Mikel Arteta described his Arsenal side as “sensational” and the Premier League title race well and truly open after victory in the North London derby.
“I am very proud of the team, we were sensational,” said Arteta. “The attitude we played with – not feeling sorry for ourselves – was phenomenal.”
After Son Heung-min’s deflected effort gave Spurs a 25th minute lead, Arsenal turned it around before half-time as a Dominic Solanke own goal and a Leandro Trossard strike moved Arsenal into second place, four points behind Liverpool.
“Yes, we are,” replied Arteta when asked if his side were now in a genuine title battle. “There is so much to play for and we can see how difficult it is to win. When you have opportunities [to close the gap] you have to take them. We are on a really consistent run in the Premier League.”
While Arsenal have momentum towards the top of the table, Spurs will drop to 14th place if Manchester United beat Southampton. And as his side slumped to an ELEVENTH Premier League defeat of the season, Ange Postecoglou pulled no punches.
He declared: “I’m really disappointed with the way we played. We allowed them to dictate the tempo. This can’t be acceptable in any way.” Replays showed that the corner that led to Arsenal’s equaliser should have actually been a Spurs goal-kick.
But Postecoglou refused to make any excuses, saying: “It wasn’t a corner but we were nowhere near the level we need to be in such a big game. Our form in the league has been nowhere near good enough and that has to change.”
And Declan Rice rubbed salt into Spurs wounds by claiming Arsenal could have hit double figures. The Gunners midfielder smiled: “You could tell tonight meant more than anything. The first 45 minutes was just pure domination.
“We showed that intent, that pressure, that desire. You could tell it was a derby. To be honest, I think we are unlucky we didn’t score 10 today. That’s the feeling. You don’t need a message. When you play Spurs, you know what it means to the fans.
“If you’re a player and you can’t get up for Spurs, you shouldn’t be playing football. You need to have that fire in your belly. We had that tonight. In the second half, the game got stretched, they could have maybe scored a couple, but we could have had another five or six.”
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