Martin Keown has criticised Rob Holding for not helping Arsenal teammate Kieran Tierney on Thursday night.
The Gunners slumped to a surprise 2-0 defeat away to PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League.
Luuk de Jong, who stands at 6’2, out-jumped Tierney to nod home the second goal Arsenal conceded on the night.
And Keown believes that Holding – who did not appear to be marking anyone – should’ve been on De Jong, not Tierney.
He told BT Sport [27/10, 7:49pm]: “Tierney doesn’t even get off the ground, I don’t know why he was marking him. If I’m Holding I would make myself available to help him but he didn’t do that either.”
As it happens, Holding was the one trying to challenge the Dutchman in the end, but De Jong jumped before the Arsenal man and therefore had an advantage which was massive in the end.
He didn’t really abandon Tierney so much as that there was general disorganisation in the visitors’ defence all evening, typified by that incident.
In Holding’s defence, nobody from Mikel Arteta’s side really gave a stellar account of themselves, it has to be said.
It was a rare off-day from an Arsenal team that had only lost once in all competitions prior to their visit to the Netherlands last night.
The North Londoners had won their first four Europa League outings before going to Eindhoven and as a result will still qualify from the group.
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