'Don' Mikel Arteta becoming the new Sir Alex Ferguson, says Carragher

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FT Desk

Jamie Carragher believes that Mikel Arteta is now the "Don" of the Premier League and compared him to Sir Alex Ferguson after his angry rant about a refereeing decision that went against Arsenal.

During the Gunners' Premier League clash against Sunderland this past weekend, the home side were awarded a penalty at the Stadium of Light after a tussle between Daniel Ballard and Ezri Konsa.

Arteta was furious at the decision post-match, saying:

"It's a huge win, but it could've been something very different. They [the referees] could have changed the game.

"It is unacceptable at this level. Unacceptable. This can change the course of the season, the championship. I've watched it 10 times to make sure.

"The 27 years I've been in football, it's not a penalty in any case, in any context, at any level, in any league. I watched it live, and I thought it was not possible to make this kind of decision for a penalty, because it's a judo roll, that's what it is. It cannot happen."

"This was Mikel Arteta becoming the Alex Ferguson of the Premier League"@Carra23 says Mikel Arteta is the 'Don' of the Premier League right now 🔴 pic.twitter.com/NitthoyecN

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 14, 2026

Arteta has been likened to Ferguson by Carragher. The legendary Scot was famously critical of refereeing decisions that he did not feel went in Manchester United's favour.

"This was Mikel Arteta becoming the Sir Alex Ferguson of the Premier League right now," the former Liverpool defender said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.

"He's the don at the moment; he's the Premier League champion.

"A lot of new managers about ... he's been in his role for six or seven years, and he feels he's in a position of power to say, 'Yeah, it wasn't a penalty.' And I don't think it was a penalty.

Carragher believes that Arteta is putting pressure on referees not to penalise Arsenal for similar incidents inside the box in the future.

"But it'd be interesting to see how long it takes for another referee to give a penalty against Arsenal in a similar situation," the pundit continued.

"I thought it was very interesting in the press conference; one of the journalists made a point about, no matter what question you asked him, he kept going back to the penalty, so he was determined to get the narrative out that this won't happen again to his club.

"But that's a manager -- we've seen it with Sir Alex Ferguson, we've seen it with José Mourinho."

It was subsequently reported that Arsenal plan to raise the issue with Pro Ref, the association in charge of officiating in England.

Arteta's side went on to defeat Sunderland 2-0 thanks to goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Bukayo Saka. The hosts actually missed the resulting penalty from the Konsa challenge.