Arsenal suffered an embarrassing 3-0 loss against their fourth-place rivals Tottenham. The Gunners were left with ten men on the field after Paul Tierney showed Rob Holding a red card following two fouls on Heung-Min Son. The Gunner manager Mikel Arteta was infuriated by the referee’s decision and blamed the official for “destroying a beautiful game.”
Arsenal was trailing in the first half after Harry Kane’s penalty when Rob Holding was sent off the field when he tried to stop Heung-Min Son with a shoulder barge. The referee Paul Tierney deemed it Holding’s second bookable offense and gave him a red car in the 33rd minute of the game. The Hotspurs turned the game in their favor in the 37th minute with a second goal by Hurricane before closing the first half. Arsenal could not come back being down 2-0 and conceded the third goal to Son Heun-Min two minutes after the start of the second half.
Arteta was disappointed by the referee’s decision to send the Gunners’ center-back off the field. Unfortunately for the Gunners, Tierney and the VAR ignored an elbow contact from Son earlier. But, they had no hesitation in sending Holding off the field quickly.
Arteta Feels He Would Be Suspended For Speaking The Truth
Mikel Arteta was extremely disappointed by the referee’s decisions that went against the Gunners. The Arsenal manager said that if he said what he thought, he would get a suspension for six months. Mikel told that he does not know how to lie, so he prefers to stay quiet. The forty-year-old added, “I can’t say what I think.”
The Gunners’ boss asked the referees the explain their decisions in front of the camera. He feels that a beautiful game was destroyed due to the referee’s error. Arteta mentioned that he was proud of his players and the decision they made as a change. However, Mikel feels that they cannot change the decision as the referees are responsible for it in football.
A loss against the Hotspurs has decreased Arsenal’s advantage over Tottenham for the fourth-place finish to a single point. The equation is pretty simple for the Gunners. If Arsenal wins their final two games against Newcastle and Everton, they will qualify for the Champions League no matter how the Spurs perform.
The Gunners will travel to their penultimate game to Newcastle on Monday. Arteta told that his team needed to accept that things went out of their hands against Tottenham. Arsenal needs to forget about their loss and focus on their must-win game against Newcastle. The Gunners managers added, “Now we need to be the team that you saw from the beginning.”