Maybe
You're wrong, no?
It doesn't matter in the end what Arteta said, the only thing that matters is how he deals with the situation. It's more of a test for Arteta than it is for Pepe. If he plans to go in a war with every player that he doesn't like, it's gonna be a rough career for him.Managers don't have favorite players i don't think Arteta coming defending pepe would have made things better because it'll make players more comfortable I'm sure things will be dealt with in training
Players much bigger than Pepe did worse things than he did. He is 25, probably lower IQ than usual, so I'm not shocked by what he did. Arteta needs to show more than just being a raw manager fighting players all the time. If he wants to be the best, making something out of Pepe would be a great accomplishment, it would be a statement that he can deal with difficulties.
Let's not forget that all time great SAF had to deal with Cantona, but the benefit of that was bigger than just getting rid of a talented player like he was