Antonio Conte Hits Back At Arteta To Stop Complaining After Arsenal Defeat To Tottenham.
Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte tells Mikel Arteta to stop complaining following Arsenal 3-0 defeat against Spurs in the fierce North London Derby on Thursday night.
Mikel Arteta was furious by referee Paul Tierney’s decisions during the game as he expressed his anger for jeopardising his team’s chances of qualifying the Champions League football next season.
Arteta was livid after Tierney awarded Spurs a 22nd-minute penalty to Spurs, which Harry Kane converted, and then sent off Rob Holding for a second bookable offence after 33 minutes. Kane added another and Son Heung-min completed the scoring to give Spurs a resounding 3-0 win that keeps hopes alive for a top four finish.
“If I say what I think I will be suspended for six months and I want to be on the touchline for our next game on Monday night,” Arteta said after the game.
“I want the referee to come in front of the cameras and explain his decisions because we were so excited to play this game and this beautiful occasion was destroyed tonight.
I haven’t spoken with Rob Holding but you can imagine that having to leave so early in a huge match like this is very tough.”
Conte on the other hand, hit back strongly at Arteta, who had annoyed him last month when he complained about Arsenal’s fixture list. You may recall that Arteta was not pleased and vented some of his frustration at the fixture schedule of playing Leicester, Liverpool and Aston Villa in the space of one week in March, and also played Chelsea and Man United in three days in April.
The Italian manager believes that Arteta have no rights to moan after Arsenal succeeding in getting the original game at Spurs postponed in January due to a selection crisis even though it was not influenced by positive Covid cases.
“Arteta is a really good coach but he has just started this job and he has to be more focused on his team and not to keep complaining,” Conte said.
“In six months here at Spurs, I have listened to him complaining a lot. He needs to be more calm. But if he doesn’t want to accept my advice, I don’t care.
“The red card was clear for me and if we want to complain we have the opportunity every game to talk about referees, decisions and postponed games. If you remember, Arsenal did well to postpone this game in an incredible way when only one player had Covid. I didn’t forget this because it made us a bit angry.
“If we want to complain I can also ask why we have to play again on Sunday at 12 o’clock and Arsenal do not play until Monday night and have one more day’s rest.”
Spurs, who have closed the gap to within one point of their north London rivals, can overtake them on Sunday with a win against Burnley at home, before going away to Norwich City on May 22 for their last game of the season.
Arsenal who are under immense pressure, would visit Newcastle United on Monday night, and finally take on relegation threatened Everton at home on closing day.
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