Mikel Arteta has told Arsenal players to ‘leave it’ when it comes to mocking Erling Haaland following their 5-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday.
The Gunners were impressive as they closed the gap on Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium following goals from Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri.
During the match, however, Haaland was mocked.
Lewis-Skelly mimicked the Norway international after his goal, while Gabriel celebrated one of the strikes by celebrating in Haaland’s face.
Mikel Arteta has told Arsenal players to ‘leave it’ when it comes to mocking Erling Haaland following their 5-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday
REUTERS
The City star previously told Arsenal players to ‘stay humble’ in a dramatic 2-2 draw back in September.
And Arteta, when asked about his side’s choices of goal celebrations, has now made it clear he’s not a fan of their antics.
“That’s down to the players but they know my view on it. We have to focus on us,” he said.
“Leave anything that happened that’s part of the game on the pitch.
JUST IN: Marcus Rashford sparks furious backlash in first interview since leaving Man United for Aston Villa
“I have been in football a long time. Just leave it — there is nothing there to do.”
Haaland scored City’s only goal in north London.
The effort was his 19th Premier League goal of the season and moves him to within two of Mohamed Salah at the summit.
However, he’ll be frustrated by City’s failure to win the match – with their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League also hanging in the balance.
Another person clearly unhappy on Sunday was Pep Guardiola.
The Spaniard, when asked about Arsenal players mocking Haaland, said: “Oh, I didn’t see. Did they do that? That’s good.
“That’s good. Haaland’s celebration, they have done it? Oh yeah?”
On City’s performance in general, he added: “I only regret the last 25 minutes, we forgot to do what we should do, what we have done for 65/70 minutes.
LATEST SPORTS NEWS:
Erling Haaland was targeted by Arsenal players during their emphatic victory over Man City
REUTERS
“Of course it’s a difficult game starting in this stadium, against that team in the first minutes it’s happened many times this season.
“But after 10/15 minutes I think we took the game and played really, really, really, really good and we are in it after 1-1 and good momentum we pass to make the transition with Omar [Marmoush] and a deflection and the third goal.
“But after that, we then continued to do what you have to do in terms defensively and [be a] little bit more patient. And when you’re playing that way they can run and of course at 3-1 they are comfortable, it’s more difficult.
“I regret the last 15/20 minutes, the rest was a really good game for our side. It’s difficult to understand when you see the result, but this is my feeling.
Arsenal star Myles Lewis-Skelly brutally mocked Erling Haaland as the Gunners ran riot against Man City
REUTERS
“It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, it happened.
“But we reacted really well, and we played with personality and we defended so good and then with the ball we were a threat but unfortunately after the second happened, again many times we had the momentum. For the deflection and in other situations we conceded the goals.
“You have to overcome [it], you cannot lose the control, it’s 90/95 minutes. You cannot finish in the way we played, we could’ve scored three more but the team has to be stable it doesn’t matter what happened.”