Arsenal: Ex-Premier League Referee on Why Arteta 'Overstepped the Mark' vs Everton

· GiveMeSport

Former Premier League referee Graham Barber has had his say on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta after he was booked against Everton.

Whilst many around the Emirates were celebrating a comfortable 2-0 victory over Everton on Saturday, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was left frustrated by his booking.

The Gunners raced into a 1-0 lead courtesy of summer signing Ezri Konsa in the seventh minute and that set the tone for what was to come.

Having completed most of their good work from open play so far this season in contrast to the previous year, Arsenal unlocked their old strength to seal the points, allowing Gabriel to find his first goal of the campaign in the process.

Now level on points with Manchester City and only second on goal difference, the champions have set up another frantic title race.

That was not the focus of Arteta's attention at full-time, however. Instead, the Arsenal boss focused on the yellow card that he received in the 63rd-minute.

It is a continuous accusation among Premier League rivals that Arteta likes to step outside of his technical area, and those same rivals will have been pleased to see it punished against Everton. Caught outside of his area, the Arsenal manager received a yellow card for his troubles from referee Tony Harrington.

The Spaniard had his say at full-time, claiming that there are many managers who step out of their technical area far more often than he does in North London.

He told reporters :

> “I’m going to put sensors there. There are managers that have the record in the league, 36 times in 10 minutes leaving the touchline, no yellows. > > "So I'm clipping all of that. I have a massive storage of images. So if somebody is going to say [anything], I'm not the record yet, somebody else has the record. Then it's 36 yellow cards in 10 minutes for the manager. I don't know where we're going to be."

Whether a Premier League manager has actually found the time to take such notes remains to be seen, but not everyone was impressed by the incident.

Whilst Arteta was preparing to reveal his dossier of technical area encroachments, former Premier League referee Graham Barber was having his say on the incident.

Barber officiated 169 Premier League games during his career and claimed that Arteta will come round to the idea that he overstepped the mark against Everton.

> "I've been a fourth official, 20 years ago, and it was a real, real problem then and we had Jose Mourinho running up the line! It just highlights one thing and Mikel will look at that and he will understand that perhaps he's overstepped the mark, but I think he's very right in saying that he's not the only one."

Barber shared some sympathy with the Arsenal boss, backing him up by agreeing that he's not the only manager who spends time outside of his technical area. Ultimately, though, it was Arteta who was caught and subsequently booked against Everton.

Up next, he will watch his side travel to face Fleetwood Town in the Carabao Cup, where he will hope to avoid another booking and witness another victory for the Gunners.

Arsenal turned to their defenders at both ends of the pitch against Everton, and the centre-back pairing stepped up to the plate.

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