Mikel Arteta Says 'Strong Criticism' Has Led to Improved Match Officiating in The Premier League

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May 8, 2023
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said 'strong criticism' has led to improved match officiating in the Premier League.

Mikel Arteta came under heavy backlash back in November when he branded the officiating in Arsenal's 1-0 Premier League loss to Newcastle United as a 'disgrace' and 'embarrassing.'

He was charged by the FA for the wording of his post-match press conference outburst but was cleared.

Reflecting on the standards of officiating and data from the stats on VAR errors, Mikel Arteta said officiating has improved since then.

He also addressed his strongly-worded criticism after the Newcastle loss, saying he reacted as he felt and did so in a pretty strong way but within the ambits of the law.

"I think the last stats that came across show that there was a significant improvement and a lot of the decisions they were getting right, so hopefully that is the case and we continue to do that.

"I talked the way I felt. I was very straight and I did it in a way that was pretty strong but within the law."

Mikel Arteta's positive comment on the refereeing and match officiating since November is not baseless.

According to BBC, a report by an independent body Key Match Incident Panel which is different from the PGMOL [referees administrative body] has shown that the number of VAR has made limited errors with more correct decisions than before.

As per the report, 57 correct decisions has been made by VAR with 24 of them said to have would have passed as wrong decisions by match officials if not for the intervention of the VAR. Overall, 20 errors have been made with VAR only contributing to 3 while 17 have been human errors.

Mikel Arteta's post-match outburst after the VAR blunder that led to the Newcastle winners against the Gunners was not the only VAR error that raised eyebrows in the Premier League.

Luis Diaz's goal for Liverpool against Tottenham Hotspur early in the season was another costly VAR error that called for concern.