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José Mourinho accused some of his players of “hiding” during Tottenham’s North London derby loss to Arsenal, pointing to a lack of intensity that led to Gareth Bale and Tanguy Nbombele being substituted early in the second half. .
The Spurs were deservedly beaten at the Emirates despite a late 10-man rally after Erik Lamela, who had opened the scoring, was sent off. An Arsenal team that lost Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was left on the bench for disciplinary reasons that were understood to involve match day timing, dominated for long periods and won with a penalty shot by Alexandre Lacazette that Mourinho described as “A criminal offense.”
The main target of Mourinho’s frustration was a slow performance in the first half in which he admitted Tottenham were lucky to be level despite scoring through a nifty goal from Lamela. “We were poor,” he said about the first 45 minutes. Defend badly, without intensity, without pressing. As for offensive football, some important players are hiding. Very bad.”
Mourinho said that “he did not point his finger at player A, B or C” but criticized “people hide, they do not show themselves, there is no intensity, there are no passes and they move.” Bale and Ndombele were substituted in the 57th and 62nd minutes respectively, with Moussa Sissoko and Dele Alli entering.
When asked specifically about Bale, he said: “Gareth and Tanguy, we need more intensity in our game. We need to push harder, be more intense in the game ”. Lacazette scored from the spot shortly after those changes were made. Michael Oliver and VAR official Paul Tierney judged Davinson Sánchez’s foul on the Arsenal forward, committed a split second after Lacazette missed a shot, deserved a penalty, but Mourinho viewed those decisions with contempt.
“I don’t want to call it a penalty because it’s a penalty shootout,” he said. “If someone has a different opinion, they have to be one of the great Arsenal fans with a season ticket; It is the only one that I accept since it is the passion that speaks. Other than that, I don’t accept a different point of view, as it is obvious. ”
A much happier Mikel Arteta could enjoy Arsenal’s first derby win since December 2018, along with a display that justified his decision to stick to his principles and skip Aubameyang, who had been in good shape. “I made what I thought was the right decision and we drew a line there,” he said. “We know how important Auba is for the club and that’s it. It has already been fixed, now let’s move on. “
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Arsenal are 10 points behind the Champions League spots, but have won three and drawn one of their last five games against the current best seven, with West Ham and Liverpool as their next two league rivals. “Until it is mathematically impossible, we are going to believe and prove it for sure,” he said.
