Rob Holding Hits Out at Arsenal Fans After Blunder in Barcelona Win
Rob Holding has appeared to hit out at Arsenal fans abusing him on social media after the defender made a big error in the 5-3 win over Barcelona. Arsenal faced the La Liga side in a pre-season friendly in California and it was Barcelona who went in front as Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring.
Bukayo Saka levelled it up for the Gunners before Brazil international Raphinha restored the Catalan club’s lead in the first half. Arsenal’s summer signing Kai Havertz made it 2-2 just before the break and a second-half double from Leandro Trossard put the north Londoners in control.
Gunners defender Holding was brought on for the last five minutes – and soon after coming on he made a huge mistake – slipping while on the ball inside his own half, which allowed Ousmane Dembele to find Ferran Torres to make it 4-3. Although Fabio Vieira fired home to regain Arsenal’s two-goal cushion before full-time, many Gunners fans were left fuming with Holding for his blunder.
The Negative Reactions
‘Leave Rob Holding in the States,’ one Arsenal fan posted on Twitter while a second supporter said: ‘Can’t do another season of Rob Holding man.’ The negative comments kept flowing as a third Arsenal fan urged Holding to ‘leave immediately’ and a fourth told him to ‘pack your things’.
Holding’s Response
Holding took to social media himself after the barrage of abuse, uploading a black screen and cryptically writing ‘Nice one’ on his Instagram story. The 27-year-old Englishman was one of the players scapegoated for Arsenal’s downfall last season as they missed on the Premier League title to Manchester City following a late capitulation, despite leading the table for a total of 248 days.
Holding came into the starting XI following injury to William Saliba in March, starting six games in a row as Arsenal failed to keep a clean sheet in any of them. That run of results included three successive costly draws to Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton – before a 4-1 defeat to title rivals City – and Holding was subsequently benched for the final four games of the 2022-23 campaign.
Roy Keane was among the pundits to slam the centre-back and said in April: ‘Rob Holding doesn’t play regularly and there’s a reason for that. I’m not his biggest fan, there’s no doubt he’s an honest pro but I worry about his real lack of pace.’
Conclusion
Rob Holding has been a controversial figure at Arsenal for some time now and his latest mistake against Barcelona has only added fuel to the fire. The defender responded to the criticism with a cryptic message on social media, but it remains to be seen if he will be able to turn things around and prove his doubters wrong.