Mikel Arteta says he was “pretty strong” in his criticism of refereeing
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says Premier League officiating has improved since his “strong” criticism of video assistant refereeing.
In November, he said the VAR decision to allow Newcastle’s goal in their 1-0 Premier League win over Arsenal was “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”.
The Football Association charged Arteta with misconduct for his comments but he was cleared in December.
Arteta says an improvement in decision-making was “what we all wanted”.
He added: “I think the last stats that came across show that there was a significant improvement and a lot of the decisions they were getting right, so hopefully that is the case and we continue to do that.
“I talked the way I felt. I was very straight and I did it in a way that was pretty strong but within the law.”
A Key Match Incident Panel, which includes ex-players and is independent from the Professional Games Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), said in February that VAR was positively impacting decisions in the Premier League this season.
The panel found that VAR had made 57 ‘correct’ interventions, 24 of which that would have otherwise been left as wrong decisions, and that 20 errors had been made, 17 of which where VAR should have got involved.
Arsenal host Newcastle at Emirates Stadium on Saturday (20:00 GMT), in the reverse fixture of their defeat at St James’ Park in November.
With Liverpool playing Chelsea in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, third-placed Arsenal have the chance to close the gap on Jurgen Klopp’s side to two points with victory against Newcastle.
“We are in a really good position and where we want to be,” he said. “We can be better but the most important thing is that we continue at this level. We are going to give it a real go.”
Thomas Partey and Gabriel Jesus are in contention to face Eddie Howe’s side but the injured Takehiro Tomiyasu remains sidelined.
