Mikel Arteta hints he is being singled out for breaching technical area rules

Mikel Arteta hinted that he is being singled out for breaching his technical area with the rules not consistently applied across the league.

Arteta is banned from the touchline for Arsenal’s match at Aston Villa on Saturday after receiving his third yellow card of the season for leaving his area to celebrate Declan Rice’s last-gasp winner against Luton.

Yet the Spaniard does not believe he is the only culprit.

He said: ‘We are (allowed to celebrate) but I think we have a boundary. Maybe we have to extend. We just need a very strong rope, or we don’t move. But it means WE don’t move — all of us.’

When asked if other bosses have been invading the pitch, he commented: ‘This is why I say WE.’

Exuberant celebration is not something Arteta wants to stop anytime soon.

‘If I was given the opportunity (to celebrate), no (I wouldn’t stop),’ he said. ‘I would like to be with my players because we work closely every single day to win the games and when you get those moments in sport, you should be able to do that.

‘I understand as well that there are certain boundaries and you have to respect that you are at an away ground, but if I was given the chance I would be there jumping.’

Reflecting on his celebration at Luton, he explained: ‘I don't know how to stop it. It was a really emotional moment with everybody bouncing around and you lose sense of where you are and the space you have to be in.

‘It was unfortunate as now I cannot be next to my team on the touchline.’

Saturday is set to be a tough test. Villa remain unbeaten at home since a 4-2 defeat in February 2023, Arsenal the last team to beat them in their own backyard.

They are led by ex-Gunners boss Unai Emery, who has propelled the club to third in the league.

He is someone Arteta admires, with both men hailing from the Basque region in Spain.

‘He (Unai) is the most experienced and the most successful (Basque) one, by quite a long distance with everything he’s achieved in the game and everything he’s won,’ he added.

‘He’s someone I admire, yes.

‘Tactically they are really well set up. They do really brave things, they play from the back, they have players between the lines that can really hurt you.

'Not only that, the spirit that they’ve created, the atmosphere, the intensity and the belief they have at the moment that they can go and beat anybody.’