Arsene Wenger has suggested that Mauricio Pochettino has risked giving his Tottenham players an excuse to be tired by discussing their apparent fatigue in the media.
Pochettino made the claim after his side were beaten 1-0 at home to West Ham on Saturday, while Spurs suffered a defeat by the same scoreline in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Ajax on Tuesday.
Speaking after the West Ham game, Pochettino said: "When the stress and fatigue arrived that (level of performance) is our reality.
"We are a very competitive team when we are with full energy, we are so focused.
"The stress and the fatigue arrived, we are competing with circumstances that are not the best.
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"It is so difficult to beat the opponent in the Premier League, and especially when they are in a different circumstance, different reality."
Working as a pundit for the Ajax game on BeIN Sports, Wenger said too many people give footballers the idea that they are tired.
"Fatigue? Fatigue?" he questioned.
"You have too many scientists today you convince you that you're tired and I think we speak too much about fatigue."
When it was then put to him that Pochettino was the man who spoke about tiredness, Wenger said: "Well we (football managers) are contaminated as well you know?"
