Do not under any circumstances cross Mikel Arteta.
He may look like butter wouldn’t melt, but the Arsenal boss doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Indeed the ruthless Iberian deals with no-good rats in much the same way Tony Soprano does – albeit with no one ending up sleeping with the fishes…we hope.
In November it became evident that an Arsenal dressing room insider was leaking information to the press. Following rumours of an alleged bust-up involving David Luiz and Dani Ceballos, Arteta snapped:
“I don’t like the fact that that incident comes out at all. I will find out where it is coming from and if that is the case, that goes completely against what I expect from each other, the privacy and the confidentiality that we need, and there will be consequences.”
Well two months on and it seems that there have indeed been consequences. The Gunners seem like a more close-knit cohesive unit, with a number of players including Ozil, Kolasinac, Saliba and Sokratis all leaving the fold. And perhaps with them, the notorious mole.
Asked this week whether he had been successful in identifying the sneaky leaker, Arteta responded with a wry smile “I have an idea, yes!” And when pushed to clarify whether he had in fact removed the mole as part of the recent outgoings, his smile grew larger and he responded: “No comment!”
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the mole has indeed been ‘whacked’.
Interesting 👀 pic.twitter.com/Wos1DVVaZG
— Arsenal FC News (@ArsenalFC_fl) January 21, 2021
