The only thing saltier than Mikel Arteta right now is the Dead Sea, and Antonio Conte is here to twist the knife.
Following Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 thrashing of Arsenal on Thursday night, Mikel Arteta chose to deflect blame by insinuating that everything is awful and we may as well stop watching because the beautiful game was destroyed.
No, seriously: That is a direct quote.
Among some of the other quotes that stick out was “I don’t know how to lie” which….we could rewind back to January but let’s focus on the here and now because that’s way more fun.
Enter Antonio Conte, who twisted the knife as far as he could.
Conte: “I listen to Arteta complain a lot. I think he needs to be more focused on his job & not complain a lot. Because he has just started this job. To listen to a coach complain a lot of times is not good. .. Against Liverpool, I said nothing about what happened with Fabinho.”
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) May 12, 2022
I didn’t stop there. I have kept going, and it’s just wonderful.
#thfc Conte still going. “If you remember he complained about the fixtures…& Arsenal postponed a game in an incredible way, for Covid when they had 1 player with Covid. I don’t forget this.” Then he makes the point that he could complain about having to play Burnley at 12noon Sun.
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) May 12, 2022
This is how you cement yourself in Spurs lore: You thrash Arsenal and then you spend your post-match dunking on them.
Rob Holding has nobody to blame but himself for getting sent off. It was clear he had one goal in mind when the match started: Sh*thouse with Son and try to knock him off his game. The problem is that Holding sucks at sh*thousing and he worked himself into a shoot by taking it way too far. Right now there are Arsenal supporters on social media crying about Holding’s second yellow, saying it shouldn’t have been anything. They then point to Son and Holding getting tied up and try to say Son should have been sent off during that.
That’s rich, because Holding kicked Son square in the back before that and should have been gone then.
In the end, Holding got send off and Spurs capitalized on the mistake. Conte took his victory lap in the best way possible while Arteta is left trying to piece together what remains of his squad. They’ll have an extra day of rest for their match against Newcastle on Monday, but with Gabriel and Martinelli both going off with injuries, they may be the walking wounded against a Newcastle side that’s been pretty damn good the last several weeks. Spurs will face Burnley on Sunday, giving them a chance to jump the Gunners and put pressure on them.