Mikel Arteta Chose Not To Speak On Aston Villa Controversies

Mikel Arteta did not reveal his feelings after the 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Villa players faced lenient responses from the referee that irked the Gunners faithful.

After a controversial red-card decision on David Luiz midweek, Arsenal saw two major decisions against them in the loss to Villa. Ezri Konsa was let off after what looked like a dangerous challenge on Bukayo Saka.

And even Alexandre Lacazette was not awarded a penalty after a tussle with Emiliano Martinez. When asked what he said to the officials, he said, “I keep that between me and them.”

And asked if he was unhappy with the two decisions, he added, “Again I prefer to stay on mute on that.”

Arteta also said, “Really strong performance again today we completely dominated the game, we dominated every department and we should have won the game.

“But, in the Premier League when you just give a goal to opponents, and we gave them another three opportunities to be fair ourselves, we gifted it to them, and then you are not ruthless in the box, you cannot win these games.

“The rest, the way the team played, the energy that they showed, the quality that they showed, the amount of chances and situations that we created, how quickly we regained the ball, how we controlled long balls second balls, how aggressive we were, just incredible. But it wasn’t enough to win the game.”