Graeme Souness tempered Arsenal’s optimism after their 3-1 victory over Tottenham by criticising the strength of the Spurs side, while he also took issue with Gunners fans
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In pictures: Arsenal v Tottenham
Graeme Souness was unimpressed by Arsenal fans singing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s name after the Gunners soundly defeated Tottenham in the north London derby.
Aubameyang put his side 2-0 up just before the half-hour mark after a brilliant break involving Emile Smith Rowe and Granit Xhaka.
Smith Rowe had opened the scoring in the 12th minute and fellow attacker Bukayo Saka all but guaranteed derby-day delight for Arsenal by extending the lead to 3-0 by half-time.
Son Heung-min pulled a goal back for Spurs late in the second half but this was to no avail, with the full-time whistle met by a huge roar from the Emirates faithful.
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Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
Arsenal captain Aubameyang was involved in post-match press duties and his interviews on the pitch prompted fans to chant his name.
But as Sky Sports cut back to the studio, Souness suggested supporters were getting ahead of themselves given the Gabonese forward had scored only against a Spurs side which is “so poor”.
The Liverpool legend said: “I don’t know why fans were singing Aubameyang’s name. Arsenal, enjoy your moment but you won’t play such a poor team that Spurs were in the first 35 minutes every week.
“They were so bad that’ll be the worst you see this year. Enjoy your moment, we’ll [Spurs] be back.
“I’m looking at the crowd singing Aubameyang’s name, I think my memories a wee big longer than yours but last year he was getting enormous amount of abuse.
“Football is such a fickle game and I come back to it, that literally is just one swallow, that’s not made your summer.
“They’ve now beat Norwich, Burnley then had a good 45 minutes against the poorest Tottenham team I’ve seen for a while.
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“So enjoy your moment – that ain’t going to make you top four or Champions League team next season.”
Souness did not hold back as he continued his criticism of Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, adding: “ I was surprised at how good they [Arsenal] looked, it was a bigger surprise how poor Spurs were.
“The shape was all wrong, Dele Alli standing out wide right, [Tanguy] Ndombele emptying midfield at any opportunity, you had the Danish player [Pierre-Emile] Hojbjerg – he was holding hands with [Eric] Dier all the time.
“When you analyse it, there’s no surprise that Arsenal dominated that first half. They brought [Oliver] Skipp on, Hojbjerg goes to midfield then they look a different team.”
Arsenal will look to make it four Premier League wins in a row as they travel to Brighton and Hove Albion next Saturday, while Spurs have a midweek fixture against Slovenian side Mura in the Europa Conference League.
