Former Arsenal midfielder Stewart Robson has blasted Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for his lack of effort when tracking back in the 3-1 defeat to the Gunners.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side failed to get going in the first half of the North London Derby this season and found themselves 3-0 down after just 35 minutes.
Spurs’ midfield struggled to get a foothold in proceedings and were often chasing their counterparts’ shadows in a whirlwind encounter at the Emirates Stadium.
There was often a large amount of space between the Spurs defence and midfield, which prompted Arsenal to regularly bomb forward on the counter-attack.
Nuno deployed a midfield three of Hojbjerg, Tanguy Ndombele and Dele Alli, which was simply torn apart on the day, and former Gunners man Robson has claimed the Dane was simply ‘chugging back’ when trying to defend Arsenal’s attacks.
Speaking on ESPN, he said: “Nuno has gone in there and tried to bring back the likes of Dele Alli, but Jules is absolutely right.
“That central midfield area, I saw some of those recovery runs from Hojbjerg, they were a disgrace. He was actually chugging back and Saka charged beyond him and the first goal came from that. Likewise with Dele Alli.”
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Hojbjerg has generally been a decent signing since arriving at the club, but he has struggled to match the impact he had early last season in the new campaign.
His effort for a couple of the Arsenal goals was caught by a host of fans online which will have frustrated them, especially considering it was in such a big fixture.
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