It was a case of one step forward, two steps back, on Sunday for Arsenal.Heading into the north London derby, the Gunners’ recent form had been rather impressive.Since losing 2-1 away at Brighton on June 20, Arsenal had won four of their five previous fixtures and drawn the other.Tottenham’s recent form, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired.But Jose Mourinho’s side still managed to record a 2-1 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.The visitors got off to the perfect start when Alexandre Lacazette rifled in an unstoppable 20-yard effort in the 16th minute.But moments later, following some calamitous defending, Spurs were back on level terms through Son Heung-min.The South Korean forward capitalised on a poor pass by Sead Kolasinac and outpaced David Luiz before finishing past Emiliano Martínez.
Then, with 10 minutes left on the clock, Son provided the assist for Toby Alderweireld’s winning goal.The result was a huge blow for Mikel Arteta’s side, who finished the weekend ninth in the Premier League table, two points behind their bitter local rivals.Arsenal fans on social media were particularly angry with the performances of their defenders.Kolasinac, Luiz and the much-maligned Shkodran Mustafi all failed to cover themselves in glory over the course of the 90 minutes.
And now a rather amusing two-minute video showing the trio’s ‘highlights’ against Spurs has emerged on Twitter.The caption actually says ‘vs Arsenal’ - obviously implying that Kolasinac, Luiz and Mustafi looked more like they were playing for the opposition.Set to the Titanic Flute music - a popular soundtrack for this type of video - we see the three aforementioned Arsenal players all showing how *not* to defend…
Dear oh dear.
Arsenal are never going to compete for major honours until they sort out their defensive problems.
Arteta, if it wasn’t already patently clear before the north London derby, has a massive job on his hands at the Emirates Stadium.
“We are really, really sad,” the Arsenal boss was quoted as saying by talkSPORT after the match. “We wanted to do it for our fans, for glory and happiness. We tried our best.
“I am really proud of our players, to play the way we played. I have never seen them before dominating the opponent and nullify them as much as I’ve seen today.
“But we gave them a goal again and we conceded a set-piece and, at this level, you cannot do it.”
However, Arteta has vowed to keep fighting as Arsenal’s hopes of playing European football next season suffer an untimely blow.
“Points-wise it is a massive blow because we know the results this weekend, but we will keep trying until we have no hope,” he added.
“This is who we are. We are fighting in two different ways, one in the league and won in the FA Cup. Will we do our best and try and finish as strong as possible.
“I am disappointed and frustrated and really sorry for the boys because of the way they played and showed who we are.
“But you give the two goals away that we have given, against these players it is very difficult to win a derby.
“If we minimise the mistakes we do and keep playing like that we are going to win many, many, many football matches because we are going to make it very difficult for opponents.”