Jamie Carragher has branded Mikel Arteta ‘the Sir Alex Ferguson’ of the modern Premier League era after the Arsenal boss described the penalty given against his side as ‘not acceptable’.
The Gunners might have maintained their perfect start to the season with a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Sunderland on Saturday night, but the Spaniard was left furious by the penalty decision that went against his team.
A dramatic second-half saw referee John Brooks point to the spot when Dan Ballard was brought down by Ezri Konsa, and David Raya parried Enzo Le Fee’s subsequent effort onto the left post. But that didn’t stop Arteta from fuming about the decision in his post-match press conference.
Former United boss Ferguson would always make his feelings known on decisions that went against his side during his time in charge at Old Trafford, and Carragher, speaking on Monday Night Football (via Mirror), believes Arteta came across in the same way as the Scot once did. He said: “This was Mikel Arteta becoming the Alex Ferguson of the Premier League right now.
“He’s the ‘Don’ at the moment and the Premier League champion. There are a lot of new managers about, he’s been in his role for six or seven years and he feels he is in a position of power to say it wasn’t a penalty and I don’t think it was a penalty.
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“But it will be interesting to see how long it takes for another referee to give a penalty against Arsenal in a similar situation.
“But 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.
“He was determined to get the narrative out that this won’t happen again to his club, but listen that is management. We have seen it with Alex Ferguson, with Jose Mourinho.”
Agreeing with Carragher, former Luton Town and Wolves boss Rob Edwards said: “I think Jamie is right, he is putting himself in a position where he is looking after his team and football club and people will listen to a Premier League winning manager. They will listen as he is a powerful voice there.”
