'We're letting the fans down' - Holding blasts Arsenal's worst start in 39 years

Charles Watts

'We're letting the fans down' - Holding blasts Arsenal's worst start in 39 years image

Rob Holding says Arsenal are letting their fans down following the club’s worst start to a league season since 1981.

The Gunners sunk to a sixth defeat in nine league games on Sunday as they were beaten 2-0 by league leaders Spurs in the north London derby.

Mikel Arteta’s side now sit 15th in the league having only amassed 13 points from their opening 11 games and Holding accepts that the recent form has simply not been good enough.

"We are frustrated as players and we are letting the fans down,” said the centre-back. “We need to change that, win some games and put that to bed.

“It is a record that you don’t want to be a part of.”

Arsenal have scored just 10 goals so far this season in the league, only the bottom three of Burnley, West Brom and Sheffield United have netted fewer.

Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has now gone 10 league games without a goal from open play and failed to muster a single shot on target against Spurs on Sunday.

Arteta’s side have now managed just one goal from open play in their last seven matches and even that came from a short corner, with centre-back Gabriel heading in Willian’s cross against Wolves.

Mikel Arteta Arsenal 2020-21

Arsenal’s manager admitted after the defeat at Tottenham that finding a solution to the goalscoring issue is vital and Holding is hoping a bit of luck could change their fortunes against Burnley on Sunday evening.

"We are getting the chances, it is just putting them away,” he said. “Maybe the first goal we get will just be a bit of a deflection or a trickle into the net and bit of luck on our side.

“Then hopefully the confidence will be there to carry on and score some more goals. But we just need that little bit of luck to put one in the back of the net.

“We have got to give the strikers some confidence to put the ball in the back of the net and hopefully we can get goals at the weekend.”

Focusing on what went wrong against Spurs, Holding added: “I think we had a lot of possession, created a lot of chances.

“I got told they had three shots on target and scored two goals, which is frustrating.

“Obviously their first goal was a great finish by Son and the second goal they caught us on the break. They took their chances and that’s the story of the game.

"No matter how many crosses we put in, if we don’t get on the end of it, and put it in the back of the net, it is pointless at the end of the day.”

Charles Watts

Charles Watts Photo

Charles Watts is Goal's Arsenal correspondent, covering the Gunners home, away and abroad. He joined Goal in April 2019 having spent the previous three years covering Arsenal for football.london. He has become a trusted and respected journalist on the Arsenal scene - regularly appearing on media outlets such as talkSPORT, Love Sport and SiriusXM and has also been a guest on Arsenal's official TV channel.