Ryan Mason was trending on Twitter after Tottenham’s 3-1 defeat against Arsenal in the north London derby as the pressure continues to mount on Nuno Espirito Santo.
Emile Smith Rowe opened the scoring for Arsenal, before goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka ensured the Gunners went in 3-0 up at half-time.
Heung-min Son gave Spurs a glimmer of hope with his late strike and Lucas Moura struck the bar in stoppage time, but it was too little too late for Nuno’s side.
The result means Arsenal leapfrog Spurs in the table, while the visitors have now lost three in a row in the Premier League and have conceded three goals in all of those defeats.
(Image: REUTERS)
And former Spurs interim boss Mason – who took over from Jose Mourinho in April until the end of the previous campaign – was seen trending on Twitter after the game.
Mason’s caretaker tenure got off to a brilliant start when his side beat Southampton 2-1 at home in his first game in charge but Spurs then went on to lose the EFL Cup final to Manchester City just four days later.
The 30-year-old oversaw five more games in charge of the club, winning three and losing two, before his time at the helm came to an end.
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Meanwhile, current boss Nuno admitted it was a bad day at the office for Spurs, who have now dropped into the bottom half of the table following the defeat.
“The performance was not good, the game plan was not good, the decisions were not good, it was not a good day for us, definitely not a good day,” he said.
The Spurs boss also said his team were not ‘aggressive enough’ when competing with Arteta’s side at the Emirates.
“I’m going to be honest with you, when you have a gameplan you have to make the right decisions in terms of who you want to put up the pitch to develop the plan because the decisions were not according to the gameplan,” Nuno added.
“I’m not going to individual tell what decisions I didn’t do right but the gameplan was not according to the players on the pitch.
(Image: Getty Images)
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“We were not aggressive enough to control the dynamic of the midfield of Arsenal, they were faster, they were stronger, more aggressive, winning second balls and we suffer when we wanted to go in front we allowed Arsenal to always come to us. By seeing that, bad decisions.
“We prepared the game, we had a good meeting but then we’re not able to do it, not strong enough, I’m being honest with you, because it’s not easy to, the decisions were not according to the gameplan so if we wanted to go strong in the midfield, then they were not the right decisions I made.”
Nuno’s side will now focus their attention on the upcoming Europa Conference League fixture against Slovenian side Mura on Thursday.
Spurs will then play host to Aston Villa in the Premier League at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Sunday.