‘That’s a fact’ – Ex-pro claims Mourinho would have spoken to Spurs player after incident

Glen Johnson believes that Erik Lamela would have been given a telling off by Jose Mourinho in the dressing room following Tottenham’s loss in the North London derby on Sunday.

Tottenham were second best for the majority of the first-half and looked to have suffered a major blow when Son Heung-min came off with a hamstring problem, being replaced by Lamela.

However, it was the Argentine who opened the scoring for the away side, producing a brilliant rabona finish against the run of play.

Arsenal got a deserved equaliser just before the interval and after a cagey start to the second half, were handed a fortunate penalty after Alexandre Lacazette took a tumble after scuffing his shot and colliding with Davinson Sanchez.

Lacazette stepped up to covert the spot-kick which meant that Spurs had to throw caution to the wind and chase the game.

Their efforts at salvaging a draw took a major blow when Lamela received a second yellow card for using his arm to block off Kieran Tierney.

Johnson, who played under Mourinho at Chelsea, admitted that Lamela had no reason to throw his arm up and insisted that Mourinho would have had a word with the 29-year-old after the game.

He told Optus Sport’s The Review Show: “Unfortunately for him (Lamela), this is what he is capable of.

“He’s always got something like this in him. It’s daft, he is already protecting the ball – he doesn’t need to put his arm up there.

“He’s against a small player, he doesn’t need his hand that high. It’s hard to defend him there.

“Mourinho would have had a word when he got indoors, that’s a fact. So avoidable.”

Spurs Web Opinion

As bad as we were in the first-half, there is every reason to believe that we might have got an equaliser had we finished the game with eleven men. Arsenal clearly got nervous in the final ten minutes and were unable to hold on to possession despite having a numerical advantage. So while Lamela is not to blame for our loss on Sunday, it was pretty naïve of him to throw his hand up the way he did.

Related Topics