Mikel Arteta has revealed he is building a dossier of rival Premier League managers leaving their technical areas, after he was booked for the offence during Arsenal's 2-0 win over Everton at the Emirates on Saturday.
Arteta was shown a yellow card by referee Tony Harrington in the second half for stepping out of his technical area, his second booking of the season after a caution at Sunderland in September. One more yellow would bring a one-match touchline ban — and the Arsenal manager made clear afterwards that he does not believe the rule is being applied evenly.
"36 times in 10 minutes" — Arteta's claim
"There are managers that have the record in the league," Arteta said after the game, in comments reported by Sky Sports. "Thirty-six times in 10 minutes they leave the touchline. No yellows [for them]. So I'm clipping all of that.
"I have a massive storage of images. If somebody comes to say [something to me, I can say] I'm not the record yet. Somebody else has the record. Then it's 36 yellow cards in 10 minutes for the managers. I don't know where we're going to be."
Arteta admitted he will have to be careful, joking that Arsenal need "good sensors" on the edge of his area. But the humour carried a serious point: if touchline behaviour is to be policed, he wants it policed for everyone.
Gabriel the hero at both ends
The row should not overshadow what happened on the pitch. Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 through goals from both centre-backs — Ezri Konsa opened the scoring from a corner in the seventh minute, Arsenal's first set-piece goal since May, before Gabriel Magalhaes headed home Ben White's cross in the 68th minute.
Gabriel, making his 200th Premier League appearance, had earlier cleared off his own line after David Raya failed to deal with an Everton corner, then survived an injury scare after jarring his knee before returning to score the decisive second. "He's one of the best centre backs in the world, no question, with the impact he has in both boxes," Arteta told Reuters. "Gabi was unbelievable — the action that leads to the possible injury and then the way he overcomes that situation with his willingness to go again and to score that goal."
Everton, without Jack Grealish through sickness and Jarrad Branthwaite under concussion protocol, have now gone 14 league trips to Arsenal without a win and have lost back-to-back league games after an unbeaten start under David Moyes.
There was one late concern for Arsenal: Riccardo Calafiori struggled towards the end and finished the game further forward, with Noni Madueke filling in at left-back. Arteta said the issue seemed "very small" and that the defender had simply been cautious.
So what does it mean?
The result, combined with Aston Villa's win over Manchester City earlier in the day, takes Arsenal level on 21 points with City at the top of the Premier League. For a side playing without William Saliba and Bukayo Saka, winning through its centre-backs is exactly the kind of resilience a title race demands.
The touchline row matters too. Arteta is now one booking from a ban, and his public dossier claim puts the spotlight on every other manager's behaviour in the coming weeks — and on the officials asked to enforce the same standard. Expect the clips to be mentioned again the next time a rival escapes a card.
Beyond the Final Whistle: Arteta's dossier is funny, pointed and entirely deliberate. He has turned a routine yellow card into a league-wide argument about consistency, protected himself if a ban ever lands, and done it on a day when his defenders won him a game that moved Arsenal level at the top. That is not a manager losing his cool — that is a manager choosing his fight. Do you think Arteta has a point about touchline consistency, or should he simply stay in his box?
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