Joe Cole slammed the Arsenal board for coming out and publicly backing Mikel Arteta’s comments following their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday at St James’ Park.
Mikel Arteta was seething in his post-match interview and post-match press conference that Anthony Gordon’s goal for Newcastle United was able to stand.
The Arsenal boss used words such as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘embarrassing’ when expressing his annoyance, with the club itself then releasing a statement backing their manager on the matter.
Former Premier League title-winner Joe Cole understood the emotion coming from Mikel Arteta, but he couldn’t quite believe that those in the boardroom proceeded to release such a statement, as he told Premier League Productions (06/11/23 at 10:50 pm).
A number of ex-players and pundits were critical of the messaging from Arsenal after the game, including former England striker, Michael Owen.
And Joe Cole just added to it all by issuing his own rant last night after he was looking back on the action from the weekend.
Arsenal statement
“My thoughts on Arsenal coming out and backing him,” said Cole. “That is pathetic. As a club, I understand a young manager. I can forgive him for exuberance, over-emotional. He is going to say the wrong things at times, we all do.
“But for the board at Arsenal, to double down on that. When they are all clear-headed on a Monday morning, or whenever they released it.
“There would have been a lot of intelligent men and women on the board going ‘what do you think? How does this look, this statement? Yeah, we are going to back him’.
“Why don’t we just take a breath and say ‘it wasn’t that bad. What do we stand for as a club? Do we stand for that? Calling people a disgrace and embarrassing? No, we don’t’. I would more blame the club for not getting hold of the situation and being a cool head in the whole thing.”
Arsenal need to move on…
Perhaps Arteta is being clever and distracting everyone away from how poor his team performed, not just at St James’ Park, but against West Ham United in the League Cup.
It needs to be remembered that Arsenal have now lost back-to-back games and their performances just haven’t been up to par.
Not forgetting their 2-2 draw at Chelsea where, for most parts of the game, they were poor. Yes, they thrashed Sheffield United, but they are bottom-of-the-table for a reason.
Either way, there will now be a bigger spotlight on Arsenal ahead of their Champions League clash against Sevilla in the Champions League last night, with several players needing to step up their game because they are out of form.
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