MARTIN KEOWEN has ripped into David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac for their calamitous defending against Tottenham.
The former Gunners ace pulled no punches after the same old woes at the back cost Mikel Arteta’s side North London bragging rights in a 2-1 defeat to Spurs.
The same old kamikaze defending from the Gunners reared its ugly head at the Tottenham Stadium on Sunday.
It all started with Kolasinac’s dreadful back pass to Luiz which let Son Heung-Min in to dink over Emiliano Martinez – coming just three minutes after Alexandre Lacazette had put Arsenal in front.
Error-prone Luiz was actually the victim this time and made no secret of his frustration as he raged at Kolasinac.
And later on Mustafi lunged at Harry Kane in what has been dubbed the “worst slide tackle ever” by fans.
Kane was running with the ball down the left channel and as he broke into the box, Mustafi launched into a slide tackle despite being five yards away from the England ace.
Unsurprisingly Kane skipped past but luckily for the German nothing came of it.
In his column for The Daily Mail, Keown wrote: “Both goals conceded by Arsenal could have been avoided. That’s the bottom line. Not for the first time, sloppiness was their undoing.
“The equaliser – Sead Kolasinac had the ball and Kieran Tierney was open on the wing. But he didn’t pass to him.
“Instead, he looked backwards and opted for Luiz. Yet rather than play it to Luiz’s left foot like he should have done, he went for his right.
“We saw Mustafi diving in — maybe that’s because he doesn’t feel he’s going to get cover from Luiz behind him.”
Emirates supporters on Twitter were quick to slam the patchy backline, including Mustafi.
One wrote: “Mustafi just did the worst slide tackle I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Another tweeted: “That’s probably the worst attempt at a tackle I’ve ever seen from Mustafi.”
And another said: “Mustafi with the worst slide tackle attempt I think I’ve ever seen.”
Even Labour MP David Lammy chipped in and hilariously quipped: “Mustafi eyesight second only to Dominic Cummings. #TOTARS.”
Despite this latest gaffe, Mustafi has significantly improved under Mikel Arteta and is likely to have earned himself a new contract.
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By: Isabelle Barker
Title: Arsenal defence slammed by Martin Keown after Tottenham horror show with Luiz, Mustafi and Kolasinac all in firing line
Sourced From: www.thesun.co.uk/sport/12107461/arsenal-defence-keown-tottenham-luiz/
Published Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2020 10:55:41 +0000