Unai Emery calls on Arsenal to show Tottenham respect in Carabao Cup tie

Unai Emery has called on his Arsenal side to show Tottenham respect when they renew derby hostilities in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, but insists that “emotion is very important” in building a successful football team.

Arsenal’s players were criticised for posting selfies from the dressing room after their 4-2 victory over Spurs at the Emirates Stadium earlier this month, with Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino suggested such moments should be saved for winning trophies. Emery did not concur but said that any expression of emotion should be tempered, and that applies to both sides.

“I say to them that in every match, we need to respect the opposition”, Emery said. “Against Southampton, against Tottenham, against Manchester United, against Huddersfield, it’s the same. This respect is by playing with a big motivation and a lot of excitement to win.

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“Football is emotion. In a derby, maybe this emotion is greater. I think showing our emotion, the players, the fans and me, is good. But every time we must respect them. When you win it’s amazing, when you lose it’s horrible. But respect is very important.

“We can show this emotion with respect when we are playing but also, when they scored against us, they can show their emotion with their supporters. But also with respect. We need to show this emotion when we are playing, when we are winning, because I think football needs this passion.”

Emery said Sunday’s defeat against Southampton was a wake up call for his team ahead of this quarter-final.

“Sunday for us is a big reality check in our way. We need to improve and also we need to continue in our process. It’s not a good result but this reality gives us more motivation to continue to work hard, finding a new thing to work on each day, and also it makes us demand a lot from ourselves.

We can win, we can lose. We’ve won matches playing worse than we did on Sunday. Football is like that. But we need to continue improving.”