Arsenal sources have denied Mikel Arteta insulted Porto manager Sergio Conceicao's family in the aftermath of the Gunners' dramatic penalty shootout win in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Conceicao was involved with an altercation on the pitch with Arteta at the end of the game, and gave a terse explanation of what was said.
"During the game, [Arteta] turned to the bench and in Spanish - it must be a Spanish coach thing because it was the same thing with [Pep] Guardiola - he insulted my family," he said.
"In the end I told him to pay attention because who he insulted is no longer with us, and to worry about coaching his team, because due to individual quality he has an obligation to do more and better."
Arsenal sources have strongly denied any offensive or insulting sentence towards the Porto manager and Arteta has refuted the allegations.
"No comment. Thanks very much", was the reply from the Gunners boss when asked about Conceicao's accusation.
The altercation came at the end of a dramatic evening at the Emirates as Arsenal beat Porto 4-2 on penalties to reach a first Champions League quarter-final in 14 years.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Portugal, a goal from Leandro Trossard just before half-time levelled the tie late in the first half, but there Arsenal's momentum stalled as they failed to wrap the game up inside 90 minutes.
After a nervous extra-time it took heroics from goalkeeper David Raya, saving twice in the shootout, to put the hosts into the last-eight for the first time since Arsene Wenger's team faced Barcelona in 2010.
"A magic night," said Arteta. "We expected a really tough opponent. It's very difficult to generate momentum and that's credit to them.
"It's a huge experience for us. We had to do it as
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