Tottenham Hotspur turned in their worst performance of the 2025/26 season in the most important game of the campaign thus far, as they were blown apart by bitter North London Derby rivals Arsenal 4-1 in a game that was simply never close.
At no point in the match did Tottenham look like they even belonged on the same pitch as Arsenal, who are running away with the Premier League title at this point if this keeps up. Far from looking like a top five team in English football, Spurs were atrocious and looked more like the bottom five team they were last season.
So many individual players deserve criticism from this 4-1 defeat, as there is more than enough to go around after a result like that. And obviously, the manager himself deserves the brunt of the criticism when the team played as poorly as Spurs did, as Thomas Frank was also responsible for starting certain individuals who really should no longer be starting for Tottenham.
Rodrigo Bentancur is finished
One of those individuals is Rodrigo Bentancur, who has sunk his game to a new low since signing a contract extension this season. Despite being a worse player than Lucas Bergvall, Pape Matar Sarr, and Archie Gray with approximately a quarter of the upside of any of these young midfield talents, Bentancur has been racking up undeserved starts on Frank's watch.
Bentancur was the worst player on the pitch for Tottenham. As anyone would have predicted, he was totally owned by the elite Arsenal midfield, as Mikel Arteta specifically game planned to catch Bentancur out, taking advantage of his physical weakness, slow speed, and cowardly overall play.
Culpable on three of the four goals, Bentancur was lethargic and almost apathetic in a North London Derby that required a lot more fire from a supposed veteran leader. The former Juventus flop was so slow and sloppy defensively that he made Joao Palhinha do the work of three men, and yet that still wasn't enough to help Spurs tread water defensively.
Bentancur was like Tottenham playing with 10 men, he was so awful. He did not make up for his defensive deficiencies and lazy play on offense either, as he created absolutey nothing and rarely even attempted a pass. When the going got rough, Bentancur seemed to shy away from the ball. Frank should have benched him months ago, but after being embarrassed this badly in the North London Derby, Bentancur showed he is finished at this level and must be benched once and for all.