Tottenham 3-0 Arsenal: 3 talking points from north London derby

Dubious Decisions and Non-Decisions

The penalty call in the first half was anything but straightforward. While there was contact between Cedric and Son, those are often let go. But, for some reason tonight, it was given.

It is what it is, but this is becoming a rather concerning theme for Arsenal, especially away from home. Make of that what you will.

The argument could be made that had that happened in the Arsenal box the play would have been waved on. Now, that is not why Arsenal collapsed – more so the red card – but the penalty sucked the life out of the squad, and that is the next step in their development: mental fortitude.

We have seen it at times this season, but they needed to show it tonight. Was the referee a little trigger happy? Potentially. But he gave the call, and it has to be accepted, yet when incidents that are worse than that are let go, you wonder why that was called and others weren’t.

A little snippet of Son elbowing Rob Holding made its way into the public eye in the first half, which left many wondering why VAR did not look at that. In the end, Arsenal, as for some reason often happens, gets the rough end of the stick.

All is not lost; win the remaining two games and secure Champions League football.

Simple right?