Arsenal goal ‘a foul’ as Tottenham star ‘good at kicking people’ slammed for role in Gabriel winner

Paul Merson is adamant the Arsenal goal shouldn’t have stood but Cristian Romero has been slammed for his role in Gabriel’s winner on Sunday.

The Gunners were far from their best at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium but preyed on Spurs’ weakness from set pieces to claim all three points, with Gabriel rising unchallenged to nod the ball past Guglielmo Vicario on the hour mark .

Spurs huffed and puffed in response but rarely troubled David Raya at the other end and limped to defeat.

Merson claimed Romero had to do better as Gabriel got the better of him from Bukayo Saka’s corner, but also reckons the Argentinian was fouled by his fellow South American.

“I would be disappointed if I didn’t get a foul,” Merson said on Sky Sports. “(Romero) is in the wrong position, everything is wrong about his defending. He’s an international centre-half.

“Even I know, and I don’t play at the back, that you’ve got to be side-on, seeing the ball and your player. To start off with you’ve got to be a hand-length away (from him), and he was standing with him. I do think… I’d expect a foul. I would expect a foul.”

Gary Neville was similarly critical of Romero but pinned the majority of the blame on Vicario, who ended up moving back towards his line rather than coming to claim the ball.

“The goalkeeper’s rooted,” Neville said on co-commentary.

“He heads it three yards out, he’s free, and Romero, the centre-back, is picking up Gabriel.

“It’s really poor from the Argentinian, but I’d want my goalkeeper to come for it. He gets blocked and then he ends up rooted.”

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Jamie Redknapp, on punditry duty on Sky Sports, agreed with the assessment and suggested Romero would be well served to spend less time “kicking people” and more time improving his ability to defend set pieces.

He told Sky Sports: “Teams pray on Vicario’s weakness from set-pieces – because people have seen Vicario’s weakness, they stick loads of players in front of him.

“Tottenham, they have gone for man-to-man so they are all obsessed with their players and it is a little bit selfish.

“Yes, Romero is good at kicking people, but when it comes to stuff like that he has got to do better”.