‘I cannot change in three days!’ - Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta offers no apologies after being booked for waving an imaginary card around

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta “cannot change in three days” and has offered no apologies for the booking he collected for waving an imaginary card around.

WHAT HAPPENED? The Gunners coach became the first Premier League manager of the 2023-24 campaign to fall foul of new regulations that have been put in place. Match officials have been asked to crack down heavily on those that demand cautions and scream in the face of the referee. Arteta was aware of that advice heading into a Community Shield clash with Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, but clearly had not taken it fully on board as he was cautioned in the first half for aiming a yellow card motion in the direction of Stuart Attwell.

WHAT THEY SAID: Arteta told reporters afterwards when asked about the new rules that he has already broken: «I cannot change my behaviour in three days. It's a very difficult thing to do, and next time we cannot ask him to say, okay, tomorrow we play with no offsides' and the linesman says 'what is he doing?'. We try our best, I try my best. I understand the rules, I understand where they're coming from. But we can get frustrated there because sometimes we don't know what part of the technical area we are. But it's fine, we will adapt.»

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Arteta was in a good mood after seeing Arsenal prevail on penalties against City, with the Gunners benefiting from another new directive regarding extended stoppage-time. Leandro Trossard saw a deflected equaliser hit the net in the 101st minute, with the decision to push games so far past the 90-minute mark receiving a mixed response. Arteta is a fan, with the Spaniard saying: «At the end, it's about effective time. I think it's really good to do that, because it was going too far I think