Former Arsenal forward Ian Wright wasn’t pleased with Tottenham star Pedro Porro’s actions during the North London derby.
Tottenham resumed their league campaign with a home fixture against arch-rivals Arsenal. Having suffered a defeat at the hands of Newcastle United last time out, Spurs were expected to put up a strong fight against the Gunners who were without their skipper Martin Ødegaard and star midfielder Declan Rice.
While Ange Postecoglou’s team dominated the ball and created a lot of chances, they were not clinical enough in the final third and ended up suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Mikel Arteta’s team. It was a fiercely contested derby where tackles came in flying and a total of eight yellow cards were issued, seven of which came in the first half.
While speaking on Premier League productions Ian Wright highlighted an incident involving Pedro Porro and Jurrien Timber. The former Arsenal striker wasn’t happy with the Tottenham star’s reaction to a challenge from Timber.
Wright said on Premier League Productions (15/09/24 at 3:00 pm): “I don’t even think this is a foul. Timber gets his foot on the ball. He is trying to do that protecting the ball.
“I think Porro has reacted very, very poorly. There is nothing wrong with him. Nowhere near enough contact for him to be rolling around like he is.
“The goalkeeper (Vicario) from his angle thought he has caught him. But if you look at it, he’s standing on the ball. He’s not kicked him or tried to kick him. Then Porro makes a meal of it.”
It was a fifty-fifty ground ball and both full-backs went hard at it. Timber did get his foot on the ball but he caught Porro on the follow-up while trying to protect the ball. Wright feels the Tottenham defender made a meal out of it and he wasn’t happy with how he reacted to the challenge which in his opinion wasn’t even a foul.
Even though Porro kept rolling on the ground in hopes of a straight red for Timber, the VAR decided to stick to the on-field decision which saw the Arsenal defender get booked. Guglielmo Vicario also got himself booked during the incident because of how he reacted to it but it was the £39 million Spanish full-back’s reaction that got Wright all riled up.
