'Very aggressive' Arsene Wenger called Mike Dean 'a disgrace' after Arsenal's draw at West Brom

Arsene Wenger accused Mike Dean of being “not honest” and “a disgrace”, leading to his three-match touchline ban, the Football Association revealed today.

Wenger has just served his three-game ban for misconduct following his behaviour in the immediate aftermath of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion on 31 December last year. Arsenal drew that game after referee Dean awarded a controversial late penalty to the hosts.

On 5 January the FA announced that Wenger would serve a three-game touchline ban and would be fined £40,000 for his comments. On Tuesday afternoon they released their written reasons from the independent regulatory commission.

The reasons include statements from Dean, both assistant referees Simon Long and Ian Hussin and fourth official Christopher Kavanagh. All four testimonies say that Wenger came into the officials’ changing room after the game, and all four say that he was behaving “aggressively”.

They say that Wenger repeatedly said to Dean “you are not honest”, and that when Dean asked if Wenger was calling him a cheat, that Wenger responded: “I maintain what I say, you’re not honest.”

Then Wenger – according to all four witnesses – said to Dean: “You’ve done this to us many times before, you’re supposed to be a professional, you’re a disgrace.” Wenger was then escorted away by stewards.

The commission declared that there was “simply no justification from this behaviour” from Wenger. They noted that this was not his first offence, and that earlier last year Wenger served a four-game touchline ban for another breach of FA Rule E3 following Arsenal’s game with Burnley on 22 January 2017.

Because Wenger had questioned the integrity of Mike Dean, and recognising that this was his second misconduct offence in a year, the commission “considered a four-match touchline ban to be appropriate”, as well as a £50,000 fine. But because Wenger admitted the charge, as well as additional mitigation from Arsenal, they decided to ban him for three games, and fine him £40,000. The commission also considered a stadium ban for Wenger – similar to the one-game stadium ban Jose Mourinho faced as Chelsea manager in November 2015 – but “agreed it was not warranted in this case”.

However, the commission warned that in case of another misconduct breach from Wenger, “it is expected that a Regulatory Commission would consider” a stadium ban.

The FA have also formally warned Wenger for comments he made before and after Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea on 3 January, in which he suggested that there was a campaign of penalty decisions given against his side.