Where Arsenal expected to spend the week preparing for a Carabao Cup semi final second leg with Liverpool, they have instead found themselves having to spend it defending themselves from unprecedented criticism.
The decision to postpone Sunday's North London Derby at the Gunners' request sparked disproportionate outrage among almost everyone away from the Emirates, despite the fact that by Mikel Arteta's insistence, his team had simply followed the rules put in place by the Premier League.
"I don’t know if I understand," the Spaniard said of the fall out over the past few days. "What I’m telling you is what we’ve done. When other teams have come to us and said we cannot play and we need the game to be postponed, we have never, ever publicly questioned any of that.
