Former Arsenal man Kevin Campbell concedes Arsenal had a bad day against Southampton in their 1-1 draw against the Saints, but he insists some key decisions went against them in the game.
Mikel Arteta’s men dropped points for only the second time this season against the Saints after their opponents put up a spirited performance to avoid defeat and keep their manager on his job.
However, that game could still have been won by the Gunners if key decisions had gone their way.
Speaking about it to Football Insider, Campbell said:
“It all seemed to be against Arsenal. It was tough to take.
“The home team can sometimes get the rub of the green. Southampton had a lot of things go their way over the course of the game.
“Sometimes you have to sail close to the wind and Southampton did that. The referee helped them out. If it wasn’t for him, they may not have got a point.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Banking on crucial decisions to go your way is not a good strategy for any club to adopt and Arsenal must be prepared to win regardless of the situation.
We were lucky to have won the game against Leeds, and the performance didn’t exactly improve when we played against Soton.
We must show that improvement in our next game and get back to winning quickly, or else we could regret it.
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You have to kill off the games…..Period
No one gets all the calls all the time. Invariably there are situations you can point to where mistakes were made over the course of a game.
Hardly a stellar game by the ref I must confess, but our woes are on us.
We allowed Southampton to grow back into the game rather than killing them off.
We fell pray to their counter, ref wasn’t to blame for that. Subs were made too late, and Nketiah and Vieira offered nothing when they came on the pitch.
We were fading as the match got older, while Southampton was in ascendency. We did little to counter that on the pitch.
We should look in the mirror and ask did we do the best we could with our opportunities?
Untold Arsenal produced stats beforehand pointing out that Southampton would be able to foul much more often before being penalised for fouls or getting a yellow card. Add in further stats from the same source and the evidence is there that referees are either ‘home’ or ”away’ biased Sundays ref stats highlighted the ref would be biased towards the home side. No wonder that Southampton went in with the tackling etc they probably couldnt believe their luck in getting away with what they did. Untold Arsenal also predicted a tight 2-1 Arsenal victory , So yeah the Gunners fell short .Stats analysis warned us which way the ref would go .
Campbell is spot on. Several key decisions went massively in Southampton’s favour.
That’s the worst refereeing performance I’ve seen this season.
The ref, Jones, at SAINTS was indeed a disgrace; not a cheat, but just grossly incompetent and IMO should be demoted from the Prem, as he is nowhere near even the generally bad Prem ref quality.
I have long thought that almost all refs cooperate with players in deliberately wasting time.
Free kicks in any dangerous positionroutinely take at least times three times as long as they ought.
Try timing the next free kick you see awarded say just ooutsude the rarea and watch how obscenely longit takes! AND THEN SEE HOW MUCH OF THAT WASTEDTIME IS DIRECTLY CAUSED BY REFS! YOU WILL BE AMAZED and I hav ebeen banging on about this wrongdpoing for ages.
That IS a form of “cheating” thr watching fans and armchair viewers and in thst respect, I do agree there is a type of cheating in which refs are guilty. Not actual bias towards one or the other team but “cheating” the fans.
Also, refs commonly never ever blow the final whistle , which means cheating the final whistle, just before a corner or a dangerous free kick. ALMOST ALWAYS THOUGH, JUST AFTER A GOAL KICK WHEN THE BALL IS IN THE AIR. TO ATTEMPT TO MANAGE TIME IS ANOTHER FORM OF “CHEATING” . It is ludicrously referred to as “managing the game or managing time”!
Time cannot be managed and should not be manipulated to suit whatever is happening. Time is time and the whistle should go IMMEDIATELY time is up.
So he WAS cheating then Jon?
Check out Untold Arsenal for stats analysis on refs . You may be surprised at what you find . Far from being incompetent refs are clever and devious . These guys are virtually a secret society and answerable to no one. 3 seasons ago Mikel recognised this , so cut the tackling drastically. Result : fewer bans , more players available, even less injuries ! Now with a solid Arsenal support refs are finding it easier to go with the flow therefore bookings are going down . Untold Arsenal produced stats on refs in lockdown seasons and proved beyond doubt they are influenced by fans ; no crowds meant that away teams fared better than any other season ever. Proves beyond doubt refs dont apply rules properly or consistently we need to watch these jokers like a hawk.
Another ref could have given a penalty to Arsenal.There have been too many inconsistent decisions.
Its about time the FA bring error prone refs to heel.These guys shd be made to explain their decisions at the end of the game
Precisely 👍