Tottenham 3-0 Arsenal: Mark Clattenburg gives his verdict on key decisions

Arsenal were battered from pillar to post by Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday night.

While the north London derby is a tense affair at the best of times, the pressure was ramped up even more by the fact that both teams are scrapping it out for Champions League qualification.

With Manchester United and West Ham United having fallen out of the top four race, only Arsenal and Tottenham can now join Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea in the big time.

And it was Spurs who took a huge step towards Europe’s premier competition with a stunning 3-0 victory in the Premier League courtesy of Harry Kane’s brace and a Heung-min Son strike.

All in all, there could be no denying that Antonio Conte’s men were deserving of the win as they really took the game to Arsenal with a high-octane approach at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

However, that doesn’t mean that the game wasn’t without controversy because there were more than a few Gooners still feeling a sense of injustice once the final whistle blew on a 3-0 humbling.

After all, there were two huge refereeing decisions that undoubtedly contributed to the final result: Tottenham’s penalty for the opening goal and Rob Holding’s red card with the score at 1-0.

So, were they the correct decisions? Spurs and Arsenal fans will most certainly have their own opinions on the matter, but let’s not pretend as though the experts don’t know better than us all.

And luckily, former Premier League and Champions League final referee Mark Clattenburg has already sunk his teeth into the two decisions at the heart of Tottenham’s win over Arsenal.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Clattenburg came out in defence of Paul Tierney’s call to send off Holding, but was a little less sure about awarding a penalty for