Graeme Souness has made headlines for calling Bukayo Saka a 'cheat', accusing the Arsenal forward of diving "when he should be staying on his feet"
Mikel Arteta has explained he is "not going to speak about opinions," following Graeme Souness's claim that Bukayo Saka is a "cheat." Souness sparked controversy earlier this week during an appearance on Piers Morgan's Football Uncensored programme, where the former hard-tackling Liverpool midfielder branded Saka a diver "when he should be staying on his feet."
He said: "Your man Saka dives all over the place. I don't want to hear about him. The minute he looks like losing possession, he's down.
"He simulates a foul. Anyone who simulates a foul in my book would be a cheat. He dives when he should be staying on his feet.
"He's not alone. So Saka gets tackled, he screams as he's going down. The referee thinks there's nothing in that but wait a minute, he's stayed down.
"And then worse than that, everyone in the immediate area - all Arsenal players - put their hands up and scream foul. The referee at that point panics and blows his whistle when it wasn't a foul - his first instinct was the right one.
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"But he blows a foul because he's thinking, 'Wait a minute, something I'm not understanding here.' Simulation is a form of cheating, yes.
"But it's all over football today. If you asked 100 people what is it you dislike about the modern game, 50 per cent would say simulation, another 50 per cent would say VAR."
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Now, Arteta has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of engaging with Souness's remarks. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday evening ahead of Arsenal's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, the Spaniard said: "I haven't heard it and I'm not going to talk about opinions."
When pressed on whether outside opinions could prove damaging to players by tarnishing their reputation, Arteta responded: "I don't know. We are open to opinions.
"It's part of our job, it's part of our roles and those opinions need to be respected - especially if they are done in a respectful way. And we are here to prove that we belong to this level, to this stage and certainly always have the intention and ambition to improve and be better. That's it."
Saka is widely expected to play a pivotal role as the Gunners take on the Bavarians at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday evening. Kick-off is scheduled for 8pm.