Arsenal targeted £25m Tottenham player on Sunday, says Darren Bent

By Sam Preston

Darren Bent says Arsenal’s Ben White and Bukayo Saka targeted Tottenham’s Ryan Sessegnon on Sunday afternoon.

Sessegnon was a surprise pick ahead of the more experienced Ivan Perisic at left wing-back as Spurs went down 2-0 against their bitter rivals.

Bent told TalkSPORT he thinks that the £25 million man was picked because of his athleticism but the move did not pay off.

He said you could see that Arsenal had worked on build-up play to get at Sessegnon and the opening goal came from a Saka run down the right, when Hugo Lloris flapped the ball into his own net.

Bent says Sessegnon was targeted by Arsenal

Bent said: “Conte felt Ryan Sessegnon was quick, strong, could run with Saka. He put him there because of his athleticism.

“But Saka played cat and mouse with him. So intelligent. He was going short and kept spinning in behind, going inside. You could see Arsenal had worked on it.

“Every time Ben White got the ball and Saka would start on the touchline then sprint in there, really going across the pitch, linking with Odegaard.”

The quality of Spurs’ wing-backs has come under scrutiny in recent weeks, and it was a surprise to see Antonio Conte go into this one without Perisic in the team.

Spurs tend to start games slowly this season and this match was no different, as they went in at the break 2-0 down and could not recover.

Next up is a clash with Manchester City, so the assignments do not get any easier for a club who are struggling for consistency and unity this season.