Mikel Arteta did a José Mourinho impression after Harry Kane made history in the North London derby
An angry Mikel Arteta channelled José Mourinho in his post-match interview after Spurs smashed 10-man Arsenal.
The Gunners began the game on the front foot but a Harry Kane penalty followed by a Rob Holding red card turned the game inexplorably towards Spurs midway through the first-half and the end result was Spurs’ biggest home league win against Arsenal for 39 years.
Mikel Arteta, however, was furious at the refereeing calls that went against his team and channelled his inner José Mourinho. “If I say what I think, I am suspended six months. So I cannot say,” said the Basque coach, before going a little bit Scarface: “I am allowed to give my interpretation of what happened in the game, but I don’t know how to lie, and I don’t like lying, so I prefer not to say what I think.”
When pressed for his reaction to the refereeing calls, Arteta refused to say anything. “I cannot say what I think, I will be suspended,” and turned the focus back onto the referee: “Have the referee to come in front of the camera and explain his decisions. His decisions. I made mine, [those are] his decisions. It’s a shame because a beautiful game was destroyed today.”
Arteta decided to turn his focus onto Monday night’s clash: “I’m now focused on Newcastle, that’s our focus. This game is history.”
On Gabriel leaving the field with an injury contributing to the team’s selection issues in defence, Arteta said: “he felt something so hopefully Ben will be fit and hopefully we will recover Gabi, because if not obviously we don’t have enough players in the back-line.”
Arteta was clearly upset at how the North London derby went, but was determined to move on and focus on the positives of those early minutes. “This is gone, we know how it went out of our hands, and we have to accept it and now go to Newcastle and be the team that we are. The team that you see right from the beginning in this stadium.”
“You lost a football match in the conditions that we lost them, it’s painful but that pain can be sustained but we have a huge match on Monday. And now talk about excitement of playing against Newcastle and trying to beat them.”
On the state of the top four race with Arsenal, where the Gunners lead Spurs by one point, Arteta was focused: “we have two games to play, both of us, and as you said it’s in our hands and now we have to do our job.”
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As much as this game is history, Harry Kane etched his name into the history books with his brace here today. The Spurs striker now has 13 league goals against Arsenal, which is more than anyone else has ever scored against the Gunners.
The list of players with the most Premier League goals against Arsenal is as follows:
- Harry Kane (Tottenham): 13 goals (15 appearances)
- Wayne Rooney (Everton, Man Utd): 12 (29)
- Jamie Vardy (Leicester): 11 (14)
- Robbie Fowler (Liverpool, Man City): 10 (18)
- Didier Drogba (Chelsea): 8 (12)
- Sergio Aguero (Man City): 8 (15)
