A former Tottenham star has gone viral for sneaking into Mikel Arteta’s office at the Emirates Stadium to celebrate Spurs’ Europa League trophy win.
David Bentley couldn’t resist a cheeky dig at the north London rivals over their trophyless season after Tottenham ended their 17-year wait for silverware.
The former midfielder took part in a Sellebrity Soccer charity match game at the Emirates on Thursday night, playing in the same team as Callum Best and football freestyler Jeremy Lynch.
Among the other players were social media influencers, YouTubers, reality TV stars and two former Britain’s Got Talent contestants – comedy act Woody and Kleiny.
And practical joker Bentley – who famously dumped a barrel of cold water all over former boss Tottenham Harry Redknapp – was up to his old tricks again as he roped the two BGT stars into helping him bust into Arteta’s inner sanctum.
“Come with me I’ve got something to show you,” he says, wiggling a finger at the camera, before stopping to yell at his Arsenal-supporting teammates, “Oi, oi, oi, Gooners, come on!
“I love this man,” he says, pointing to Mikel Arteta’s name plate on his office door.
“You know what he’s done for me? He’s only gone and left us a beer.”
Entering the office, which features a large photograph of Arteta lifting the FA Cup as soon as you step inside – obviously – Bentley strolls over to the corner of the room to raid the drinks fridge.
He emerges with two bottles of Camden Hells beer – proud sponsors of Arsenal Football Club – saying: “Thank you, Mr Arteta! Thank you very much!”
He then proceeds to dance a jig of celebration, twirling around to reveal ‘Winners 2025’ written on the back of his Tottenham shirt before singing White Hart Lane favourite ‘Can’t Smile Without You’.
Arsenal fans will have a right to be more than a little annoyed at the scenes, as Bentley came through the Gunners’ academy.
He only made nine senior appearances for the club, though, before moving on to Blackburn Rovers where his superb performances across three seasons caught the attention of Spurs, who he signed for in 2008.
Despite early promise, his spell at Tottenham wasn’t an overwhelming success, with injury issues plaguing his career and seeing him drop down the pecking order at club and country level for England.
He was involved in the Spurs team that secured Champions League football for the first time in the club’s history for the 2010/11 campaign – which then led to the infamous soaking of Redknapp.
But despite spending time on both sides of the north London divide, Bentley has well and truly nailed his colours to the mast by celebrating Tottenham’s Europa title win… at Arsenal’s stadium.
And it appears to have annoyed someone, as the video – posted by Woody and Kleiny across their Instagram, TikTok and Facebook pages – was eventually taken down from all of their social media accounts.
But not before others downloaded it and continued to share it themselves.
Posting on Instagram, the duo wrote on Saturday morning: “Many have been asking where the post of Bentley raiding Arteta’s fridge has gone…
“Unfortunately we were asked to remove the video.”
