Danny Rose says Tottenham were motivated by Arsenal’s social media antics: ‘They deserved what they got’

Danny Rose has said that Arsenal “fully deserved what they got” in the Carabao Cup quarter-final on Wednesday night, admitting that Tottenham’s players were especially motivated by the “nonsense” posted on social media in the wake of their north London derby defeat just two weeks ago.

Several members of Arsenal’s squad posted dressing room selfies along with the slogan ‘north London is red’ after their 4-2 derby victory in the Premier League at the start of December, with Aaron Ramsey sharing a video that appeared to mock Spurs goal scorer Eric Dier.

Mauricio Pochettino was quick to criticise the very public celebrations and his side exacted their revenge on Wednesday night, when goals from Son Heung-min and Dele Alli saw Spurs progress to the final four at Arsenal’s expense.

Rose was handed the captain’s armband for the clash and led from the front as Tottenham won the game at a canter, with the defender afterwards admitting that his side had been especially motivated for the match.

He said: “Our only motivation this evening was remembering the nonsense that Arsenal posted after the game a few weeks ago. That was our motivation. Players that have only played 10 games for Arsenal were getting ahead of themselves and we used that in a positive way.

“Karma is a…. you know? They fully deserve what they got tonight, Arsenal.

“Obviously 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.”

Captaining Tottenham to victory in such an important match represents quite the turnaround for Rose, who admits he was told he could leave the club by Pochettino at the end of the summer, with both Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille interested in recruiting him on loan.

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Rose quickly fell out of favour after going public with his criticisms of Tottenham’s transfer strategy, describing Kyle Walker’s departure to Manchester City as a “big blow” and infamously claiming he was tired of seeing the club sign players “you have to Google”.

But the 28-year-old has revealed a frank discussion with Pochettino at the beginning of the season helped convince him to knuckle down and fight for his place in north London.

“If I look back at where I was a year ago, I wasn’t playing too often,” Rose added.

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“Now I have played three games in a week, we drew with Barcelona and we won a difficult game at the weekend against Burnley. And we won another difficult game here. So yeah, it has been a great week for myself and for the team.

“After the World Cup I called the manager and we spoke, we spoke for an hour before the first game at Newcastle and we spoke for an hour after that. We spoke for quite a long time and the one main thing that stuck out from what he said to me was ‘Danny — stop wasting time’.

“So yeah, I’m not wasting any more time. I’ve got my head down again and I’m doing alright at the minute. I’m trying to get back to where I was a couple of years ago.

“He told me to be fully focused on [Tottenham]. And if you’re not fully focused then you’re free to leave the club. So I told him that I am fully focused. And I’m going to be here to fight and help the club progress. And I hope that I am showing that in my performances and in training as well.”