“Back in your box” – Alan Smith hits back at Alf-Inge Haaland after Lewis-Skelly celebration comments | OneFootball

Former Arsenal forward Alan Smith has hit back at Alf-Inge Haaland after the ex-Manchester City man criticised the Gunners for their celebrations following a 5-1 win.

Alf-Inge Haaland is, of course, the father of Man City striker Erling Haaland, who was at the heart of the mocking celebration. It started in the first league meeting this season, which saw Man City draw 2-2 with Arsenal thanks to an injury-time equaliser from John Stones.

Haaland had been involved in a couple of scuffles with Arsenal’s defenders throughout the match, including one moment with Gabriel. And after the game, he was caught on camera telling Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to “stay humble”.

Stay humble was the slogan of Sunday’s Premier League showdown, with Arsenal fans and players this time making the most of it. Although Haaland equalised for Man City, Arsenal scored four unanswered goals to take the 5-1 win. It leaves Man City nine points behind Arsenal and saw them drop out of the top four by the end of the weekend. Arsenal remained second, six points behind league leaders Liverpool.

The fourth goal was scored by 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has been shining at left-back having been thrust into the starting XI in recent weeks. Lewis-Skelly made it 3-1 just after the hour-mark, and celebrated his goal with a meditation pose. It’s the same pose Haaland has been known to use when celebrating his goals. And it’s not the first time Haaland has been mocked for doing the pose, with Paris Saint-Germain players previously pulling it out after knocking the Norwegian and Borussia Dortmund out of the Champions League.

After the game, Arsenal’s official X (former Twitter) account posted an image of Lewis-Skelly’s celebration, surrounded my his teammates, with the caption: “This team”. In a quote tweet, Alf-Inge Haaland tried his hand at mocking Arsenal, saying “This team that wins everything. Ehhhhh, not.” It was accompanied by a sky blue heart, showing his affiliation to his son and former club.

And that didn’t go down well with Smith, who decided to have his say on Alf-Inge Haaland’s lack of success during his playing career.

“Haaland’s dad had a little chip, didn’t he?” Smith said Betway‘s Seaman Says Pod.

“On social media saying, ‘oh, yeah, all those trophies you’ve won,’ or something like that. I thought, ‘oh, leave it’. It’s just funny!

“By the way, Alf-Inge, you didn’t win much! Back in your box. You can’t live your life through your son, you know. It was a great moment, wasn’t it? Those kinds of things are great.

“Mind you, I thought he was going to get booked because what about the lad (Iliman Ndiaye) who did the seagull against Brighton? How’d you get booked for doing a seagull?

“If you give, you’ve got to take. It’s good to see a bit of needle, though. You don’t mind it. It’s all a bit nice sometimes these days, isn’t it?”

The goal was Lewis-Skelly’s first senior goal for Arsenal, in his 20th game. His first Arsenal appearance also came against Man City, coming off the bench at the Etihad earlier in the season. Since then, Lewis-Skelly has thrived for Arsenal, averaging 2.28 tackles per 90 minutes across all competitions, alongside 2.2 possessions won in the middle third and 93.71% passing accuracy.

And there might have been another reason behind his celebration, according to David Seaman.

“To be fair to Lewis-Skelly, he does meditate,” Seaman said.

“He does a little bit of that. He could have pointed it a different direction, not right back up the pitch at Haaland, maybe to the Arsenal fans or something.

“But I know he does a little bit of meditation so I’m like, ‘yeah, go on. You do it. You just scored a great goal, mate, and it was your first goal’.

“He’s got character, you know. He gets in there. I’m just like, calm down a bit, mate. He’s a confident guy, but he’s got ability to back it up.”