Solidarity has become the loneliest word in the English language after Jurgen Klopp’s comments in response to VAR controversy suffered against Tottenham fell on deaf ears.
Ranging from Vincent Kompany’s shrug of an opinion to Mikel Arteta’s now laughable verdict of ‘mistakes happen’, the German went unbacked in the English top-flight.
Fast forward one controversy later and Arsenal’s head coach emerged with sword in hand and frothing at the mouth over his side’s perceived injustice during a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle.
“Embarrassing, it’s an absolute disgrace, that’s what it is: a disgrace,” the Spaniard was quoted as saying by the Guardian. “There’s so much at stake, we’ve put in so many hours to compete at the highest level and you cannot imagine the amount of messages we’ve had saying this cannot continue. It’s embarrassing.”
The 41-year-old doubled down on his post-match comments in his latest press conference (ESPN): “It’s my duty to defend my players, support my players, defend my club, support my club, in the best possible way. It’s what I’m going to do time after time.”
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Beg pardon, Mikel?
Where on earth was this gusto, this chest-beating bravado, this ‘let’s be having you’ mentality when Jurgen Klopp drew attention to the error-strewn officiating of Liverpool’s defeat at Spurs?
We wholeheartedly agree with Arteta that the current state of officiating in the English top-flight is ’embarrassing’.
Why, then, did he opt not to show solidarity with our German tactician before the shoe switched feet?
Does the Gunners boss seriously expect to see change materialise out of thin air from isolated rants?
Come on, Mikel – you’re not a stupid man.