Arsenal: Mikel Arteta 'becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League' after furious outburst

Arsenal boss did not hold back when discussing penalty controversy against Sunderland

Jamie Carragher has said Mikel Arteta is "becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League", following the Arsenal manager’s furious reaction against Sunderland.

While Arsenal left the Stadium of Light at the weekend with all three points thanks to goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Bukayo Saka, things could have unfolded very differently as a penalty was awarded against the Premier League champions early in the second half.

Referee John Brooks pointed to the spot, penalising Ezri Konsa for bringing down Dan Ballard.

David Raya ultimately pulled off a superb save to keep out Enzo Le Fee’s effort, but Arteta strongly criticised the decision afterwards, describing it as “unacceptable".

Carragher was in agreement with the Spaniard in that a penalty should not have been awarded and suggested the Arsenal boss was taking a leaf out of Ferguson’s book as the Manchester United legend was built a reputation for being unafraid to publicly criticise match officials

“This was Mikel Arteta becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League right now,” Carragher told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football show.

"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.

"But it'd be interesting to see how long it takes for another referee to give a penalty against Arsenal in a similar situation.

"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."

Standard Sport have since reported that Arsenal have reached out to Pro Ref chief Howard Webb, seeking a further explanation for the award of the penalty.

As with Arteta's comments immediately after the match, there is a feeling that the significance of the decision should not be diminished just because the Gunners ultimately won the match.

It is viewed as a decision that could have decided the game and ultimately had a wider impact on the season.