Arsenal ’embarrassed’ by fan who threw bottle at Dele Alli

Arsenal have been hugely critical of the supporter who threw a bottle at Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli during the north London derby and admitted they are “embarrassed” by the individual’s actions.

Alli, 22, was struck by the plastic bottle in the 72nd minute of Wednesday night’s League Cup quarter-final when he was near to the touchline with Spurs leading. Arsenal believe they have identified the individual using CCTV footage and, alongside the Football Association, are helping the Metropolitan Police with their investigations.

Lengthy ban

“We have all been embarrassed by the individual who threw a bottle at Dele Alli,” Arsenal said in a statement. “Behaviour of this type has no place at Emirates Stadium and after analysing CCTV footage, which showed him leaving the stadium after throwing the bottle, we have identified an image of the suspect.

“We are liaising with the Metropolitan Police and investigations continue in order to apprehend the culprit. We are not responsible for the actions of one individual, but send our apologies to Dele Alli and everyone at Tottenham Hotspur for this incident.

“We do not tolerate any anti-social, discriminatory or violent behaviour at Arsenal Football Club. Anyone identified will receive a lengthy club ban and their details will be passed to the police to commence legal proceedings.”

Alli had recently scored the second goal in the match and responded by indicating the 2-0 scoreline at the Arsenal supporters with his fingers, an action for which he will, sensibly, not face further punishment.

Stadium closure

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said afterwards that they were all fortunate that Alli had avoided serious injury, for example if a heavier object had been thrown, and was even stronger in his condemnation in a press conference on Thursday when he suggested that outside of England Arsenal may have faced worse sanctions than a fine.

“In a different country, maybe they close the stadium for a few games,” Pochettino said. “It’s lucky it wasn’t a big problem but I think people need to be careful, and we need to try and avoid this type of action. Some people behave very bad.”

Karma’s a… you know?

Spurs left-back Danny Rose, meanwhile, was scathing of the way Arsenal’s players had celebrated winning their north London derby victory in the Premier League a couple of weeks previously.

“Our only motivation this evening was remembering the nonsense that Arsenal posted after the game a few weeks ago,” Rose, who captained Spurs for the evening, said. “That was our motivation. Players that have only played 10 games for Arsenal were getting ahead of themselves. We used that in a positive way. Karma is a…. it’s a…. you know? They fully deserve what they got tonight, Arsenal.

“We had the motivation of getting to the semi-final so we’re over the moon that we’re in the semis. But the cherry on top was silencing them. Just remembering, they won a game at the beginning of December and they’re celebrating like they won the league. We’re over the moon we’ve put that result right. We’ll see where they are come the end of the season and we’ll see where we are.”