The 5 most bizarre excuses Mikel Arteta has used as Arsenal manager: Balls, long grass…

Mikel Arteta has done a fine job since taking over at Arsenal in December 2019, but he’s come out with some bizarre excuses in that time.

Being a Premier League manager is undoubtedly one of the most stressful jobs going and sometimes that becomes apparent during post-match interviews.

We’ve gone back through Arteta’s reign as Arsenal boss and have found five of the most bizarre excuses he’s used after his side have dropped points.

Carabao Cup balls

Arteta doesn’t have a particularly great record in the Carabao Cup and following their recent loss against Newcastle, he took issue with the balls used in the competition.

Despite Arsenal having 23 shots on the night, they couldn’t find a way past Martin Dubravka and ended up losing the first-leg 2-0.

“We also kicked a lot of balls over the bar, and it’s tricky that these balls fly a lot so there’s details that we can do better,” Arteta said after the game.

“It’s very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies different, when you touch it the grip is very different as well so you adapt to that.”

Long grass

After Arsenal were held to a goalless draw at Burnley in February 2020, Arteta blamed the grass at Turf Moor.

“The conditions were difficult. The grass was this long. They didn’t put water on it and that is difficult to play football,” Arteta said.

“I didn’t water the grass yesterday at the training ground so I was expecting it but that doesn’t make it easier to play.

“We adapted really well in some moments and in some others it wasn’t the grass. What they do they do really well.”

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Wind

Arteta took issue with the windy conditions at Villa Park after his side fell to a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa in December 2023.

“I think it was a bit windy today,” Arteta said following the loss.

“You see a lot of misplaced balls or not having the right touch or not having the right accuracy in certain passes.

“We had so many big opportunities that we couldn’t finish when they were completely open to shoot.”

Training too hard

After Arsenal fell to a 2-1 defeat against Hibernian in their 2021 pre-season, Arteta cited their “really hard” training as a reason his side looked leggy.

“We only had four training sessions,” Arteta told the club website after the shock loss.

“We’ve trained really hard and you could see that the players were a little bit leggy.

“I think we conceded the first goal, an accident, and the second goal was clearly offside. We created many, many chances but we didn’t score.”

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Bizarre stats

Following a lacklustre start to the 2020-21 campaign, Arteta baffled fans when he came out with a bizarre statistics-based rant, claiming that his side deserved more points than they had.

“Last year we won the game against Everton with a 25 per cent chance of winning, you win 3-2,” Arteta told reporters.

“Last weekend, it was a 67 per cent chance of winning, any Premier League game in history, and a nine per cent chance of losing, and you lose.

“Three per cent against Burnley and you lose, seven per cent against Spurs and you lose. There is something else apart from that. It is not just the performance on the pitch, it is something else that needs to go our way and at the moment it doesn’t.

“Saying that, it doesn’t care because you lose and the only thing that cares is that you lose a football match and this is what we hear.”