‘Give him the benefit of the doubt’: Ferdinand labels Arsenal man ‘naive’ after moment in Liverpool loss

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Rio Ferdinand has claimed on his YouTube channel that Mikel Arteta was naive to lose his cool with Jurgen Klopp when Arsenal faced Liverpool at the weekend, suggesting he will learn from the incident.

The Gunners were beaten 4-0 at Anfield, with the Reds looking particularly devastating after half-time.

They had taken the lead before the break. But Arsenal had asked a few questions of the home side before that stage. In fact, they even had the ball in the net at one stage, only for the offside flag to go up.

The turning point for many came when Arteta became irate following a clash between Sadio Mane and Takehiro Tomiyasu.

His remonstrations prompted Klopp to get involved. And Arteta had to be pulled away. Ultimately, it appeared to inspire the Anfield crowd and the opening goal came shortly after.

And Ferdinand claimed that that moment proved to be pivotal. He suggested that Arteta is unlikely to let his temper boil over again if he finds himself in a similar situation.

“They turned the screw after Arteta and Klopp’s spat on the touchline that Arteta started. That was naive for me. At Anfield, you don’t want to be gassing up that crowd and whipping them up,” he told his YouTube channel.

“I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because he is a young manager so I think he’ll learn from that.”

Arteta reaction understandable as Arsenal boss looks to instil unity in his ranks

Ferdinand has potentially hit the nail on the head by labelling Arteta naive. However, you can also understand why the Arsenal boss did boil over.

Arteta is trying to instil a sense of unity amongst his Arsenal ranks. That is going to help them in some of the games when they are underdogs.

And defending his player, in his mind, may have been part of that. When Mane hacked Ben White down shortly after, several Arsenal players went straight to the Reds forward to stick up for their teammate.

Creating an us against them mentality can certainly spark teams into life. It did not work on Saturday. But Arteta may perhaps feel that venting his frustration was important to try and get a reaction out of his side.