might have led in a ban, but he was exonerated of any wrongdoing.
However, the Gunners’ manager was cleared of any wrongdoing, and Arsenal defended their management by citing the fact that Joe Willock, a Hale End Academy alumnus, felt the ball had gone out of play in the build-up to Gordon’s match-winning strike.
Willock told his former teammates as much, and when that information was passed to Arteta, it only served to exacerbate his angst at having witnessed his side slip to a bruising defeat.
When asked if Willock should have been more forthcoming at the time of the incident, ‘The players have a lot of things they have to accomplish – let’s not put more on their plates,’ Arteta remarked ahead of the game against Brighton on Sunday.
When asked if anything beneficial might come from his rigorous disciplinary procedure, Arteta replied, ‘It has to be. It was a pretty fantastic procedure that allowed them to describe how they felt, how I felt, and why.
‘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 productive and learn from it and move forward. That’s all. It was excellent.
Mikel Arteta responds to Joe Willock’s admission that Newcastle’s goal should not have counted.
‘To be fair, I felt a lot of sympathy once I explained how sometimes as managers, with the pressure we’re under and how important details are for our job, because I love what I do so much and want to keep doing it, but the reality last year was that 14 managers lost their jobs, which is incredible.
‘We rely on outcomes, that’s all. When the end result is that crucial, I get quite emotional.
‘No one recalls what happened three weeks ago when you lost a game, and you lost another one for a different reason. I thought it was a very wonderful procedure.’
