Mourinho and Hugo Lloris react after north London derby defeat.

FT: Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham.

Hugo Lloris. [Getty]

Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham: Gunners come from behind to deservedly win the north London derby.

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho admitted his Lilywhites were below par in the first half of their north London derby defeat at Arsenal.

Despite opening the scoring through a stunning Erik Lamela Rabona, Mourinho’s men lost 2-1 on Sunday evening as a deflected goal from Martin Odegaard and Alexandre Lacazette's penalty handed three points to the Gunners.

Morinho reaction: 'The referee made a wrong decision.'

Following the match, the Tottenham boss told BBC Sport: "First half we were poor, 1-1 is not a reflection of what happened on the pitch. They were more intense, aggressive, moving the ball better than us.

"I don’t want to speak about commitment, it was the same from both teams but they were much better in the first half.

"In the second half we recovered control of the game. In our good moments we made changes to try to win the game and when the game was there to be played, the referee made a wrong decision, the VAR confirmed the wrong decision from the referee.

"And then 2-1 it was time for the team to step up and show a good reaction to get an equaliser, but I cannot say much more than this."

On Lamela’s stunning goal, the Portuguese said: "The goal was sensational no doubt. But the most important thing is the result and we lost the game.

"Trying to be honest and pragmatic: the first half was their half. The second half: Michael Oliver and Paul Tierney, the VAR. They decided the game."

When asked about his team's reaction after Lamela received a red card, Jose answered: "It was a great reaction, the team they had a go no problem and that makes me happy. They didn't accept the result as done and went to the last second."

Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris added: "The feeling is that in the first half they were much better than us, more aggressive.

"We scored a goal and I think we should have managed the game better and not conceded just before half time.

"In the second half it was a bit better but we had to wait to get a red card to increase our intensity. Then we were close to coming back, but in the end, it’s a loss and a big disappointment.

"There’s still 10 games to go and a lot of opportunities ahead of us, but of course losing a derby is a big frustration, even though we won the first one at home."

On the penalty decision, the Frenchman replied: I haven’t seen the images to be honest. I think as a player when you analyse the game you analyse it as a whole, it is too easy to go deep on one or two actions. Generally we have to do better.”

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