The mighty Mikel Arteta must check his facts with VAR or risk causing even more chaos

You may not like Mikel Arteta, but I’m not sure he cares. George Graham may be the manager who left Millwall to lead Arsenal to great success in the 1980s and 1990s, but it is the current Gunners boss who has really taken The Den’s famous mantra to heart.

With his candid, sometimes disgustingly brutal comments on the level of performance following Arsenal’s defeat at Newcastle, the Spaniard reiterated the ‘us against the world’ attitude that has served him so well since his move to the Emirates.

With their clear show of support for their coach, Arsenal then showed that they fully support Arteta and are not concerned about the consequences.

But does Arteta really believe that the problems surrounding refereeing and the use of VAR in the Premier League are worse than in his home country of Spain, where Rafa Benitez (pictured) threatened that a follow-up to his infamous ‘facts’ rant would be worthwhile? his club Celta Vigo? was above? End of a tough weekend last weekend?

After Celta were awarded a final penalty – which was then upheld by VAR – Benitez invoked Newton’s laws of motion to question how much force is needed to drop a player and suggested (seriously, we think ) that NASA should provide a physicist to the VAR space to advise on future matters.

Celta captain Iago Aspas opted for the more rudimentary gesture of angrily throwing the VAR monitor onto the pitch floor, which must have cost a few Newtons. Let’s hope Arteta doesn’t have any ideas.

As much as the Arsenal manager believes his own exaggerated claims about the standards of refereeing in England, he is convinced that the best way to defend his club’s position (and perhaps get them on the right side) is to ensure future to avoid doubts), is to come out and fight.

Calling matchday refereeing shameful and embarrassing when the same group of men will be overseeing Arsenal’s title challenge – starting with the visit of Burnley tomorrow – seems like a bold move, but it could work.

It’s a sharp approach that stands in stark but not unreasonable contrast to neighbor Ange Postecoglou, who, when pressed for a response to Tottenham having two players sent off and a penalty conceded in their defeat to Chelsea, said: simply complaining that the VAR check resulted in ‘too much standing’.

Spurs fans may use this to draw a line (red or green, we don’t know) between Postecoglou and Arteta, but in all likelihood the Australian has simply realized that he has gone from a virtual unknown to a manager who you would most like to see. would like to have’. He is going home in three months to meet his mother and considers this happy place as the best position to further the cause of his own club. Arteta, who was never interested in the neutral vote from the start, has no more friends to lose.

But both approaches can be destructive, as Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino – who has more experience of London derbies than most coaches – seemed to suggest after Monday’s chaotic clash.

Approach every micro or macro decision with tension, from throw-ins to systemic VAR errors, and endless delays ensue. Postecoglou and every armchair viewer with a bed to go to continued to whine on Monday night.

Laconically urging officials to speed things up creates the garbled, rushed, confused mess that led to Liverpool’s goal being wrongly disallowed at Spurs in September.

Complaints about the quality of refereeing – such as Arsenal’s goalkeeping and Cristian Romero’s tackles – are nothing new, but elevating them to the level of national injustice does no one any favours. It’s time to lower the temperature before more TV monitors are damaged.