The Spaniard celebrated wildly after beating Liverpool (Pictures: Getty / FIVE / YouTube)
Rio Ferdinand has criticised Mikel Arteta’s rather overzealous celebrations after Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Liverpool while he does not believe the Gunners laid down a marker in Sunday’s game.
The north Londoners could have fallen eight points behind the Premier League leaders with a defeat but instead closed the gap to just two points.
Bukayo Saka’s opener was cancelled out by a calamitous own goal from Gabriel Magalhaes just before half-time but an even bigger mix-up between Virgil van Dijk and Alisson allowed Gabriel Martinelli to put the hosts back ahead midway through the second half.
Ibrahima Konate was shown a second yellow card to make Liverpool’s task even harder, before Leandro Trossard wrapped up the win late on.
Arteta ran along the touchline high-fiving supporters when his side re-took the lead and Arsenal celebrated exuberantly at full-time; Martin Odegaard was criticised for taking pictures of the club’s photographer, while Arteta fist-pumped the home end Jurgen Klopp-style.
Former Manchester United defender Ferdinand was not impressed with Arteta’s reaction, saying it looked as if Arsenal had won the league, while he was not blown away by their performance despite such an important win.
Speaking on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube show shortly after the game, Ferdinand said: ‘I thought Arsenal won the league the way your man was celebrating!
‘Your manager’s doing laps [of the stadium]! Your manager has done his 10,000 steps today with them laps round the ground after they won! What’s this about?’
Arsenal’s players might have got a little carried away after the win (Picture: Getty)
Asked if Arsenal looked like they were on it and ready to challenge for the title, Ferdinand shook his head and said: ‘No. No, no, no.
‘I didn’t feel that. The celebrations that I saw didn’t correlate with what I felt about the outcome of what this game meant. It felt like you guys [think you] are on to win the league now, what I saw.’
He added: ‘Deluded. Deluded FC. You’re deluded.
‘You shouldn’t even be worrying about Liverpool, It’s Man City you should be worrying about! Two games in hand.’
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He was full of praise for Gabriel Martinelli, however, continuing: ‘Martinelli, I must say, he’s been off the boil recently in terms of scoring goals but today he looked like he was on it. Even when he got brought off you could see he was disappointed.
‘Saka got a goal again, Arsenal could be dangerous now especially if they start getting their big players scoring. That’s been the biggest problem with Arsenal.
‘Saka and Martinelli last year were banging in goals and assists, this year I ain’t seen nothing in terms of goals and assists. If they start moving now, and this is the business end now, the home straight is coming.
‘So after the experience of last season, have they had the little Dubai [camp] and now they’re all ready to rock and roll?’
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