Darren Bent delivers his honest verdict on Mikel Arteta’s behaviour on the touchline for Arsenal

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Darren Bent has admitted that he can understand why plenty of neutrals are not fans of one Arsenal man following their win over Liverpool at the weekend.

The Gunners picked up a massive win in the Premier League title race. Arsenal won 3-1 and stopped the Reds landing almost any punches at all.

Unsurprisingly, the Emirates was bouncing at the full-time whistle. And it seems that some of Arsenal’s celebrations upset some neutrals.

Darren Bent issues verdict on Mikel Arteta after touchline antics in Arsenal win

Mikel Arteta certainly made it clear what the victory meant to him. The Spaniard could be seen sprinting around the fans when the two second-half goals were scored. Certainly, the lines of the technical area appear to be wasted on Arteta, who can often be seen further down the line encouraging his players or appealing for decisions.

And speaking on talkSPORT, Darren Bent conceded that he can empathise with Arteta’s critics and would probably have a similar issue if he was not an Arsenal supporter.

“I do think a lot of neutrals don’t like Arteta which makes them not like Arsenal. And I get it. If he wasn’t Arsenal’s manager, it would probably annoy me when he’s running up and down the technical box, not staying in the box,” he said.

“You know when Arsenal scored the second, he turned around and ran. I love all that.”

All part of a bigger plan

One of Arteta’s smartest decisions was to create a feeling of us versus them that seems to completely unite the large majority of the Arsenal fanbase.

The Emirates did not appear to be a pleasant place for much of the last decade. But that has been transformed over the last couple of years. And now it is opponents who probably hate visiting.

Arteta has to take a lot of credit for that change. So it is hard to imagine that he will give a single thought to those of us who do feel that he crosses a line with some of his antics.