Wenger in 'Spurs lied' bust-up

Arsene Wenger had a blazing touchline row with Martin Jol over Robbie Keane’s controversial goal in a incident-packed 1-1 draw at Highbury and afterwards accused the Tottenham bench of lying.

Wenger was furious that Spurs midfielder Michael Carrick played on with Emmanuel Eboue lying injured after a collision with team-mate Gilberto in the build-up to Keane’s 66th-minute opener.

Wenger and Jol were involved in a nose-to-nose shouting match as tempers boiled over and the Arsenal boss, having seen substitute Thierry Henry grab an equaliser six minutes from time, did not shake hands with Jol at the end of the match.

Eboue and Gilberto collided while trying to tackle Carrick, who emerged with the ball.

Carrick drifted out towards the touchline before looking up and, realising that referee Steve Bennett was allowing play to carry on, he passed to Teemu Tainio.

He in turn released Edgar Davids on the left and from his cross Keane had a simple tap-in.

Wenger clearly felt Carrick should have put the ball out of play to enable Eboue to be treated.

He told Sky Sports: “It’s a shame. It was hesitation from Carrick to kick the ball out when we had two players down.

“They (the Tottenham bench) even lie about that and I find that very disappointing.”

Wenger defended his decision to start a match which was crucial to Arsenal’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League via their league position with Henry and Cesc Fabregas on the bench.

“We play every few days at the moment,” he said. “Also we knew we would be stronger than Spurs physically in the second half.

“They played well in the first half and we weren’t in the game. But we showed great spirit and character to get back into it.”

Jol insisted he was not aware of the furore about the ball not being put out because he was following play in the build up to Keane's goal.

“To be fair I didn’t even see it, I was watching Edgar Davids.

“The lad was going down then standing up and for me there’s no problem.”

Asked about Wenger not shaking hands at the full-time whistle, Jol told Sky Sports: “I was going to the referee (Steve Bennett) to shake hands with him. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win but for me we deserved something out of this game. Even the Arsenal fans would agree with me.

“Hopefully we can win our next two matches and we’ll be fourth.”