Antonio Conte critical of Mikel Arteta’s fuss about Arsenal’s fixture
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
Tottenham’s manager, Antonio Conte, has hit out at Mikel Arteta for complaining about Arsenal’s fixture stating that the Arsenal manager has no grounds for complaint.
Arsenal asked for the Tottenham fixture to be re-arranged due to their issues at the time with COVID, injuries and players on international duty earlier this year. A new date for the game has yet to be confirmed and Arteta has already hit out at the Premier League for their scheduling after handing Arsenal two Saturday lunchtime kick-offs following Wednesday night games in their remaining 11 games.
Arteta criticised the Premier League for scheduling his team to play Liverpool on Wednesday night and then Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime, sarcastically saying “thank you to the Premier League” and calling it “not fair”.
Conte reminds Arteta of Arsenal’s postponed fixture
However, Antonio Conte did not take Arteta’s criticism of Premier League well and instead reminded the Tottenham manager of the fixture that was postponed in January.
Conte said: “Arteta should remember the game postponed. Tottenham-Arsenal. If we speak about unfair …”
Pushed to elaborate, he said: “In general, I think my answer is enough. If someone wants to think about fair or unfair, [it was] postponed the game, Tottenham-Arsenal, if you remember. I don’t forget this. And it’s not right to speak about fair or unfair.”
The decision to request the North London derby postponement sparked fury at Tottenham with the Gunners having just one confirmed COVID case at the time and injuries and call-ups issues all top clubs have to deal with not considered worthy reason to ask for a game to be postponed.
Asked if he was concerned by when the clash will be rearranged for during Friday’s press conference, Arteta replied: “Yes. Because I don’t know and we’re not going to be deciding and it is going to be very important.”
When asked if he would be speaking to top-flight bosses about the issue, he said: “That is nothing to do with me. The club has to arrange that.”
Arsenal are currently fourth in the Premier League table, one point ahead of Manchester United with a game in hand.
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Sandipan Roy
(207 Articles Published)