Ian Wright was left apoplectic by the foul throw that sparked Arsenal’s collapse at Newcastle on Monday.
The Gunners require an unlikely turn of events to secure Champions League qualification on the final day of the season after a 2-0 defeat on Tyneside, the first goal coming courtesy of a Ben White own goal.
Newcastle’s opener came immediately after Nuno Tavares’ foul throw and former Arsenal star Wright was disappointed not just by the foul throw but by how the team responded to it.
“When you look at the first goal it was our throw,” he told Premier League Productions.
“We’re going for top four and we’ve got players taking foul throws! It’s a foul throw! You think to yourself, ‘What are you doing?’.
“Off the back of that once it gets out to Cedric [Soares] you can’t let [Allan] Saint-Maximin get outside of you so easily, cut the line off, show him inside but bang they’re straight into us. It’s a great cross but at the same time that could easily have been avoided.
“When you’re going for fourth you’ve got to be more resolute than that, you can’t make mistakes like that. Yes it’s an own goal but we’ve been the architects of our own downfall. It’s terrible play.”
Jamie Carragher was similarly unimpressed by the Tavares incident, with Arsenal going on to concede a second, late on from Bruno Guimaraes.
“We’re talking top level football here, a foul throw is not acceptable, it’s just not,” said the Monday Night Football pundit.
Likewise, Gary Neville told Sky Sports that Arsenal’s performance was in a similar vein to their disappointing derby defeat to Tottenham last week.
“I never fully trusted them to get into the top four all the way through but I thought they’d come out and respond after a poor first half and they would go get the victory but they showed us nothing, it shows where they’re at,” he stated.
“They were schooled on Thursday, they lacked experience on the pitch and it will cause them a big problem.”
