David Luiz sent a pointed message to his critics are producing a magnificent display at the heart the Arsenal defence during Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final victory against Manchester City.
The experienced centre-half turned in a nightmare performance last month against the same opposition, gifting a goal to Raheem Sterling before he was sent-off for a professional foul on Riyad Mahrez.
Luiz was roundly criticised afterwards with Jamie Carragher offering a particularly damming verdict on the 33-year-old, claiming Arsenal would be foolhardy to offer the former Chelsea star a new deal.
Mikel Arteta stood by the Brazilian and his faith was rewarded with a tigerish performance against City at Wembley. Arsenal progressed to their 21st FA Cup final thanks largely to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s brace but their commitment in defence helped secure a rare clean sheet against City.
Luiz, in particular, was outstanding and afterwards spoke eloquently about the way in which he dealt with the abuse he suffered following last month’s horror show.
He told BT Sport: (There was) a lot of criticism of me you can say that. It is part of the football, I understood during my career football is about surviving every day you are going to defend your team and other people are going to support their teams it is about surviving.
‘It is what I did I was working very hard every day after my mistakes I took the blame I was mature enough to understand that and I was humble to do that for the team.’
He added: ‘It was a great result against one of the best teams in the world, we were humble, understood the way we had to play. We took the opportunity to score, we have to be mature to understand which level we are in the process.
‘We are in the process, we have an amazing coach who wants to bring us the best football for this club but not 0-100 we have to understand that day by day we are improving. The spirit was great and I am happy for the team they deserved it.’
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