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Arsene Wenger faces FA ban for pushing fourth official Anthony Taylor during Arsenal's win over Burnley
Arsene Wenger is facing a touchline ban despite his apology for pushing fourth official Anthony Taylor after he had already been sent off for a furious verbal outburst.
The Football Association will today study referee Jonathan Moss’s report into the dramatic ending to Arsenal’s 2-1 win against Burnley but, amid the prospect of a misconduct charge, Wenger immediately admitted that he was in the wrong.
With Arsenal leading 1-0 and already down to 10 men following the earlier dismissal of Granit Xhaka, Wenger complained angrily to Taylor when Moss awarded a penalty against Francis Coquelin that allowed Burnley to equalise in added time.
Wenger was sent to the stands for his bad language but then, as he stood at the edge of the tunnel and Taylor motioned for him to leave the side of the pitch completely, he twice put his hands on the fourth official. Arsenal recovered still to win the game with a controversial 97th minute penalty and Wenger made no attempt to defend his behaviour. “I didn’t know if I was sent to the stands but I was sent out,” he said. “I thought I could watch it from the corridor. I regret everything. I should have shut up, gone in and gone home. I apologise for that.
“It was nothing bad. I said something that you hear every day in football. Overall, nine times out of ten, you are not sent to the stand for that. If I am, I am, and I should have shut up completely. I had been quite calm the whole game, more than usual but just in the last 2-3 minutes...”
Wenger was unable to explain why he was quite so angry, although he said that his first thought was that Coquelin had not given away a foul. It is not the first time that Wenger has lost his composure on the touchline. He has clashed previously with opposition managers, most famously when he shoved Jose Mourinho. The Manchester United manager has since persistently suggested that Wenger is treated more leniently by the FA but they will now investigate.
There was a previous precedent in 2012 when Alan Pardew, then the manager of Newcastle United, pushed assistant referee Peter Kirkup and received a two-game touchline ban and a fine of £20,000. The Premier League launched a new “zero tolerance” crackdown on abusive touchline behaviour at the start of the season and the FA also currently want to reinvigorate their Respect campaign.
Despite his own indiscipline, Wenger had a warning for Xhaka, who is himself suspended for the next four matches after a second straight red card of the season for a two-footed lunge on Steven Defour.
“He has to control his game and not punish the team with a lack of control in his tackling,” said Wenger. “We don’t encourage our midfielders to go down on tackles. We want them to stand up and not make these kind of faults.”
Wenger also felt Burnley’s Ben Mee should be sent off for the high challenge on Laurent Koscielny that led to Arsenal’s penalty, although replays showed that the Arsenal captain had been offside.
Arsenal had also scored a controversial late winner against Burnley earlier in the season when Koscielny was accused of a handball. “You can't believe the decision,” said Burnely manager Sean Dyche. “The mad thing about it is they [the assistant referee] have to wait until something happens to put the flag up. The linesman has to be brave. He's offside; simple as that. You don't want to be crying, you just hope for balance over the season. It has cost us another point, so that's two against Arsenal.”
Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness believes Wenger was fortunate that a steward intervened.
"You just can’t do this," he said. "Obviously he’s not gone far back enough in the tunnel and he raises his arms and he pushes him. The security man has done himself a big favour there by getting in the way."