SUNDERLAND — Jamie Carragher says Mikel Arteta is "becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League" after the Arsenal boss strongly criticised the penalty awarded against his side in Saturday's 2-0 win at Sunderland. A furious Arteta described the saved second-half penalty as "unacceptable" after referee John Brooks pointed to the spot when Arsenal defender Ezri Konsa brought down Dan Ballard, with the Gunners subsequently seeking an explanation from refereeing body Pro Ref.
"This was Mikel Arteta becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League right now," Carragher said on Monday Night Football. "He's the don at the moment; he's the Premier League champion. A lot of new managers about... he's been in his role for six or seven years, and he feels he's in a position of power to say, 'Yeah, it wasn't a penalty'. And I don't think it was a penalty."
Carragher believes Arteta is using his status as a Premier League champion to influence future decision-making, noting Arsenal did not concede a penalty in last season's title-winning campaign. "But it'd be interesting to see how long it takes for another referee to give a penalty against Arsenal in a similar situation," he said. "I thought it was very interesting in the press conference; one of the journalists made a point about, no matter what question you asked him, he kept going back to the penalty, so he was determined to get the narrative out that this won't happen again to his club. But that's a manager - we've seen it with Sir Alex Ferguson, we've seen it with Jose Mourinho."
Former Luton, Middlesbrough and Wolves boss Rob Edwards, the special guest on MNF, concurred with Carragher's assessment. "I think Jamie's right. He's put himself into a position now where he's looking after his team and his football club, and people will listen to the Premier League-winning manager, won't they?" Edwards said. "They will listen to him; he's a powerful voice there now."