‘Not good vs evil’ – Ange Postecoglou defends Arsenal over ‘dark arts’

Ange Postecoglou admits that while he doesn’t like the football ‘dark arts’ he has no issue with Arsenal’s usage of them.

The fallout from Manchester City’s intense draw with Arsenal last Sunday continues to rumble on, with the Gunners’ use of the ‘dark arts’ splitting opinion.

Their time-wasting antics and defensive tactics have been equally praised and criticised by pundits and rival players.

Tottenham boss Postecoglou witnessed some of this during the recent north London derby defeat and believes it is just part of the game though insists he will not be teaching his players the same tricks.

In his press conference ahead of Spurs’ Europa League clash against Qarabag, the manager was asked about Arsenal’s ‘dark arts’ and replied: ‘You’re making it sound as if it’s good versus evil, like Batman versus… whoever, I don’t know my superheroes that well.

‘I think it’s all part of the game and it’s always existed. I’ve said before I don’t like it, I don’t believe in the dark arts.

‘I don’t know how to do it, it’s just not in my makeup but I’ve seen it be a very effective tool. My thing has always been if teams are going to go down that way, we’ve got to be even more disciplined to make sure we don’t get distracted by them.

‘Ultimately the role of every manager, every team is to try and unsettle the opposition one way or another and some do it by trying to disrupt and sort of curtail any sort of momentum from the opposition.

‘Others want the momentum they want to have the dominance so it just depends which side of the coin you fall on.

‘But you know the reason I do what I do is because that’s the space I’m comfortable in. For me to sort of change my approach would mean me delving into an area that I don’t really know.’

Several of City’s players took particularly issue with how defensive Arsenal played against them, but again Postecoglou, who notably refuses to tweak his ultra-attacking tactics, has no issue with Mikel Arteta’s methods.

‘I think football’s always going in those cycles. There’s always been dominant teams who are more possession heavy and other times where it’s been teams that require less of the ball,’ he added.

‘You get the best teams who have a period of domination playing a certain way. It invariably means that others try and sort of follow that method and if it’s the flip side then it goes the other way.

‘There’s always been a kind of cycle that football goes through where a certain kind of tactical play ends up dominating for a period of time, till somebody comes along and comes up with something different and changes things.’

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