Antonio Conte has hit out at Mikel Arteta for “complaining a lot” as the Arsenal boss felt several decisions went against his side in the North London derby.
Conte: "This is my advice. If he wants to accept my advice this is good, otherwise.. I don't care." https://t.co/hY1yHn7dUJ
— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley) May 12, 2022
Tottenham dealt a huge blow to the Gunners’ top four chances as they closed the gap on their rivals to a single point with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night.
The Lilywhites took the lead through Harry Kane penalty before Rob Holding was sent off, receiving a second yellow, for elbowing Son in the face.
It was clear that Arteta believed both decisions were wrong but the Spaniard refused to talk about the incidents in his post-match interview.
Refusing to go into too much information given the risk of a possible suspension from The FA coming his way if he did, the Spaniard claimed that the game had been “destroyed”.
“I cannot do it [talk about the referees]. I’m really proud of my players and I’m looking forward to Monday night [vs Newcastle]. I want to be on the touchline on Monday night. I don’t want to be suspended,” he said.
Following Arteta’s post-match comments, Conte was asked about what his counterpart had said and made his feelings perfectly clear on the Arsenal boss.
Antonio Conte has hit out at Mikel Arteta for “complaining a lot”. (Image:Getty)
“I think that Mikel Arteta is a really good coach. He’s being a really good coach. He’s just started to do this job and I think that I hear him complain a lot. I think that he needs to be focused more on his team and not to complain,” Conte said.
“Because he has just started his work and I think he has to be calm and to try to continue to work. Because he’s very good but to listen to a coach complain a lot of time is not good.”
🗣 "I genuinely don't know where he's coming from with that interview."
Jamie Redknapp can't understand why Mikel Arteta is angry with the referee after the game, and says Paul Tierney got all the big decisions correct pic.twitter.com/pB8DFfLicL
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 12, 2022
“But it’s ok, the red card for me it was clear. Don’t forget against Liverpool I said nothing what happened with Fabinho, a lot of time, because if we want to complain we have the possibility every game to speak about the referee, about the decision, about the postponed game, I think that this is the advice if you want to accept the advice. If you don’t I don’t care.”
He added: “If you remember he complained about the fixture. It is not good to complain. Arsenal were good to postpone a game in an incredible way with Covid and they only had one player with Covid. I didn’t forget this. If he wants to complain, we have a lot of possibilities to complain.
“Now, today I can complain about why I have to play on Sunday at 12pm and Arsenal has to play on Monday night. And they have one day more rest. We played against Leicester, Liverpool, Arsenal and now after only two days we have to play and we have to play the first game at 12pm.”
The victory moves Tottenham to within one point of Arsenal with two matches remaining.