Joe Cole has warned Myles Lewis-Skelly and the rest of Arsenal’s squad that their ‘over-celebrating’ against Manchester City may come back to bite them in the future.
The Gunners thumped champions City 5-1 at a rapturous Emirates to tighten their grip on second place and go nine points clear of Pep Guardiola’s side in the Premier League table.
Thomas Partey, Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri all hit the target after Erling Haaland had cancelled out Martin Odegaard’s opener in what was a breathless second period in north London.
The heavyweight contest proved a thrilling albeit bad-tempered affair, with players at each other’s throats from minute one following Haaland’s pointed ‘stay humble’ remark directed at Mikel Arteta in the sides’ previous meeting.
Haaland and Gabriel Magalhaes resumed their bitter rivalry, clashing from the first whistle to the last, while Lewis-Skelly was seen imitating the Norwegian’s celebration after his strike gave Arsenal a two-goal cushion on the hour-mark.
Lewis-Skelly was another of Haaland’s targets when two teams met back in September, with the City striker heard bellowing, ‘Who the f*** are you?’ in the teenager’s face during a heated scuffle.
‘The Arsenal players come in for a lot of stick. Obviously, they like to celebrate when they win a game, they like the needle,’ ex-Chelsea, West Ham and England winger Cole said on The Dressing Room Podcast.
‘That very much comes from Mikel Arteta on the touchline, that’s their personality, his staff, and that sort of filters this way into the players.
‘Myles Lewis-Kelly, who I think is brilliant, I love his feistiness, his attitude. He looks like a top player.
‘But he’s done the Erling Haaland celebration! That’s cold. He knew what he was doing… that’s cold.’
Cole enjoys Arsenal’s ‘feistiness’ under Arteta, though feels their celebrations have, at times, been over the top and they could live to regret them down the line.
‘I do like that about the Arsenal team, that they’re feisty and they’re horrible and they’re nasty,’ he added.
‘We were like that at Chelsea but the over-celebrating that they do… they’ve done it quite a lot.
Haaland appeared to have dragged City back into the game before Arsenal’s second-half blitz (Picture: Getty)
‘And I know people are saying, “It’s good, it’s good, it’s good”, but I’m just thinking for them, it does [come back to haunt you].
‘Haaland has gone to bed in his oxygen chamber and all he can think about is scoring against Arsenal.
‘He’s thinking, “I’m gonna smash Lewis-Kelly, I’m gonna do that, he’s gonna get it”, that’s what you do if you over-celebrate.’
At his post-match press conference, Arteta revealed that he had spoken to his squad about when it was and wasn’t acceptable to celebrate in such a manner.
Asked how he felt about Lewis-Skelly copying Haaland’s celebration, the Arsenal head coach told reporters: ‘Playing at home or away is very, very different.
‘We talk about those things and we have to understand that each ground is different, their attitude, what they celebrate and what they don’t, is really very different up north as well to here in London.
‘It’s part of the context of the game.’
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