“Mistakes happen.” Remember that? Mikel Arteta should.

That was the Arsenal boss’ response after the farce surrounding Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal at Tottenham back in September 2023.

To this day, that remains the worst error made in a Premier League game - and don’t let Micah Richards convince you otherwise. There is simply no way you can defend a group of referees seeing what the right decision is, clear as daylight, and still somehow managing to reach the wrong outcome.

If you’d listened to Arteta and a lot of his contemporaries though, you’d be forgiven for thinking what should have been a watershed moment in the way Premier League games are officiated was simply just another run of the mill call that could have gone either way.

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“[The officials] are trying to make the best decisions. We need to understand that mistakes happen,” was Arteta’s response when he was asked about the incident shortly afterwards.

Yes, it was a mistake, but this wasn’t just any other error. For Arteta not to back Liverpool up at that moment demonstrated the ridiculous levels of tribalism and set him up to be exposed as a hypocrite should he go on to complain about referees in the future - lo and behold, the Arsenal boss has delivered.

Less than two months later, Arteta was ranting to reporters about the awarding of Anthony Gordon’s goal against his side at Newcastle. Replays showed the ball may have rolled out of play before Joe Willock crossed the ball in - the key word there being “may.“

“It’s embarrassing. That’s how I feel and that’s how everybody feels in that [dressing] room. You cannot imagine the amount of messages we’ve got saying this cannot continue,” Arteta raged, clearly failing to realize that he was now doing just what he’d told Liverpool not to do.

“I feel sick. That’s how I feel. I feel sick to be part of this. It is not good enough and we cannot accept that.”

Funny how we should all be rising up against the system when it affects you, isn’t it Mikel?

There’s little evidence of the Arsenal boss being aware of his own hypocrisy though, having rallied against Michael Oliver and VAR after Myles Lewis-Skelly’s controversial sending-off at Wolves on Saturday.

"It is that clear and I will leave it to you guys," Arteta told Sky Sports immediately after his side’s 1-0 win. "I am absolutely fuming. But I will leave it with you, it is that obvious that I don't think my words are going to help."

Well, it is obvious what he thinks, and he is being backed up by plenty of pundits. The question is, where was all this outrage when the most egregious error in Premier League history had been made?

The consensus is that Lewis-Skelly’s challenge as he caught Matt Doherty just as Wolves looked to break out from their own penalty area was not worth of a red card - but it still remains a judgment call, and even though they might be in the minority, there will be those who think the way in which the Arsenal youngster raised his foot in the challenge is enough to be sent off.

Arteta is well within his rights to be aggrieved by that decision and the fact that Lewis-Skelly could now be missing three games if it is not overturned. But having waved away Liverpool’s legitimate anger at Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal, why should anyone take his own rage seriously after a call that could be considered right by some?

All he has done is once again expose the ridiculous manner in which Liverpool was treated by its rivals in the immediate aftermath of that farce at Tottenham less than 18 months ago. And until any of them are finally willing to back the Reds up, they can’t expect any sympathy in the opposite direction.