Mikel Arteta receives Graeme Souness backing after furious rant as he tears into VAR

Graeme Souness believes the criticism being levelled at Mikel Arteta for his furious post-match VAR rant is unjustified. The Liverpool legend branded VAR the “technology from hell for referees” and has demanded the system be manned by ex-professionals after yet another contentious decision during Arsenal’s clash with Newcastle United last weekend.

In the immediate aftermath of the game, Arteta lambasted VAR officials for allowing Anthony Gordon’s 64th-minute winner to stand – a decision described as “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”. The Magpies winger was awarded the only goal of the game after three separate VAR checks – the first to see if the ball had gone out of play, the second to check if Gabriel Magalhaes had been fouled in the Arsenal box and the third to determine whether there was an offside.

Arsenal came out and backed their manager in a statement released the next day in which they affirmed the game involved “unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors”. But some pundits, most notably Gary Neville, felt Arteta and Arsenal’s words were “dangerous”.

Neville insisted both Arsenal and their head coach “should behave better in these circumstances”. But Souness, a former manager himself, has shared his sympathies with Arteta and co.

“I have to say I had sympathy with Mikel Arteta over his reaction to a flagrantly poor refereeing decision last weekend,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column. “I’ve been in his shoes. The conclusion that Anthony Gordon’s goal for Newcastle should stand was plainly wrong to anyone with an ounce of knowledge of the game.

“And of course, Mikel was having to come to terms with the fact that those officials were equipped with the most sophisticated video technology known to man.

“Those criticising him do not seem to have considered the bewildering rationale that lay behind allowing that goal to stand. Please answer me the most significant question, which no one appeared to ask last weekend. Why did Gabriel, a big, strong 6ft 3in centre back, not put his head on a ball, a yard off his goal line when it was there at a perfect height for him?

“For one very obvious reason. Because he was pushed. It was as plain as the nose on your face and would have been pure common sense to anyone who’s actually played the game. But, of course, these so-called ‘video officials’ haven’t. They don’t know how to interpret the replays they are watching.