Arsenal bench just looks on as horror show threatens to derail season’s work

Arteta does not act when Holding loses his head and suffers a costly defeat that could scupper top-four hopes

It took 11 minutes for Rob Holding to show his hand before the defender’s evening came to an abrupt end just over 20 minutes later. Arsenal’s 13th sending-off since the appointment of Mikel Arteta might prove to be their most expensive yet.

Arsenal still hold a one-point advantage in the race for Champions League qualification, and yet Holding’s 33 minutes of madness may have swung momentum in Tottenham Hotspur’s direction.

Arteta was looking for somebody to blame after Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat, claiming he would be suspended for six months if he revealed his true feelings, but the Spaniard would do well to review his own performance, along with Holding’s horror show. During the opening 20 minutes, Arteta actually used most of his energy signalling for his players to keep their calm, during which time Tottenham’s head coach Antonio Conte was booked for losing his cool and running down the touchline to complain about a yellow card Ben Davies was shown.

But while Conte coached his players through the North London derby and spoke with Davies at halftime about the need to be careful, Arteta stood and watched as a script that had become obvious to virtually everyone, when Holding kicked Son Heung-min in the 11th minute, played out in front of the Arsenal manager. Holding lost his head, but not one person, either inside the Arsenal technical area, or on the pitch, tried to stop him.

And if the plan was to try to stop Son at any cost, why was it not done on rotation, as cynical as that may be? Leaving the task to one man was inviting trouble.

It may have appeared streetwise to try to target Son and yet the way in which Holding and Arsenal attempted to execute the plan was naive in the extreme. Holding was fortunate referee Paul Tierney did not spot his first kick on Son, even if a furious Conte had not. He escaped a booking and just a minute later he might even have thought his windup tactics were going to work.

Another foul on Son this time provoked the Tottenham forward into reacting. Arteta would no doubt argue the forward sent an elbow towards Holding as the pair began to grapple before Harry Kane sensibly stepped in to push his team-mate away. It should have been the moment for somebody to have a word with Holding, but either nobody had the foresight or wanted to take responsibility. Either way, he was left to go it alone against Son and made a horrible mess of it.

Son’s reputation is for being one of the most honest and hard-working players in the game, but he is also a killer, and the 29-year-old quickly turned the tables on Holding by making sure he ran towards him at every opportunity.

Arsenal’s heads went collectively when Cedric Soares shoved Son in the back to concede the penalty from which Kane opened the scoring and it was only five minutes later that Holding was finally booked for a foul on the forward.

Holding should have been taken off at that point – it was just a matter of when he was going to get sent off and not if. Arsenal’s 13 red cards in the Premier League under Arteta are five more than any other club since his appointment in December 2019, and he should have reacted.

Holding’s 33 minutes on the Tottenham pitch were every bit as irresponsible as Luke Ayling’s ill-discipline that cost Leeds United at the Emirates last Sunday.

Tierney could have produced a straight red card for the foul that ended Holding’s evening, as the 26-year-old stuck out an elbow just far enough to make sure it sent Son to the ground. Martin Odegaard’s attempt to earn Davies a second yellow card towards the end of the first half was embarrassingly obvious. For anybody playing Arsenal bingo, at least Granit Xhaka picked up an almost obligatory needless yellow.

Arteta and his players will have to box far cleverer in their final two games, otherwise they will face a costly sucker punch.