Mikel Arteta: 'VAR has improved significantly since Newcastle United loss'

The Spaniard let rip in his post-game media duties after the Gunners were subjected to their first Premier League defeat of the season at St James' Park, where Anthony Gordon's winner proved decisive.

Three separate VAR checks were needed to confirm Gordon's goal, as Arsenal were adamant that the ball had gone behind for a goal kick, but Joe Willock was adjudged to have kept the attack alive.

Joelinton appeared to have two hands on the back of Gabriel Magalhaes as the ball was swung in, but that incident was also cleared, and a final once-over on whether Gordon was in an offside position ultimately led to the goal standing.

As well as the winger's contentious winner, Arsenal were also aggrieved to see Bruno Guimaraes escape punishment for an apparent elbow on Jorginho's head, although Magpies players felt that Kai Havertz should have been sent off for a crunching lunge on Sean Longstaff, for which he was booked.

An incandescent Arteta labelled the refereeing decisions at St James' Park "embarrassing" and a "disgrace", while also telling journalists in his post-match press conference that he 'felt sick' to see Newcastle's winner given the thumbs-up.

The Spaniard unsurprisingly landed himself in hot water with the FA, who charged him with a breach of Rule E3.1, alleging that his comments amounted to misconduct and were insulting towards the match officials.

However, an Independent Regulatory Commission cleared Arteta of any wrongdoing, concluding that the 41-year-old did not use detrimental language and was instead highlighting general shortcomings with VAR, which the Premier League had already acknowledged.

Earlier this month, the Premier League released statistics showing that 96% of refereeing decisions had been correct since VAR was brought into force, a 14% increase on the 82% before technology was implemented.

Out of the 77 times this season in which VAR has been required to intervene, 57 have seen the officials come to the right decision, although there have still been 20 wrong calls with the help of those in Stockley Park.

Speaking to reporters ahead of Saturday's reunion with Newcastle at the Emirates, Arteta applauded the PGMOL for making vast improvements, saying: "That's what we all wanted, that at the end the decisions are better.

"The last stats that came across showed that it was a significant improvement and a lot of decisions were getting right, so hopefully that's the case and we continue to do that."

When asked whether his public rant on technology helped to make things better, the Spaniard added: "I don't know, I talked the way I felt and I was very straight. I did it in a way that was pretty strong but within the law because I didn't get charged for that, so that tells the story."

The Gunners boss also provided a positive injury update on two players ahead of the clash with the Magpies, although the hosts are still set to be without three of their troops against Eddie Howe's side.

Arsenal sit five places and 18 points better off than Newcastle in third spot in the Premier League rankings, five points adrift of leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.