Arsenal: Mikel Arteta’s Sour Grapes Simply Unreal

Arsenal’s former sideline captain Mikel Arteta has gone and erased his history with Arsenal. What is he on about and why are his sour grapes so potent?

I have never liked the way Mikel Arteta plays the game or what he brought to Arsenal. It feels so good to finally say that. I used to be quite hard on him and his inability to do anything constructive, but he was an Arsenal man, so I always gave him the benefit of the doubt, supported him, and convinced myself that the leadership he brought to the team was worth his continued presence.

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Not anymore! Now that he has showed the world his vine of sour grapes and deleted himself from the entire history he had with Arsenal, we no longer have to hold back and pat him on the back, telling him he’s worth something.

Arteta leaving for Manchester City was odd enough. However, it was justified to me as Arteta wanting to learn under Pep Guardiola how to be a coach. That’s fine, I accept that. It was still a bit fishy, but it made a bit more sense.

However, now it doesn’t. Arteta has deleted every single social media post involving him at Arsenal and unfollowed everything Arsenal related.

It’s something we call ‘overkill’.

Why did this need to happen? Why would Arteta ever want to remove his name from the only team that would have ever given him playing time in  England? Arteta had no business being anywhere near a pitch for Arsenal, yet out of loyalty and respect, Wenger still managed to squeeze the aging Spaniard onto from time to time and he would do his best to blow it. It’s just what Arteta did.

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No other team, not United, City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Leicester, Swansea, Liverpool – no other team would have given him playing time because he was not playing material.

So, to thank Arsenal, he did not pass go, he did not collect $200, he just up and left for City, deleted everything that tied him to Arsenal and started life over.

There is no other way to look at that other than disrespect. I can’t see Pep Guardiola saying ‘you can have the job, but delete your social media links to Arsenal’. It’s so petty. This was something Arteta did on his own.

And while we are on the term ‘petty’, let me state that this entire thing is incredibly petty, which is what makes the fact that it has even happened that much more shocking. We have been betrayed by players in the past, but never by someone as inconsequential as Arteta, which is what makes it even worse. Arteta was nothing to Arsenal on the pitch. So why is any of this necessary?

The only possible positive spin I can put on this is maybe, perhaps, he loved Arsenal too much to see all of those memories, but even I can feel the shaky ground I am standing on with that argument.

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Help me out here, Gooners. Either explain this to me or let yourself loose and rant about how awful Arteta is. I’m game for either.