Arsenal 'weren't respectful' after beating Tottenham, says Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino has stoked the fire ahead of Wednesday’s north London derby by claiming Arsenal “weren’t respectful” in their celebrations after beating Spurs 4-2 at the Emirates earlier this month.
Arsenal players posted selfies on social media of themselves revelling in the win, which Pochettino said at the time he took as a compliment to his team.
Speaking after Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Burnley on Saturday, however, Pochettino suggested Arsenal’s players showed a lack of respect - though he added that such a reaction was understandable. “Of course it hurt because it is a derby but in case we win it is going to be the same,” he said. “It is not to be disrespectful – I think they weren’t respectful to us. They showed their happiness for their fans from the changing room but that is fair enough.”
Pochettino was delighted with his side's resolve in overcoming a stubborn Burnley side, but his preparations for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final at the Emirates took a hit on Sunday with the news that Eric Dier will be out until January after undergoing surgery to remove his appendix.
Spurs are already suffering a defensive injury crisis that saw Jan Vertonghen, Juan Foyth, Davinson Sanchez and Serge Aurier all miss the Burnley win through injury.
It leaves Pochettino potentially light at the back against an Arsenal attack that destroyed the Tottenham defence just over two weeks ago. Spurs though have responded well since that defeat and now find themselves five points ahead of their north London rivals.
In spite of the inevitable focus on Wednesday, Pochettino warned against being overly pre-occupied with the Arsenal rivalry, and insisted his team are only worried about their own results.
“If you lose your focus, focus on another club, maybe you need to improve if you are to achieve the thing you are dreaming of,” he said. “Tottenham was a little way loose in focus [in the past] and I think now the focus is to improve yourself, compete, and the challenge is be better every season. The consequence will be to be above some clubs but the focus is never on another club like Arsenal.”
Pochettino also pleaded with the Tottenham fans to avoid a repeat of the incident that saw a fan throw a banana skin at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when the sides met at the start of the month. After a week that saw a Chelsea fan allegedly racially abuse Raheem Sterling and a section of the club's supporters sing an anti-Semitic chant in Budapest, Pochettino stressed that he sees racism as "the worst thing in the world".
He added: "Our fans, Arsenal fans, Chelsea fans, around the world – we need to celebrate for us. I don’t care if it is Arsenal fans, Argentina fans, Tottenham fans, Espanyol or Barcelona fans – I am against this type of situation. For me it is the worst thing in the world and that is why I am completely against this behaviour. I don’t want to be populist – I don’t care whether it is our fans or other fans, I want to kill. Our responsibility is to behave.”
On Saturday against Burnley there were familiar “Yids” chants from the Tottenham supporters, but otherwise the match passed without incident at a half-full Wembley.
Until Christian Eriksen popped up with a stoppage-time winner, it had looked like being a frustrating afternoon for Tottenham. Instead they pulled off their 10th league win from 12 matches and kept their faint title hopes alive.
For Burnley, there was huge frustration at losing the game so late after effectively containing Spurs for 90 minutes. The defeat, coupled with Southampton's win over Arsenal, saw Burnley end the weekend in the relegation zone.
Manager Sean Dyche is confident though that his side's improved performances will soon translate into points. “I know the group so it’s not about being concerned,” he said. “It’s about registering the realities of the job. The realities are you can have a bad day at the office - we had one recently [against Crystal Palace], but equally you can correct that very quickly and we have done.
“Now of course you've got to add on getting actual results, and we did against Brighton and I thought were very close today.”
