Banishing Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to stands for Aston Villa clash will pour petrol on flames of already bitter feud

5 months ago 41

MIKEL ARTETA will be sitting in the directors’ box when Arsenal visit Aston Villa on Saturday — and they had better be ready to beef up their security.

The last time these teams met at Villa Park, the rival tech nerds had a proper punch-up in the stands, which resulted in Villa’s head of performance analysis Victor Manas getting a three-match stadium ban and an £8,000 fine.

So sticking the volatile Arteta into the mix is only going to pour petrol on the flames of an already bitter feud.

The Arsenal boss collected his third yellow card of the season for the unspeakable crime of “excessively celebrating” Tuesday’s 4-3 stoppage-time victory at Luton.

It means he will be banished from his usual position an inch from the side of the pitch this weekend.

And that might just come as a blessed relief for his players accustomed to a 90-minute ear-bashing from football’s ultimate micro-manager.

Yet there can be no doubt that Arteta’s methods are working and all those people awaiting another Arsenal collapse are going to be sorely disappointed.

Because there is a steely determination about these Gunners, which we haven’t seen for a very long time. Declan Rice’s 97th-minute winner at Kenilworth Road was their seventh stoppage-time goal this season.

Maybe we should start calling it “Mikki time” because if you add three more goals netted in the final five minutes it means an extra nine points for the table toppers.

They have the meanest defence and the best away record in the Premier League and will provide the ultimate test for Villa’s 14-game winning streak at home.

So throw in Unai Emery’s lingering bitterness over the way he was dismissed by Arsenal to make way for Arteta and we have all the ingredients for a proper grudge match.

Villa’s incredible transformation under Emery has prompted some observers to suggest Arsenal would be champions by now if he had been allowed to continue in the job.

But that’s a grotesque rewriting of history because Arsenal were an absolute shambles when the axe fell on Emery four years ago and Arteta had to completely rip up the squad he inherited to sort out the mess.

He might have spent around £600million to get the Gunners to the top of the league but there has hardly been a duff signing among them.

CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO WELCOME OFFER

And the soundest investment of the lot has been the club-record £105m spent last summer to buy England international Rice.

Because even at that eye-watering price, there hasn’t been a better buy in 2023 than the 24-year-old central midfielder who has transformed Arsenal’s title prospects.

A group of “hilarious” fans have even set up a GoFundMe page to pay West Ham an extra £25m for their former captain.

Yes, Rice really has been that good, a guaranteed seven or eight out of ten every week.

He will be crucial at Villa Park and at Anfield in two weeks for a potential title decider.

Win those two games and Arsenal could be nine points ahead of champions Manchester City by Christmas.

Pep Guardiola will point out his team were further behind at one point last season yet still won the league.

But this time it feels different because one team is conceding late goals and the other is scoring them.

City have become gorged on success. Arsenal are still hungry for glory.

UNITED’S BAD CALL

MANCHESTER UNITED claim they banned a number of journalists because they didn’t call the club before running a story that Erik ten Hag has lost the dressing room.

And if those reporters had actually asked United to check out the information, I’m sure they would have been told: “Yes, you’re right, the players all hate the boss and they are trying to get him out.”

Many years ago, a famous manager once rang to complain that I had not checked out a story with him.

Yet even when I pointed out that he had blatantly lied the previous time I had put in a check call, he still couldn’t understand why he wasn’t given the opportunity to carry on telling porkies.

HARRY MAG-WHY

SO Harry Maguire has been named the Premier League Player of the Month for November — because Manchester United beat mighty Fulham, Luton and Everton.

Good job they didn’t take into account seven Champions League goals conceded against Copenhagen and Galatasaray. Or three they shipped at home to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup.

And has Maguire really been the best player in the top flight — or simply less s**t than he was at the start of the season?