Conte tells Arteta to stop complaining after Holding red in Arsenal defeat

Antonio Conte urged Mikel Arteta to stop complaining after the Arsenal manager blamed the referee Paul Tierney for jeopardising his team’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League.

Arteta was livid after Tierney awarded Spurs a 22nd-minute penalty, which Harry Kane converted, and then sent off Rob Holding for a second bookable offence after 33 minutes. Kane added another and Son Heung-min completed the scoring for Spurs in a resounding 3-0 win that keeps alive their hopes of pipping Arsenal for fourth place.

Related: Harry Kane double sees off 10-man Arsenal to boost Spurs’ top-four chances

Holding had already been booked for an earlier foul on Son when he then checked his run on to a long ball forward. The result loads the pressure on Arsenal ahead of their trip to Newcastle on Monday night. Spurs, who have closed to within one point of their north London rivals, can overtake them on Sunday when they face Burnley at home.

“If I say what I think I will be suspended for six months and I want to be on the touchline for our next game on Monday night,” Arteta said.

“I want the referee to come in front of the cameras and explain his decisions because we were so excited to play this game and this beautiful occasion was destroyed tonight.

I haven’t spoken with Rob Holding but you can imagine that having to leave so early in a huge match like this is very tough.”

Conte hit back strongly at Arteta, who had annoyed him last month when he complained about Arsenal’s fixture list. To Conte, Arteta had no grounds to moan after Arsenal succeeding in getting the original game at Spurs postponed due to a selection crisis even though it was not influenced by positive Covid cases.

“Arteta is a really good coach but he has just