NOT for the first time this season an Arsenal player has found himself at the centre of an unseemly spat with Spurs supporters.
The latest Gunner to taunt Tottenham is Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla, who appeared on French television on Sunday night in the company of former Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires.
Pires, a member of the legendary 'Invincibles' team of 2003-04, still trains regularly with the current Arsenal squad and is friendly with most of the players.
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He and Cazorla probably thought it was nothing more than a bit of harmless fun when a female fan asked them for a photograph after the programme had aired. Clutched in her hand was a piece of paper containing a refrain of the popular terrace chant at the Emirates: "What do we think of Tottenham? S***! What do we think of s***? Tottenham!'
Cazorla even helped hold up the sign for the camera. What he might not have expected was that the fan would then post the picture on her twitter account, causing something of a social network storm on Monday with the photo being retweeted nearly 2,000 times.
By Monday evening Cazorla sent a tweet of his own, saying: "Our apoligizes [sic] to the Tottenham fans, we couldn't see the paper. #alwaysfootballalwaysrespect."
As excuses go, it's up there with Jack Wilshere's claim earlier in the season that he was merely holding a cigarette for a pal, and not smoking himself, when snapped outside a nightclub after Arsenal's Champions League defeat of Napoli.
Cazorla's mocking of Arsenal's neighbours is the third time this season that Gunners have given Spurs fans the hump. In November goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny posted a message on his facebook page as Manchester City thrashed Spurs 6-0. "Wonderful scenes at the Etihad..." declared the Pole.
Then earlier this month Theo Walcott reminded Tottenham fans of the 2-0 scoreline as he was stretchered off in the closing minutes of the clubs' FA Cup encounter. His two-fingered salute wasn't much appreciated by the Spurs faithful and Cazorla's crude caper will only reinforce the view at the Lane that Arsenal should stop looking down on them – literally, in terms of the table, and figuratively.
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