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An emotional Mikel Arteta blasted social media trolls who sent sickening abuse to Kai Havertz’s wife after Arsenal crashed out of the FA Cup, calling on the football industry to make it ‘prohibited’.
Havertz missed a penalty in Arsenal’s FA Cup shootout defeat against Manchester United on Sunday before his pregnant wife, Sophia, reposted two abhorrent messages she had received on Instagram.
Some of the messages targeted her pregnancy, as she described one remark as ‘shocking’ before adding ‘I hope you are so ashamed of yourself’.
Arsenal have reported the abuse to the police and are working with specialist data firm Signify to try to identify the culprits.
Ahead of Arsenal’s north London derby clash against Tottenham on Wednesday, Arteta said: ‘It’s incredible, honestly. We really have to do something about it, because accepting that and hiding this has terrible consequences.
‘It’s something we have to eradicate from the game because it’s so cynical and dependent to a result of an action. There is no other industry like this.
Mikel Arteta blasted social media trolls who sent sickening abuse to Kai Havertz’s wife
Havertz’s wife, Sophia Weber, was subjected to abuse on Instagram after Arsenal crashed out of the FA Cup at the hands of Manchester United
She described one remark as ‘shocking’ before adding ‘I hope you are so ashamed of yourself’
Havertz missed the crucial penalty in the shootout, having won a spot-kick earlier in the game
‘When we played Ipswich on December 27, we win 1-0 and Kai Havertz scores. The whole stadium after that is singing the ‘Waka, Waka’ (his chant). That was 20 days ago. Where is the perspective?
‘We are all responsible. You guys (the media) are responsible, everybody is responsible for the narrative and how we talk. We cannot look somewhere else. That’s a really serious matter. It affects me. It affects him and everybody that is in the industry.
‘We can accept it and say that’s our job, but there are certain limits and the line has to be drawn. We put a lot of attention on technology and what is next in football. What is next in football is that this should be prohibited. It cannot happen. That’s it.’
On Gabriel Jesus, who went off on a stretcher on Sunday, Arteta added: ‘It’s not looking good at all. We need to review one more specialist, so we will probably know more information this afternoon.
‘I don’t want to confirm anything until we have the final report this afternoon. But we were very worried after the game and we are very worried today.’