Mikel Arteta has spoken out against the social media abuse towards Kai Havertz and his pregnant wife after Arsenal’s FA Cup exit to Manchester United, saying it needs to be ‘eradicated’.
Havertz’s wife, Sophia, shared screenshots of abusive direct messages that included threats to her and her unborn child on Instagram in the aftermath of Arsenal’s defeat.
She captioned one of the screenshots, by saying: “For anyone to think it’s okay to write something like this is so shocking to me. I hope you are so ashamed of yourself.”
Asked about the incidents in his pre-Tottenham press conference, 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 on the result of an action.
“There is no other industry like this. When we played Ipswich on December 27, we win 1-0, and 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…
