'I thought 'wow': Jamie Carragher shocked by how Arsenal man behaved during Community Shield final

Jamie Carragher has admitted that he was taken aback by Mikel Arteta losing his cool so early on in Arsenal’s Community Shield win over Manchester City, suggesting that it was too much from the Spaniard.

Carragher was speaking on The Overlap after the Gunners boss was shown a yellow card for waving an imaginary card himself after Rodri brought down Kai Havertz.

The way Mikel Arteta behaves on the touchline has received a lot of attention since he took the Arsenal job. His critics will suggest that some of his antics cross the line.

His defenders meanwhile, will suggest that he does nothing different to some of the other Premier League bosses. And yet, he is the one who seems to come under the microscope.

Carragher criticises Arteta after Arsenal win

The caution at Wembley showed that Arteta is going to have to be careful over the coming months. And Carragher certainly believes that the Arsenal boss is going to have to make some big changes with the Gunners facing a huge campaign.

Carragher Arteta

Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images

“I thought it was interesting yesterday watching the game how wound up Arteta was at the side of the pitch after about 10 minutes,” he told The Overlap.

“I love passion. We have Jurgen Klopp, you love it when he’s involved. But I just thought it was too much, 10 minutes into the Community Shield, he got a yellow himself because he wanted someone booked and I thought ‘wow’. He was that incensed this early in the season, this is a long season!”

Obviously, it is not going to do Arsenal any favours at all if Arteta picks up touchline bans. But there does appear to be a clear benefit to his antics.

Arsenal are more united than they have been for a number of years. That was evident from the way the fans responded when they suffered setbacks last season. There was none of the toxicity that the Emirates had been used to in previous campaigns.

And Arteta’s behaviour helps cultivate an idea that everyone else is against Arsenal. That played a part in taking the Gunners so far last season.

He needs to be careful to not cross the line. But it is hard to imagine Arteta changing his entire behaviour anytime soon.