‘You are way off’: Simon Jordan defends Arsenal man’s critical comments

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Simon Jordan has defended Mikel Arteta on talkSPORT (17/11/20 at 12:50 pm) for his critical comments about Arsenal following their 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Aston Villa before the international break.

The former Crystal Palace owner pointed out that Arteta did win an FA Cup with Arsenal, but he will still have people saying to him that his team are ‘way off’.

A few weeks ago, Arsenal were flying high after their 1-0 win against Manchester United before being thrashed a week later at home to Aston Villa.

After that game, Arteta was pretty critical of his players and he admitted that they are a ‘long way’ from their desired destination, as he told Sky Sports.

Jordan, who would have managed his fair few of coaches during his days as an owner, defended Arteta and his forthright comments.

“No [Arteta’s not wrong to be critical], the best way to disarm an argument is to agree with it,” said Jordan. “People are turning around and saying to him that ‘you are way off’.

“You can talk about what he has or hasn’t done, but he has won a cup. Irrespective of where Arsenal are today after a result that didn’t look good on paper. He has won an FA Cup and brought a trophy to Arsenal.

“And now people say ‘that’s what Wenger did relativity regularly and we want something different than that’. We have also had two years, a year of Wenger where Arsenal Fan TV and everybody else shouted him out. Now, you had 18 months of Unai Emery where it wasn’t very good.

“Arteta, for me, it looks like he is learning on the job but he’s learning the right way on his job. I think he’s definite in his views, and it seems to me, he has an older head on younger managerial shoulders. That’s probably because of the company he has kept in Pep Guardiola.”

The next few months are now crucial for Arsenal because if they start to stagnate and produce indifferent performances then it won’t bode well for Arteta.

Whilst, from a defensive standpoint, the Gunners have shown improvements, they have lacked that bite in attack and it doesn’t help Arteta’s cause when they concede three in such a worrying manner against Aston Villa.