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An emotional Mikel Arteta has slammed social media trolls who made disgusting insults at Kai Havertz's wife after Arsenal were knocked out of the FA Cup, and called on the football industry to “ban” him.
Havertz missed a penalty in Arsenal's FA Cup shootout defeat to Manchester United on Sunday before his pregnant wife Sophia reposted two abhorrent messages she had received on Instagram.
Some of the messages referred to her pregnancy, and she described one comment as “shocking” before adding “I hope you're that ashamed of yourself.”
Arsenal have reported the abuse to the police and are working with specialist data company Signify to try to identify the culprits.
Ahead of Arsenal's north London derby against Tottenham on Wednesday, Arteta said: “It's unbelievable, honestly. “We really have to do something about it, because accepting it and hiding it has terrible consequences.
'It's something we have to eradicate from the game because it is very cynical and dependent on the outcome of an action. There is no other industry like it.
Mikel Arteta slams social media trolls who sent disgusting abuse to Kai Havertz's wife
Havertz's wife Sophia Weber was subjected to abuse on Instagram after Arsenal were knocked out of the FA Cup at the hands of Manchester United.
She described one comment as “shocking” before adding: “I hope you're so ashamed of yourself.”
Havertz missed the crucial penalty in the shootout, having won a penalty earlier in the match.
“When we played Ipswich on December 27, we won 1-0 and Kai Havertz scored. After that, the whole stadium sings 'Waka, Waka' (their chant). That was 20 days ago. Where's the perspective?
'We are all responsible. You (the media) are responsible, you are all responsible for the narrative and how we speak. We cannot look elsewhere. That is a really serious matter. It affects me. It affects him and everyone in the industry.
'We can accept it and say it's our job, but there are certain limits and the line has to be drawn. We pay a lot of attention to technology and what's next in football. What follows in football is that this should be banned. It can't happen. That's all.'
Regarding Gabriel Jesús, who was carried off on a stretcher on Sunday, Arteta added: “It doesn't look good at all. We need to check with 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.”
