Arsenal Vs Spurs: 5 things we learned – Mikel Arteta has a hard job

2. Sead Kolasinac is even worse

For however poor Mustafi was, and he most certainly was disastrous, Sead Kolasinac was even worse. Playing on the left side of the back three, opposite of Mustafi, he suffered the exact same problems at the German, only he did not defend at least vaguely capably for the first 75 minutes.

Panic exudes Kolasinac, whether he has the ball or not. Whenever a cross comes towards him, he immediately looks uncomfortable, unsure of how to deal with it. In possession, he always gesticulates to those around him, clearly worried about releasing a pass. When faced with an opposing attacker, he either wildly dives in or backs off, frightened of what they might do.

The epitome of his inability came for Son Heung-min’s goal. It started with a panicked control of the ball. He then dribbled backwards, again trying to run away from the problem. Then, instead of calmly sliding a simple pass into Granit Xhaka to evade the Spurs press and immediately release pressure, he panicked, playing the wrong pass back to David Luiz. It was overhit and Son duly collected the ball and scored. It was a disastrous performance from a disastrous player.