Tottenham 3-0 Arsenal: 4 negatives and positives

Negative #2 – Arsenal Couldn’t Punish Davinson Sanchez

When the team news was announced and it was revealed that Benjamin White hadn’t recovered in time to feature, there was some fear that set in.

The prospect of Cedric Soares lining up against Heung-min Son was a terrifying one. It played out as you would imagine.

But that wasn’t the only change. Cristian Romero, easily Tottenham’s best defender and comfortably one of the finest centre-backs in the Premier League, missed out entirely. In came Davinson Sanchez, an absolute calamity of a central defender, who was starting his first game since February.

Arsenal never truly got the chance to exploit him.

Tottenham did a solid job of double and tripling up on Martinelli down that side, with Emerson constantly having Kulusevski covering him. Sanchez, on the right of the back three, was troubled early doors with Martinelli breaking through down that wing. He did look rattled at times, but then game state changes everything when the penalty and red card happened.

It was such a huge opportunity missed for Arsenal based on their own failings. With none of the ball and ten men, that weakness couldn’t be exploited.

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