At around 3pm on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur looked set to suffer a record-breaking defeat against Arsenal.
A spirited performance in the second half couldn’t prevent the defeat, but it at least ensured that the result was much more respectable: goals from Cristian Romero and Heung-min Son led to a narrow 2-3 defeat in North London. Derby.
Here are Tottenham’s best and worst players in the defeat to arch-rivals Arsenal 90 minutes estimated player ratings.
Cristian Romero: 7/10
Cristian Romero’s rather strange decision to play as the de facto striker against Arsenal surprisingly benefited his team enormously on Sunday.
The Argentine hit the crossbar in the first half and brought his team back into the game with a deserved goal at the start of the second half. After fending off a David Raya free-kick, Romero side-footed into the bottom corner like a prime Gabriel Batistuta.
Not only was Romero threatening in the final third, but despite conceding three goals, he didn’t do too badly in the defensive third either. The central defender won an impressive 11 duels throughout the game and also completed 97% of his passes.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg: 4/10
Tottenham fans feared the worst when they saw Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s name in the starting lineup on Sunday, and that’s exactly what they got just 15 minutes into the game when the midfielder headed into his own goal to give Arsenal the lead.
Hojbjerg’s performance level didn’t really improve after that either, as he regularly chased shadows in the middle of the park.
A bad day at the office.
Dishonorable mention
Ben Davies: 4/10
The Welsh full-back had the unenviable task of taking on Bukayo Saka on the wing on Sunday and, as expected, he struggled against Arsenal’s ‘Starboy’.
Davies was beaten by Saka in the first half, with the full-back allowing his opponent to penetrate with his favored left foot and score the Gunners’ second goal of the game – a pretty egregious mistake considering how well documented Saka’s penchant for it is is His left foot was cut.
He made up for his earlier performance somewhat by putting his body on the line to win a Declan Rice penalty late in the second half.