Ex-Newcastle United Boss Slams Arteta For Post-Match Comments

By The Editor
on 4th November 2024

Alan Pardew has a bone to pick with Arteta…

Former Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has slammed Mikel Arteta for his post-match comments after the Gunners’ defeat at St James’s Park, talkSPORT reports.

Arteta summed up the defeat in his unique way and stated that we were dragged into the hosts’ game and weren’t good enough to get out of that and implement our own.

While those comments may seem rather usual, it certainly doesn’t take much for Arteta to rile up opposing managers and sections of the British press.

Eddie Howe chuckled and bristled when reporters regurgitated Arteta’s comments to him in his post-match press conference and it seems Pardew was equally offended.

Pardew sensed a hint of elitism in Arteta’s comments which triggered his traumas as a Premier League boss.

“I was really upset with Mikel Arteta because, sometimes, he antagonises the media and antagonises the opposition,” Pardew said.

“He came out with a line of ‘We were dragged into a game they wanted to play’.

“I have had that as a manager before. You have beaten a top team and, suddenly, they are questioning your style and the way you have gone about the victory. There’s not a cast-iron beautiful way to win a game of football.

“You just need to win. Sometimes you don’t have to play a beautiful game to win it. You just have to be effective in what you do and the pressing and organisation from Newcastle was absolutely spot on. Arsenal had only one shot on target. That is what Mikel Arteta should really question – not the opposition,” he added.

It really is amazing how far these commentators need to stretch and speculate to find something to be angry at Arteta about. What’s so wrong about him speaking about the opposition when asked to summarise the game?

Arteta didn’t even demonise Howe’s style of play. The mere mentioning of Newcastle’s game plan has set them off.

The Spaniard constantly stressed that we weren’t good enough to impose our style on the game following Aleksandr Isak’s opener in the first half.

What more do they want?