Emery tells Arsenal to continue on the winning trail after Tottenham are toppled

Posted Monday, December 03, 2018 by PA

Unai Emery has called for his Arsenal side to give even more after they put in a thrilling display to beat Tottenham 4-2 in a feisty encounter.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s double and goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira gave Emery the winning feeling in his first north London derby and further strengthened Arsenal’s top-four credentials.

But that does not tell even half of the story as Spurs led 2-1 at the break, thanks to Eric Dier’s goal which sparked a mad touchline melee, and Harry Kane’s penalty, while Jan Vertonghen was also sent off in the closing 10 minutes.

Emery tells Arsenal to continue on the winning trail after Tottenham are toppled — North London honours went to Arsenal (Nick Potts/PA)

The Gunners made it 19 games unbeaten in all competitions and Emery is now focusing on another testing examination away at Manchester United in midweek.

“Now I am thinking of the match on Wednesday in Manchester,” he said. “It is a very big victory, we showed our supporters and we gave them the victory because it is a very special match against Tottenham, for us it is special also.

“But above all it is three points, like against Bournemouth. We are happy, we are enjoying, but shocked because Tottenham are on 30 points like us.

“We need to continue our process, creating our way. Today was very big things, for our confidence this was a very good match.”

Live pictures from north London… 😉#ARSTOT #NorthLondonDerby pic.twitter.com/DzT55ZM0rn
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) December 2, 2018

Mesut Ozil was not included in the matchday squad as he suffered from back spasms and Emery was not prepared to discuss the matter further.

He was asked whether the German would be fit for the Old Trafford game and also if he was at the game on Sunday, to which he responded “I don’t know” on both occasions.

He also said: “It’s a good day to speak about the players that played today.”

Live pictures from north London… 😉#ARSTOT #NorthLondonDerby pic.twitter.com/DzT55ZM0rn
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) December 2, 2018

For Spurs a good week ended on a low note as they could not follow up wins against Chelsea and Inter Milan, despite their strong finish to the first half.

Mauricio Pochettino was forced to play the role of peacemaker after Dier’s equaliser as his celebration led to a mass brawl – the Spurs boss sprinting up the touchline to remedy matters.

“Football is about the energy and the emotion and how it changed the emotion in that moment when we scored,” the Argentinian said. “It was try to put calm in our players, at 1-1 it was a massive fight there, I didn’t know what was going on in that moment.

“At the moment I arrived it was all calm and relaxed. I don’t know what happened, my intention was always to put calm.

“I don’t know if it was the celebration of Dier what upset people, I didn’t ask. In that moment, the team scored, the energy is on our side and we needed to celebrate the goal and get back.”

Pochettino knew it was tough for his side to recover from a gruelling week after they went 3-2 down in the second half.

“Until they scored the third goal I think the game was even, after that we started to pay,” he admitted.

“It was difficult for the team to show the energy that we normally show. That was tough it was mental and physically too but it was a big hit.”