Tottenham Hotspur kept their top-four hopes alive on Thursday night when they picked up a convincing 3-0 win in the North London Derby over Arsenal.
A vital moment in the matchup that gave Spurs the advantage was the two yellow cards picked up by Rob Holding, leading to the red and sending The Gunners down a man towards the end of the first half.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta didn’t like the way the fixture was officiated, with the red card being the spotlight of his unhappiness towards the official. Nonetheless, Antonio Conte called out the Spanish tactician to stop worrying about the referees and focus on his squad.
“He complains a lot,” the Italian said of Arteta, per BT Sport. “He has to focus more on his team. He has to focus more on his work. He has to continue to work because he’s a very good (coach). To hear someone complain all the time is not so good. At Liverpool (on Saturday) do you hear me complain about Fabinho and all the fouls? No.”
“He can take my advice if he wants, but if not, I don’t care. I listen, and he complains a lot. I think that he has to be more focused on his team and not to complain because he has just started his work. He has to be calm and try to continue to work. To listen to a coach complain a lot of the time is not good.”
There are two fixtures left in the Premier League season with various scenarios to see Arsenal and Tottenham clinch a top-four finish and UEFA Champions League football for next season.
Finishing outside of the top four would alter the two clubs’ summer plans with how they want to improve their squad considering the budget sizes will change.
They may be annoying but Arteta comments are smart. Deflects from the results and creates a siege mentality. It’s exactly what Fergie/Wenger/Klopp/Pep would have done
After years of Auntie Wenger moaning, Arteta is carrying on the tradition… Holding fully deserved to be sent off.
They bottled the original fixture and bottled last night… who cares about them
Who cares about this chatter? Jose moans all the time. Pep and Klopp too. I’ll be interested when teams start earning/losing points for postgame chatter.
I love the way he’s being slightly condescending too by saying about giving “advice’. I can only imagine that Arteta has behaved like an unpleasant little sh*t behind the scenes for Conte to react like this.
Conte will be thinking; “you’ve been in this job five minutes compared to me son, stop whining like a little child…”
Totally pathetic, out of his depth.
So what if Ar5ena1 were decent for the first 15 mins? Conte lets the opponent have a fair share of the ball, and guess what? The game lasts 90 plus stoppage.
This is so juvenile, unless he grows up a bit he’s never going to make it as a manager. Regardless of him being a Gooner, I have never really warmed to the bloke. He seems arrogant to me and arrogance can be ok, but when it’s just a facade for being a poor loser or to distract from your own shortcomings then it’s just childish…
I think Arteta showed his weaknesses in his team and especially in his character with his post match interviews, pathetic.
Conte was right to call out Arteta. He is a bad loser apparently, and as for Holding he should have been booked even earlier than he was. The lad had obviously been told by his manager to bully Son and when it backfired big time Arteta took the easy option and blamed the ref rather than himself. Cowardly.
Go on Antonio, get stuck in son!
Klopp2. Always something other than the facts of the game. The last time a referee swallow his whistle once too often in an important game, that player scored and we loss a cup. I thought it was a fair challenge until I saw the replay with his elbow coming out. Ref was at the right spot.