Praise has come from an unlikely source as Tottenham star Toby Alderweireld praised the Gunners for their display in the north London derby.
Toby Alderweireld has admitted Arsenal stopped Tottenham from playing their usual attacking game in the north London derby at the Emirates.
The Gunners were deserved winners as they claimed a come-back win against their rivals, courtesy of goals from Martin Odegaard and Alexandre Lacazette.
Throughout the game, one major talking point was Spurs’ attacking or lack of it rather. For a side who have scored for fun of late, many expected them to run riot at the Gunners’ defense. However, it was far from it.
Lamela’s superb opening goal was the only shot on target in the first 70 minutes for Spurs.
For a side with the in-form duo of Harry Kane and Gareth Bale, it’s easy to see why Alderweireld would credit Arsenal for keeping his side quiet.
Outside of a lovely ball in the 70th minute, an offside headed goal and striking the post in the 90th, Kane was as quiet as he’s ever been in the north London derby.
Bale was even worse and had a game to forget. He was taken off just before the hour mark.
Speaking on the defeat, Alderweireld had no choice but to praise the Gunners.
He said as per Sky Sports: “If it was that easy I think everyone would play 100 percent attacking football, so I think you have to give credit to them [Arsenal].
“In the games before we scored a lot of goals, played attacking football and pressed – that’s what we want to do.”
“But sometimes because of the opponent or because of ourselves we don’t get to that stage we want.”
It was not about being a bad day for Spurs but more of brilliance for the Gunners, added Alderweireld.
“We want to attack, we have the players to attack but sometimes it’s the opponent as well.”
“Of course we can improve, we know that. We can play a lot better. I think our best moments in the game were when we played with 10 men, so that says enough.”
“I think we’re playing attacking football and we’re scoring a lot of goals, so we need to be consistent.”
“We have to be back on the way we played before the Arsenal game and that’ll bring us success, for sure.”
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