“He got absolutely ruined,” Bent slams Arsenal man after his horror show

Darren Bent has slammed Nuno Tavares after his horror show in the first half of Arsenal’s match against Crystal Palace.

The Portugal Under-21 left-back only started the game because Kieran Tierney is injured and could not play.

It was a rare chance for him to stake a claim for himself on the team and he flopped big time.

He was unsettled for most of the first half and he never looked confident at any point in that half.

That helped the Eagles to cause problems for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta removed him from the game at half-time.

When he left, the damage had already been done and Palace earned a surprise win.

Pundits slammed the left-back for his performance and one of them was Bent, who said via Express Sports: “I’ve seen Tavares play twice, I saw him get ruined at Nottingham Forest and then again last night.

“And in the commentary Jamie Carragher called it, he said he has to come off at half-time and he did.

“He got absolutely ruined, he was out of position and not good enough on the ball.

“I know his reputation and people say ‘he’s going to be a good player’ but the drop-off when Kieran Tierney is not playing.”

Just Arsenal Opinion

Tavares was shocking yesterday and his performance is not one that will earn him more minutes at the club.

Since he moved to the Emirates, he has shown too much weakness and remains one of the poor acquisitions we have made recently.

But he is still young and he might get better with time.

Tags Darren Bent Nuno Tavares

18 Comments

  1. He will comes good but was never going to cut it in a match like this at Selhurst Park.

    He needs to be sent on a season long loan, then we will see a much better player.

  2. It wasn’t a surprised win. It was a well deserved win.
    They came out with a plan and carried it out perfectly. While we were all over the place, headless.
    Nino is catching the flack, when the rest of the team was no better. Dude is not match fit and it showed. Not his fault. As for the rest of the team, they’ve been playing together consistently and should have shown more cohesion.
    And for those who want to claim we did better after he was taken off. CP had already did theirs, so all they had to do was coast to the finish line, while we chased goals…IJS

    1. Good points NY_Gunner
      I felt like the team preparation was not there from the first whistle, One would have thought Palace was fighting to keep 4th, not us.

      Also, White and Gabriel really didn’t help Tavares either. Guy hasn’t played in months, and got no support from his CB’s and they both lacked the awareness needed to help cover a guy unused in months.

      Frankly the entire team was poor, and Tavares was the worst of the bunch. But let’s not forget the sweet FA Laca gave the attack as well. A toothless striker, being used as a midfielder to build up play.

      A game the players really needed to be up and ready for, yet lacked the passion and intensity to fight to keep 4th.

      Form dips, but passion and intensity should always be near 100%, unfortunately they were as absent as our goals yesterday.

      1. You can blame Laca as much as you like,but it is obvious (well,to some of us at least)that he is only following MA instructions,hence the reason he is playing so much,common sense tells you that if he didn’t, he’d subbed.

  3. Yes he was rubbish but hard to put full blame on his shoulders

    – inexperienced in EPL, only 1 way to get experienced and that is to be played in “easier” games or brought on as a sub when we are winning and that simply hasn’t happened.

    – not match fit or sharp for the same reason above

    – whole team was rubbish so he had zero support from the experienced players. If everyone played quite well and he was rubbish then lay into him

    – tactics on the day were a joke

    1. agree with your sentiments PJ, Durand and NYG, as I posted earlier, Nuno was hung out to dry by our manager’s piss-poor tactics, considering the obvious tactics of the opposing manager….it’s almost as if Arteta thought Roy was still in charge…would have been much better to have had Nuno play as a more advanced winger, had ESR move inside and have Xhaka drop deeper to provide some defensive protection, which was ultimately done anyways, albeit far too late in the game to actually matter

  4. Easy & convenient target

    Gabriel was equally at fault for both first half goals, the first one subject to a bit of fortune

    A number of our players looked “unsettled for most of the first half and never looked confident at any point in that half”

    Partey & Ode who have been our influential players recently were worse than Tavares on the night and Laca failed in both his playing role and Captaincy

    Poor team performance, you win as a team, you lose as a team

    Tavares will be fine at the weekend

    1. Well said FingersFurnell!poor team performance all around.i don’t see people mentioning ESR missing a real sitter from a yard,the same with MØ who also gave a penalty away.

  5. Tavares is a huge liability ever since we bought him. Not sure if he has potential, but at the moment he is not near te required level, just like Lokonga. Both need a loan(s). We took a risk by not investing in January and unfortunately it backfired a lot. The 4th place is at stake now. Nobody could have seen it coming that both Partey and Tierney would be injured, but with both their records, it’s not completely out of the blue either. Both their replacements are not good enough.

    Then the striker’s position. I love Laca, but it’s obvious we needed goals to stay in 4th and that’s something that Laca’s been lacking all season. So to not get some goals in Jan was also a risk.

    I’d play Saka at left back for the remainder of the season, even though he is our most important player. Get Pepe in and let’s hope he hits topform. If Laca keeps failing to score, we need to get someone else in there. Idc if it’s Martinelli as a striker that Nketiah gets a chance, but we need goals asap

  6. Lokonga will also be fine at the weekend

    But giving Eddie a League start is overdue and Laca has not performed in the last three games so hopefully that will happen against Brighton

  7. wasn’t a surprise win, they nearly demolished us at the Emirates hence they wanted to confirm that we were actually lucky salvaging a point previously.

  8. Tavares is looking like a disaster signing. So mistake / error prone.
    We seem to have gotten ourselves another Mustafi.
    My portuguese ( Benfica) mate was so surprised that we went for him. Says the majority of the Benfica fans couldn’t stand Tavares for being a disaster player.

    1. I like Tavares but I prefer he plays LM, he’s got the energy and pace, atleast his mistakes might be corrected before it results in a goal,

      I really hope Partey is fine , we have no replacement for him,

  9. Palace are a team of Vieiras, all 6’-2” tall and built like brick sh*t houses, add to that a plan and a passion to win at all costs and a home fanbase with more songs than the Beatles, we were well beaten.

  10. Tavares has undoubtedly been abysmal in his last few outings. However, isn’t there a good LB in there somewhere? What happened to the Tavares we were all raging about when he appeared after Tierney got injured the first time? I recall people on here saying KT should have to fight for his place back. Let’s pray the old Nuno returns.

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