Football
Mattias Karen, Arsenal correspondent 7y

Arsene Wenger offers congratulations to Tottenham after derby victory

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger congratulated Tottenham Hotspur after they won the last-ever North London derby at White Hart Lane 2-0 to ensure they would finish above the Gunners for the first time since 1995.

A Dele Alli goal and a Harry Kane penalty sealed the points for Spurs as Arsenal's own top-four hopes remained in the balance.

And Wenger told Sky Sports: "Well done to them. When you start the championship, the target is not to finish above Spurs, it's to win the championship.

"So the biggest disappointment for us is not to be in the fight, at this period of the season, for the championship."

But he added that Spurs finishing ahead of their North London rivals "happened once in 20 years."

He added: "We are not happy with it, but we have as well to accept it's not [a matter of] comparing us to Spurs. It's comparing to where we want to be and what we did.

"Let's fight until the end, and not come to conclusions compared to Spurs today."

Wenger added that Spurs "were sharper than us physically, and we had problems to play."

He said: "I think as well we were a bit too restricted in our game and we didn't play with enough freedom.

"At the moment we are not completely back to the level of confidence that you need to play with freedom, and because the players realised it's a big game the two things together do that."

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