---
title: "Bitter Mikel Arteta rubs salt into Liverpool wounds with latest penalty claim"
canonical: "https://readliverpoolfc.com/news/bitter-mikel-arteta-rubs-salt-into-liverpool-wounds-with-latest-penalty-claim/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Vishal Subramanian"
section: "Liverpool News"
published: "2026-11-04T07:25:52Z"
modified: "2026-11-04T10:10:46Z"
---

# Bitter Mikel Arteta rubs salt into Liverpool wounds with latest penalty claim

**We’re not saying Arsenal didn’t deserve to beat Liverpool last weekend, but the penalty incident involving Jurrien Timber and Alexander Isak has generated a lot of chatter.**

Long story short, most of the footballing fraternity – which includes former players, referees and pundits – believe the Reds should have had a penalty as Timber pulled the Swede’s shirt, which prevented him from getting to the end of a fantastic Bradley Barcola cross.

Speaking after the game, both Andoni Iraola and Virgil van Dijk rued the standard of officiating, while Premier League icons such as Freddie Ljungberg and Peter Schmeichel also admitted that Liverpool were hard done by the referee and VAR.

Mikel Arteta doesn’t share the sentiment, though, as he rubbed salt into Liverpool wounds with a bitter, bitter claim.

## Mikel Arteta makes Liverpool penalty admission

Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League clash against Slavia Praha, the Spaniard was asked about the Isak-Timber incident, to which he had a rather salty response.

“I have a massive library of clips of pulls and tugs of other teams too; we can get into that,” said the Arsenal boss.

> Mikel Arteta on the Timber & Isak penalty incident:\
> \
> "I have a massive library of clips of pulls and tugs of other teams too, we can get into that." 😅 [pic.twitter.com/S5h5wXc17V](https://t.co/S5h5wXc17V)
>
> — Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) [November 3, 2026](https://x.com/HaytersTV/status/2117708794410959322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Once again, we don’t really blame Arteta for defending his players, as that’s what we’d like a Liverpool manager to do as well.

That said, there has never been a time in all these years of him being a Premier League manager when he has come out and admitted the rub of the green actually went in his team’s favour.

Arteta is a brilliant coach and Arsenal are Premier League champions for a reason.

But between his salty comments, the antics of his players and their occasional play-acting, it sometimes feels as if they lack a bit of class, which is quite unlike most of the Arsenal teams we’ve seen over the years.