Mikel Arteta has admitted that he received a ticking off from the fourth official after his assist-of-sorts for Arsenal’s third goal during Sunday’s win at Watford.
Gabriel Martinelli made it 3-1 at Vicarage Road by finishing off a swift move, which began when the Gunners boss rushed out of his technical area to act as ball boy for a quick throw.
Arteta remarked afterwards that he was “not allowed” to come so far out of his dugout to help his team - but insisted that he had no regrets.
He admitted post-match: “The fourth referee said, 'Mikel, you shouldn't be allowed to do that'.
“It just came out. I am living the game there, trying to help as much as possible. I saw an advantage there to be taken and I did it."
The win put Arsenal fourth in the Premier League table, aided by Manchester United’s defeat at neighbours Manchester City, but Arteta is not paying much attention to his team’s advantage at this stage.
He added: “To be fair, I don’t like to look at the table a lot because we have games in hand.
“We’re going to play different fixtures and I know the objective and it’s only one, to try and improve tomorrow on what we’ve done today and go into the next match and that’s it.
“I cannot control results and I cannot predict which matches we are going to win, draw or lose, it’s impossible. If I start to do that I think we’re going to lose focus in what we want to do.”
