Claudio Ranieri has accused Arsenal’s players of their lack of respect after they refused to give the ball back to Watford in the build up to Emile Smith Rowe’s goal.
The Gunners have moved up to fifth in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Watford at the Emirates Stadium.
But Arsenal’s goal was a controversial one as Danny Rose had initially put the ball out of play so that his teammate Ozan Tufan could receive treatment.
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But, Arsenal continued to play on from the throw-in instead of giving the ball back to Watford and Smith Rowe found the net with a superb low effort past Ben Foster.
Ranieri confronted Arteta after the game and reveals he told the Arsenal boss that his players lacked respect.
‘We put out the ball and everybody expected Arsenal to give back the ball,’ said Ranieri.
‘Sissoko and Rose said, ‘give the ball to us, we put the ball out, there was an injured player’. After this it was very strange.
‘There was a cross, Kiko Femenia hit the ball with the header, Sarr took the ball, in my opinion there’s a big foul, but nothing happened and then they score the goal. It was very, very strange.
‘Our relationship [with Arteta] is very good, I told to him there isn’t respect when we put the ball out. I said there isn’t respect in this action, just this.
‘The performance was good. Of course, in the second half after the goal Arsenal had more space. We had chances to draw the match until the end, my players were on the pitch trying to draw.’
