Tottenham Hotspur defender Toby Alderweireld has told Sky Sports that Arsenal deserve credit for their part in limiting Spurs’ attacking play on Sunday.
Spurs were beaten in Sunday’s North London derby at Arsenal, despite taking the lead through Erik Lamela’s stunning rabona goal.
Martin Odegaard equalised before Alexandre Lacazette won it for the Gunners from the penalty spot, securing a 2-1 victory.
Spurs may have conjured up one of the most memorable North London derby goals with Lamela’s strike, but their attacking play throughout left a lot to be desired.
Tottenham were too cautious for much of the game, and only really pushed forward when they went 2-1 down, leaving fans angry.
Some believe that Spurs should have been more expansive in such an important game, but Alderweireld has move to defender boss Jose Mourinho amid strong criticism.
Alderweireld feels that Arsenal actually prevented Spurs from being more attack-minded, crediting them with stifling Tottenham rather than it being Mourinho’s approach.
The Belgian added that Spurs will get back to playing more openly going forward, and predicts ‘success, for sure’ when they do.
“If it was that easy I think everyone would play 100 per cent attacking football, so I think you have to give credit to them,” said Alderweireld. “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.”
“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,” he added.
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