{"id":641445,"date":"2026-04-30T22:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641445\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:11:08","slug":"arteta-will-seek-to-use-perceived-injustices-as-arsenal-fuel-after-atletico-anger-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641445\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta will seek to use perceived injustices as Arsenal fuel after Atl\u00e9tico anger | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta has felt the walls closing in on the domestic front in recent weeks. And it was surely a part of the reason why the Arsenal manager went on the offensive about refereeing decisions<\/a> after his team\u2019s Premier League win over Newcastle on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arteta insisted that the Newcastle goalkeeper, Nick Pope, ought to have been sent off rather than booked for a foul on Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, which he argued represented the denial of a goalscoring opportunity. And, while he was at it, Arteta went back to the previous league game \u2013 the 2-1 defeat at Manchester City<\/a> \u2013 and made a similar point: he believed the City defender Abdukodir Khusanov should have been dismissed for a last-man foul on Kai Havertz.<\/p>\n

Is Arteta feeling the pressure? Absolutely, because it is white-hot with Arsenal<\/a> so close to a first league title since 2004. Also, there is just the way that Arteta lives each match \u2013 total immersion, off-the-scale intensity. When he feels wronged or if things do not work out, he can struggle to keep a lid on it.<\/p>\n

There was an ulterior motive. By highlighting perceived injustice, Arteta was seeking to gain an edge. When the next borderline decision came, maybe Arsenal might find themselves on the right side of it. Perhaps it will be the case when they play Fulham at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. But it most assuredly was not that way in Wednesday\u2019s Champions League semi-final first leg at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Arsenal headed home to London on Thursday morning, the overriding emotions were frustration and bewilderment. It still made no sense. How did the referee, Danny Makkelie, reverse his 78th-minute decision to give the Gunners a penalty for a David Hancko foul on Eberechi Eze?<\/p>\n

With the score at 1-1, it looked a soft one in the heat of the moment, Eze getting to a pass from Bukayo Saka just before Hancko, kicking the ball away but, crucially, feeling a tread from his opponent on his right foot and going down. The contact was there and so when Makkelie gave the penalty, it was always going to be a tough one for him to go back on when he was advised by the video assistant referee to check the replays.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideRice claims referee bowed to fan pressureShow<\/p>\n

Declan Rice has claimed Arsenal should have been awarded a \u201cclear\u201d penalty at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and that the referee was \u201cprovoked\u201d to change his mind by hostile home fans.<\/p>\n

Danny Makkelie overturned his decision to award Arsenal a late spot-kick after David Hancko made contact with Eberechi Eze.\u00a0Against the backdrop of 70,000 whistling Atl\u00e9tico fans, the Dutch referee watched the incident 13 times before reversing his on-pitch verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a clear penalty,” Rice told Stan Sport. “And I don\u2019t know how that\u2019s not been given. I think the fans provoked the decision and changed the ref\u2019s mind. Uefa is totally different [to the Premier League]. In both boxes, you have to be so careful because they give absolutely everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two VAR interventions worked against Arsenal, with Ben White adjudged to have handled Marcos Llorente\u2019s volley to concede the penalty from which Juli\u00e1n Alvarez equalised.<\/p>\n

Rice said: \u201cAt first glance I thought if that\u2019s in the Premier League it doesn\u2019t get given because it\u2019s so low to the ground. The ball\u2019s not going on target.\u201d PA Media<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

The only way Makkelie could do so would be to say that the contact was insufficient to send Eze tumbling over. Or, to put it another way, the Arsenal player had dived. Well, that is what happened. According to Uefa and its VAR technical explanation bulletin, the \u201cAtleti player, No 17 [Hancko], did not commit a foul on the opponent\u201d.<\/p>\n

After Makkelie\u2019s revised decision, the Atl\u00e9tico manager Diego Simeone<\/a> waved an imaginary card in the air, presumably wanting a yellow for Eze, and the episode has left a bitter taste for Arteta. Most impartial onlookers felt that Pope\u2019s offence for Newcastle did not merit a red card and that Khusanov defended his position fairly against Havertz. But if those decisions were enough to stir the paranoia in Arteta, then what about this one? Because it was illogical. And as for the kicker in terms of Eze\u2019s integrity \u2026<\/p>\n

A penalty initially awarded after David Hancko stepped on Eberechi Eze\u2019s foot was overturned after VAR intervened. Photograph: \u00c1ngel Mart\u00ednez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It feels as if Arteta is in siege mentality mode, ripe to be nibbled at by his rivals. Some of Simeone\u2019s comments after the first leg \u2013 which finished 1-1 \u2013 appeared to be loaded. \u201cWe saw a bit the tiredness that Arsenal have accumulated from so many games, from so much responsibility, from trying to win the Premier League, where they are top,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have to win the Champions League; they have won 10 games [in the competition], had no defeats, so all that accumulates \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Simeone was critical of Makkelie\u2019s decision to award the first penalty of the game for a foul by Hancko on Gy\u00f6keres. The Arsenal striker converted for 1-0. Atl\u00e9tico were then themselves given a penalty, scored by Juli\u00e1n Alvarez, after the VAR advised that Marcos Llorente\u2019s shot had hit Ben White\u2019s outstretched hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first penalty, in my humble opinion, there is a contact on the back, he [Gy\u00f6keres] waits for the contact, throws himself \u2026\u201d Simeone said. \u201cIn the semi-final of the Champions League, it needs to be a penalty. Thanks to VAR there was a handball that wasn\u2019t [given] and thanks to VAR, there\u2019s a penalty not given. Sometimes VAR takes from you, sometimes it gives to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Arteta must do as he looks to Tuesday\u2019s second leg is use the feeling that Arsenal are being persecuted as fuel. He also needs to devise a gameplan that can better cut through Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s lines. In the final analysis from Wednesday, the biggest positive for the visitors came in how they took control of the ball and the tempo after a difficult opening 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u2019s fans saw their side press more effectively in the second half. Photograph: Kieran McManus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

They were the better team from that point to half-time. But what did they create of clearcut note? There were a couple of eye-catching surges from Noni Madueke and a chance for Martin \u00d8degaard on the counterattack. Plus the Gy\u00f6keres penalty. There was little from them in the second half apart from the Eze penalty that wasn\u2019t. Atl\u00e9tico turned the tide, pressing more effectively, and might have scored more than once. Ademola Lookman missed two big chances and Antoine Griezmann hit the crossbar and might have done better with two other openings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted the win,\u201d the Atl\u00e9tico goalkeeper, Jan Oblak, said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get it but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that we played well. Arsenal didn\u2019t have space, they hardly created chances and we did have them. We leave with a good feeling. What matters is that we feel positive looking ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arteta will hope to have Eze and Saka available from the start for the return and maybe Havertz back from injury. Those players would make a difference. Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s Alvarez, meanwhile, must shrug off the problem that forced him to go off in the 77th minute. The last word for now went to Llorente and it was difficult to disagree with him. \u201cIt is two teams with very clear ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be another war.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta has felt the walls closing in on the domestic front in recent weeks. And it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-641445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}