Ex-referee claims Arteta left technical area 44 times before Everton booking
Mikel Arteta's claim that he is building a dossier on rival managers' touchline habits has been met with a pointed response from former Premier League referee Graham Scott, who says the Arsenal boss left his own technical area 44 times before picking up his second yellow card of the season.
Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, but the post match talking point centred on Arteta's comments about touchline discipline across the league. Having been booked during the win over David Moyes' side, Arteta now faces a one match touchline ban if he is shown another yellow card this season.
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Speaking after the match, Arteta said he was compiling footage of other managers repeatedly leaving their technical areas without punishment. “I do have to be careful, yeah. I’m going to put sensors there!” he said. “There are other managers (doing it), there are managers that have the record in the league: 36 times in 10 minutes they leave the touchline, no yellows. So I am clipping all of that so I have a massive storage of images so if somebody comes to me (I can say) I’m not in the record yet, somebody else has the record.”
Scott hits back at Arteta
Scott, speaking to talkSPORT, was unimpressed with Arteta's remarks and said he had gone back and watched the Everton game himself. “He's got a bit of cheek if I am honest,” he said. “I watched the Everton game back, and he left his technical area 44 times before his yellow card. Those are separate occasions of him going back in and back out. Whenever Everton had the ball anywhere near him, it was like he was part of the press.”
Scott added that referees had tried to manage the situation during the match itself. “The fourth official kept warning him, and he didn't respond. If anything, the yellow card has come much too late, so I hope if he actually has someone clipping managers, they add him in and see where he is in the league table because I will be amazed if he's not top of it due to the sheer number of times he leaves that box.”
Some sympathy over the technical area slope
Despite his criticism, Scott did offer Arteta a degree of understanding over the physical layout of the Emirates technical area. “The one tiny bit of sympathy I have is that there is quite a big slope on that technical area, and if you are not right at the top of it, you are going to physically fall backwards,” he explained.
He contrasted this with Everton boss Moyes' positioning on the touchline. “If you watch the other box, David Moyes is always right on the line, and he is always right out there. But the line is there for a reason. If we aren't going to have a technical area, then get rid of the lines and let them do what they want.”
Arteta will now have to be mindful of his touchline conduct for the remainder of the season, with a one match ban looming should he be booked again.
