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Arsenal fans have ripped into their side following their disastrous north London derby performance away at Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday, May 12. Cedric Soares and Rob Holding appeared to be particular targets for fans online following their damaging defensive display in a critical top four clash.
Mikel Arteta's side came into the game, which had been rescheduled from its original date in January, off the back of four consecutive league wins. They could have secured their Champions League place with a victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
However, it all went horribly wrong for them as Cedric Soares gave away a penalty for a push on Son Heung-Min, which Harry Kane then dispatched in the 22nd minute.
Centre-back Rob Holding was then sent off for a needless second yellow card just past the half-hour mark. Kane doubled his tally and Spurs' lead after capitalizing on some poor Arsenal defending to head home unmarked from a corner.
Son wrapped up the win just after half-time with a neat finish on the edge of the area. Spurs moved to within a point of their great rivals following a convincing 3-0 victory over the Gunners.
Arsenal fans from around the world blamed their defenders for the dreadful display. Supporters took to Twitter to express their feelings about the Portuguese right-back:
Arteta explains decision not to bring on Ben White for Arsenal during defeat at Tottenham
Following Holding's sending off, Arsenal were left short at centre-back, which many presumed would lead to a half-fit Ben White coming on to plug the gap.
However, that did not happen, and Spurs doubled their lead shortly after the dismissal. After the full-time whistle, Arteta explained his reasoning.
He told Sky Sports (as quoted by BBC Sport):
"To take that risk in the situation of the game made no sense. Our focus is Newcastle."
"This game is history. He felt something so hopefully Ben will be fit and Gabriel will recover as we do not have enough players in the backline."
Arteta continued:
"This game is history. Now it's Newcastle. This is gone. It went out of our hands and we have to accept it. Now we need to be the team that you saw from the beginning."
"You lose a football match in the conditions we lost them. It's painful. But we have a huge match on Monday so we will try to beat them."
