A testy north London derby may have ended with Arsenal coming out on top but both Arsene Wenger and Mauricio Pochettino ended the game with a sense of injustice.
Whilst Pochettino bemoaned refereeing decisions in the build-up to both goals Wenger’s sense of injustice came from a belief that his side had been unfairly dismissed on the back of a 3-1 defeat at Manchester City last time out where he believed the officiating errors had been far more clear cut.
Two goals in five minutes secured victory for Arsenal but after both Tottenham felt aggrieved. Shkodran Mustafi appeared to have inched offside to head home the opener from a Mesut Ozil free-kick Spurs would contend ought not to have been given after a challenge between Davinson Sanchez and Alexis Sanchez.
The Chilean would then double Arsenal’s lead as he converted Alexandre Lacazette’s cutback, but Tottenham were convinced the French striker had strayed offside by the time Hector Bellerin unleashed him with a fine through ball.
The two goals were not the only decisions Pochettino felt had gone against his side as he insisted Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka should have seen red after tackles on Mousa Dembele and Harry Kane, the latter of which earned him a yellow.
“I’m very disappointed because of the result and the way we conceded the goals,” Pochettino said. “You see the game and can have a better opinion than me because you watch it with a TV in front of you. It was so clear.
“It’s so difficult to explain when you lose in this way, with some small details that maybe are big details and change everything. Until that moment there were a few things: maybe Xhaka should have been sent off before. The foul wasn’t a foul. The goal was offside.
“On them we lose. I don’t blame the referee but it changed the dynamic of the game. We need to accept that, that is not under our control.”
Though refereeing decisions may have gone against him there had been times before the opener when luck had been on Spurs’ side. On more than one occasion Tottenham’s usually watertight defence made sloppy errors that Alexandre Lacazette failed to capitalise on.
It was not Pochettino’s view of the early exchanges.
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“If you analyse the game, until we concede the goal the team was doing well,” he said. “We were better than them.
“It’s two mistakes. The goal wasn’t a foul and then offside. In that moment your plan changes. That affects the team. Then we concede a goal quick. 2-0. Then to come back into this type of game is always difficult.”
Wenger had spent much of the international break stewing over the perceived injustice of his side’s 3-1 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad, when the hosts’ final two goals had come from what he claimed was an incorrect penalty and a clear offside.
“I feel we had a very good game at Man City,” he said. “I analysed it very well, it was very tight. If you analyse it with our model the game was a draw and the referee influenced the decision.
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“We had a few away games where our performance was good but when you lose people always go to definite conclusions without going further into analysis. We were not as bad as people said.”
When it was put to Wenger that his side might have benefitted from marginal calls in the same way they had been punished by them a fortnight ago he reacted fervently.
“I don’t think so. Two weeks ago we conceded a goal that was not marginally offside, that was a yard offside, that nobody found a word to say [about].
“I watched it again, it’s not sure that it’s offside. And it was a foul. Suddenly when we concede the goals it’s absolutely normal and when we may be [offside] I have to answer that in the press conference.”