Jamie O’Hara has discussed Tottenham Hotspur’s defeat in the North London derby against Arsenal and he has slammed Emerson Royal.
Tottenham travelled to face Arsenal at the Emirates in the first North London derby of the season on Saturday.
Arsenal, Everton pulling together in the winners as Lage, Gerrard, Alexander-Arnold stumble
The Gunners were much the better side on the day as they triumphed 3-1. Royal was sent off with around half an hour to go for a rash challenge on Gabriel Martinelli.
The score was 2-1 at the time and Granit Xhaka added a third as Arsenal earned an impressive victory.
This result leaves the Gunners top of the Premier League after eight games. Spurs are currently four points adrift in third.
O’Hara is often quick to belittle Arsenal. Last month, he suggested that they will “crumble” in Europe.
The ex-Spurs man has now examined his former club’s defeat over the weekend. He thinks the game was “awful to watch”:
“Right, so, listen, I want to get this out there because social media is on you and I’ve been stitched up, big time,” O’Hara told talkSPORT.
“If you actually listen to what I said on the Sports Bar, I never said Spurs were going to win this game, I said all week this is a tough game and I’d take a draw.
“What I said was that Conte is very good with his substitutions, and Arteta has shown in the past – like in the Man United game – that he isn’t great at substitutions and he’s got it wrong in the past.
“The problem was Emerson Royal gets sent off and the game is over. Arsenal were brilliant, take nothing away from them, and Spurs were rubbish and we lost the game, but in the end, Conte throws the towel in, makes changes and protects the players for the Champions League – which Arsenal aren’t in, by the way.
“It’s a bad defeat for us and we were miles off it, some of the players, honestly, it was awful to watch.
“It’s the first time this season I’ve looked at Spurs and gone, ‘yeah, we need to sort this out, maybe tweak the formations a bit’. Conte has got to be adaptable. I know he likes this formation, but we got overrun by Arsenal – we made Granit Xhaka look like Guti.
“We weren’t good enough, simple as that.”
O’Hara previously claimed that “Conte has got Arteta’s number”. When asked about this comment, he added:
“He has! But he just didn’t have the chance [to show what he can do with substitutions] because Royal was stupid and got sent off. It’s the first time this season that’s happened”
“I think he’ll maybe look back at the game and think about what he could have done differently – played Sessegnon instead of Royal, who is a liability and shouldn’t be playing in big games because he lets you down too much.”
