Mikel Arteta may have channelled a tactic used by Sir Alex Ferguson when shielding his Arsenal players from blame after their Manchester City draw, according to Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville.
The Spaniard's men saw their valiant efforts squashed at the Etihad during their last league outing. After surviving for the entirety of the second half with 10 men and a slender 2-1 lead, John Stones thundered in a leveller in the eighth minute of added time.
Leandro Trossard was the player who saw red after barging into City's Bernardo Silva and clattering away the ball only to be given his marching orders by Michael Oliver, which was later revealed to have been for delaying the restart - the exact same fate the Declan Rice suffered against Brighton earlier in the term.
When questioned about the incident, Arteta surprised many by stating he believed Trossard and Rice were 'passing' the ball - a statement that Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher couldn't quite believe, and the former likened to a technique once used by his old boss Ferguson.
READ MORE: Mikel Arteta offers verdict on Arsenal's wonderkids who 'have school in the morning'
READ MORE: Ethan Nwaneri steals the show as Arsenal's young guns batter Bolton in Carabao Cup
"I understand managers coming out and defending the players," Carragher started, speaking on The Overlap US. "It's always been seen as a great trait in a manager – he always defends his team and players.
"But, I don’t understand when a manager comes out and says something like Mikel Arteta has done, where everybody else can see what it is."
Arteta was quick to correct a journalist who stated that both Trossard and Rice saw respective red for kicking the ball away, exclaiming: "For passing it you mean," showing his true colours and defending his players before their 5-1 victory at home to Bolton in the Carabao Cup.
Carragher continued: “It’s easy just to come out and say, ‘Yeah ok, yeah, the rush of the moment, huge stakes game, we learn from it.’ I hope he is saying this privately.
"I just think sometimes, when it's so obvious what the misdemeanor was, a manager just makes himself look silly, coming out and saying that he's seen something completely different when this is a very intelligent football man who has obviously seen what we’ve all seen. I just think it's daft.”
Carragher then asked his co-star Neville if such tactics were employed by Ferguson, to which the former Manchester United defender revealed that his old manager often defended his players in a similar fashion.
"I think there were times," Neville began. "I think there is a tactic sometimes from a manager to say something so ridiculous to shift the actual headline away from the actual player so it that it actively becomes about them, and people start talking like this.
"I think Sir Alex Ferguson sometimes – and he’s said this obviously later on - he would sometimes come out after the game and say something that was quite so obviously the opposite of what everyone saw just purely to get the headline away from the actual incident itself, and I can only think that Mikel Arteta is playing that game."
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
