Antonio Conte, who moaned for months about Arsenal after the January postponement, has told Mikel Arteta not to complain so much after Thursday night’s game.
Speaking after Arsenal’s defeat to Spurs at White Hart Lane, that saw Paul Tierney reward Son’s dive with a penalty while he also ignored a number of elbows by the same player in order to send Rob Holding off for his own elbow, Mikel Arteta was clear he was not happy.
“I cannot do it [speak about the referee], Arteta told reporters.
“I just want to say that I am really proud of my players but obviously we didn’t get the result that we wanted. I can’t wait to play on Monday.
“I want to be on the touchline on Monday night. No [I can’t talk] because I will be suspended.
“You can ask the referee if he wants to come and give an assessment of the match. I can do it but I have two options, I can lie to you, which I don’t do, or if not I will be suspended and I really want to be on the touchline against Newcastle.”
In response to that, Antonio Conte, whose own moaning can be read below, said, “Mikel Arteta is a really good coach. He has just started to do this job and I think that I listen to him complain a lot.
“I think that he has to be focused more to his team and not to go to complain because he has just started this work.
“I think that he has to be calm and try to continue to work because he is very good but to listen to a coach complain a lot of times is not good.
“It’s OK. The red card for me was clear.”
March 2022
Antonio Conte has been crying again about the Spurs-Arsenal game being called off, moaning about Mikel Arteta saying that playing Sunday-Wednesday-early Saturday twice in a season is unfair.
If you listen to Tottenham, you’d think that they had never asked to have a game called off during the height of the Covid cancellations.
Drooling at the thought of playing Arsenal, who had half their squad missing due to injuries, Spurs are still furious that the game was postponed, despite Arsenal operating within the guidelines that ALL clubs, including Tottenham, agreed to.
With Mikel Arteta highlighting that it was unfair to ask Arsenal to play on a Sunday, then late Wednesday followed by the 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday – and not for the first time – the whole of football is up in arms, yet again because it’s Arsenal.
“Arteta should remember the game postponed. Tottenham-Arsenal. If we speak about unfair,” Conte said, being deliberately stupid.
“In general, I think my answer is enough. If someone wants to think about fair or unfair, [it was] postponed the game, Tottenham-Arsenal, if you remember. I don’t forget this.
“And it’s not right to speak about fair or unfair.”
— Saurabh Mulik (@saurabhmulik) March 19, 2022
So, he says it’s not right to speak about ‘fair or unfair’ while doing just that.
Was it fair to Rennes when Spurs cancelled their game after the French side had already travelled?
Was it fair when they had their game against Brighton postponed? Do you hear Brighton still going on about it?
Was it fair when they had their game against Leicester postponed? Do you hear Leicester still going on about it?
Was it fair that every other side was allowed to request to have games cancelled but when Arsenal did it against Spurs, it suddenly became a problem?
It doesn’t matter if you only play one game every three weeks, you can’t store that sort of fitness.
Playing with such a short recovery time is not good for any players.
It’s why previous managers have complained about playing Wednesday-Saturday before, without much fuss being made about it.
But it’s Arsenal, so this is what happens.
For the record, when teams are playing in European games on a Wednesday, they usually play on a Sunday in the league.
Spurs, who played earlier than Arsenal on Wednesday night (in the league), play on Sunday this week.