Jamie Carragher believes managing Arsenal have brought out a different side of Mikel Arteta

Jamie Carragher believes Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta got away with criticising the referees after the loss at Newcastle United.

The Spaniard claimed calling the officiating in the 1-0 loss to the Magpies in November a ‘disgrace’ was not intended to insult the officials as it means something different in Spanish.

The Football Association charged the Arsenal boss with breaking Rule E3.1, which includes bringing the game into disrepute.

However, Arteta was later cleared of wrongdoing after he told the FA that the word ‘disgrace’ has a very similar spelling and pronunciation to the Spanish ‘desgracia’ – the Spanish word which has connotations of misfortune, tragedy or bad luck.

Carragher is far from convinced, slamming the Gunners boss for his antics on the touchline and concluding that managing his old club has brought out a different side of his personality that was hidden during his playing days.

“I think it’s bubbling [the issue of manager behaviour] and I think it does need stamping down,” the Sky Sports pundit said on The Overlap.

“Maybe a couple of managers, Jurgen Klopp being one, might be the ones who get the full force of it – maybe Arteta.

“The thing that fascinates me with Arteta is what I see on the touchline, it’s almost a completely different person to the person I played against. He wasn’t that emotional. We played derby games, he was one of Everton’s best players – he was a silky player – but you’d never think he was at a referee or into his own players.

“I think some of the bookings he’s got – the over celebrating, the odd thing where you think, ‘Come on, there’s no need for that’. But I do think he shouldn’t have got away with – once he’d been charged with what he said after Newcastle, and the defence was there was a translation difference between what you’d say in Spain about something was a disgrace, it means something different in Spain. That was nonsense.”

Arteta escaped a potential touchline ban or fine for his comments after the Newcastle game but could not help himself against Brighton & Hove Albion, getting booked for the fourth time this season.

He missed the defeat at Villa Park after being forced into the stands for the Premier League game with Aston Villa due to a suspension, and he will need manage how to rein in his emotions going forward this term.

Officials will likely be targeting him more this term given his reputation on the sidelines, and Arsenal cannot afford to be without their manager for some of their crucial games as he risks further touchline bans if nothing changes.

While the players are getting used to how passionate Arteta is in the technical area, the Spaniard needs to start behaving better with the officials to avoid the constant run-ins with them, but getting him to change is going to be a daunting task from the look of things.