Ben White is "playing with clowns" as Arsenal fans rate his debut for Gunners

Arsenal fans voiced their sympathy for Ben White on Twitter as the England defender made his first appearance for the club after completing his move from Brighton.

The 23-year-old signed a five-year deal with the Gunners on Friday as he joined from Brighton for a fee worth just over £50million and came off the bench at half-time in their match with Chelsea.

He was unable to prevent a 2-1 loss after Hector Bellerin's loose pass set up Tammy Abraham to win the match for the visitors in the 72nd minute.

Arsenal fans were overall impressed with White, but critical of the teammates he found himself playing alongside on Sunday.

White entered the fray at half-time and ten minutes later showed the first glimpses of why Mikel Arteta forked out on the centre-half as he produced an excellent goal-line block to deny Hakim Ziyech.

However, he was not being helped out by those alongside, with Arsenal fans labelling several of his new teammates 'clowns' on social media.

One supporter tweeted: "I feel bad for Ben White. He's playing with clowns around him on his debut like Elneny and Bellerin."

It was Bellerin's loose pass that allowed Abraham to slot home Chelsea's winner after a Granit Xhaka header three minutes earlier had cancelled out Kai Havertz's first-half opener.

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"Ben White got his work cut out with these clowns at the back" added another disgruntled Gunners fan on Twitter as Arsenal fell to their second defeat of pre-season.

Arteta's side lost their opening pre-season fixture 2-1 to Hibernian before a 2-2 draw against Scottish champions Rangers, they have since recorded consecutive 4-1 wins against Millwall and Watford.

Their pre-season campaign was disrupted when they were forced to withdraw from the Florida Cup in Orlando, USA due to positive Covid tests within their travelling party.

They will now close out their preparations for the new season away to North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the final match of the Mind Series, which aims to raise awareness for mental health.

The defeat to Chelsea came immediately after the two clubs' women's sides had faced each other, with Arsenal winning that fixture 2-1 thanks to goals from Katie McCabe and Freya Jupp.

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