Arsene Wenger has criticised Tottenham for their lack of respect during Arsenal’s 1-1 North London derby draw…
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has accused Tottenham of showing a lack of respect to the fans with their time wasting attempts during Saturday’s North London derby.
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Despite having had 69% of the possession over the course of the game, Arsenal still struggled to break down a Tottenham side that were very compact defensively.
Apart from a few brief spells where Mauricio Pochettino’s side had sustained possession Spurs seemed content to let Arsenal keep the ball, and seemed to be happy to play out the draw.
Arsene Wenger was not happy with their time wasting tactics, claiming they did everything they could to run the clock down.
“I have never known us to have so much possession against a Tottenham team, but you have to say they defended well,” Wenger told Arsenal.com.
“But they took every second they could to make the game last for as little as possible. They tried to gain time, to slow the game down.”
“I would like to see an English referee act against that in a proper way. The referee is there to make the game flow, people pay money to watch football. It is respect to the people who pay money and the referee should book players straight away.”
With Arsenal fans in some cases paying upwards of £100 for a ticket, Arsene Wenger feels honour bound to give the fans what they came to see; a football game.
Time wasting has become a large part of the game nowadays, with some smaller teams running down the clock right from kick-off. It is something Arsenal are not often guilty of, although I’m sure there are plenty of games that their fans wish they would have wasted a little more time.
Wenger may not be happy about Tottenham’s tactics, but in truth the Gunners weren’t good enough on Saturday, and a point was no more or less than the somewhat toothless side deserved.