Tottenham Hotspur were beaten 4-2 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium at the weekend.
Arsenal beat Tottenham 4-2 at the Emirates Stadium at the weekend, and the scenes at full-time showed how much the victory meant to the Gunners.
The Emirates had rarely seen such a vocal atmosphere since being built, and Arsenal’s players were clearly delighted to win the derby.
And Pochettino felt that the celebrations were proof of how far Tottenham had come in recent years.
“What that shows first of all is the respect that they have for us. When the people celebrate like this, it’s because people respect you and see you as a big club. Of course, when we arrived here five years ago, the derby was a little bit … well, it’s normally Arsenal always above Tottenham,” said Pochettino.
“But now it’s like, the last two seasons we were above [them], and how they celebrate, of course, it’s a derby, yes, but you start to see what you see. It was a massive win for them, of course for us it was a massive disappointment, but it showed the respect that we got in the last few years with our performances, with our results.”
Tottenham have finished above Arsenal for the last two seasons running, and finished as the top London club last term.
Doing so again this time around could be a tough task, as Arsenal and Chelsea have both improved.
Tottenham’s defeat to Arsenal has left them outside the top four, and trailing Unai Emery’s side.
Spurs are next in action later this evening, when they take on Southampton at Wembley.
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