Controversy has been a recurring theme in Arsenal’s matches this season, with inconsistent officiating often taking centre stage. The Gunners have found themselves at the receiving end of several questionable decisions in recent months, leading to frustration both on and off the pitch. Arsenal players and supporters alike have frequently voiced their dissatisfaction, arguing that their team is unfairly treated compared to others in the Premier League.
One of the most recent incidents involved the red card shown to Myles Lewis-Skelly during Arsenal’s match against Wolves. The decision caused an uproar among Gunners fans and was later overturned, further fuelling arguments about the inconsistency of officiating in the league. Arteta was vocal in his criticism of the decision, describing it as yet another example of unfair treatment towards his team.
Neville, however, believes Arteta’s leadership in these complaints is influencing the Arsenal fanbase to adopt a more adversarial stance towards referees. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said:
“Now you have a sway of Arsenal’s anger, which comes from the players and from Mikel Arteta, and prominent fans. You now have a social media wave now which goes towards [allegations of] corruption and cheating. In our day, we couldn’t have that much influence – everyone was at home without a phone, and didn’t have Twitter.”
While Neville raises concerns about the growing tension between Arsenal fans and match officials, it is worth noting that he himself has been critical of referees when decisions go against Manchester United. His comments may seem hypocritical to some, as fans of all clubs are known to voice frustrations when controversial calls affect their teams.
Ultimately, the debate highlights the ongoing scrutiny of referees and VAR in the Premier League, with Arsenal often at the heart of the conversation. Whether Arteta is fuelling the criticism or simply responding to perceived injustices remains a matter of perspective.
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Garry you are talking like that because man u is doing good but all referees have gang against Arsenal.
What did we expect from Neville?
yes it’s because his team aren’t performing well unlike those days……. it’s better for him (Neville) to find a perfect club and start coaching so that he’ll know if it’s easy or not
I suppose during Neville’s heyday Ferguson never ever tried to influence decisions
🤣🤣
And the likes of us would point it out
👍👍👍🤣
The rest of the managers should follow his example until the corruption of PGMOL is brought down.
Evidence mate ?
Just watch football.
I loathe VAR, but one brilliant thing it has done is to give us transparency. Now we can see in full sight, how bias refs and those operating the VAR really are – as we see time and time again with Oliver.
But he has given us decisions in the past that have been subjective
In fact he one of the few to go to the monitor and stick to his decision
So that’s not bias or a conspiracy
I do not base my opinion on just the Wolves game. If I did, then Oliver and his buddies are definitely biased based on the evidence. These were not even subjective decisions.
Instead, I look at a large sample size. Oliver sending more of our players than from any other team, and so many of them were controversial, especially in the context of each specific game, given what Oliver was letting the opposition get away with, as we saw YET AGAIN against Wolves.
I am not denying we may have got the odd decision from him, but the controversy vastly outweighs the “favours”. Given the evidence, it’s impossible to make a case that he isn’t biased.
Take emotion out of it, be impartial, and let the evidence do the talking. That’s how I like to view such matters. If you do that, you can only draw one conclusion.
But if there was a conspiracy he wouldn’t help us at all would he ?
Like one of the decision that went in.our favour was against Everton so that could have helped us win the title
If there was a bias / conspiracy and he’s sent to the monitor by VAR to disallow our goal wouldn’t someone out to hurt us do that ?
If you look at the red cards he’s given us I would say 2 I disagree with
As I previously said, we may get the odd decision, but there’s too many crazy decisions, that often are never repeated by ANY other referee, to say that it’s just plain old bad refereeing.
But that’s not true is it
Last weekend a reff showed a red that was a yellow
I seen that happen allot
I can name decisions that have gone against other clubs that are bizarre
The point the likes of Gary Neville is making is what evidence is there that this is a conspiracy?
I never said there was a conspiracy against Arsenal.
No but you responded to my response asking for evidence there was ‘ corruption ‘
Well there maybe corruption. There’s been plenty of corruption in other leagues around the world, and with the amount of money involved in the EPL, it’s certainly a target.
I would like to think this isn’t the case, but I have no evidence either way. As I said though, 100% there is bias thanks to VAR, although we knew this beforehand with amount of decisions let’s say United under Fergie would get.
To this day, that 2-0 defeat at Old Traffold that ended our Invincibles run, was the most one sided refereeing performance I have ever witnessed. United got away with everything in that game!
I agree but Pires that season also got away with a terrible dive at Portsmouth so was that corruption ?
Sean Dyche at Burnley pointed to how many times we would get dodgy pens against them . Is that corruption ?
There were corruption in Seria A wasn’t there for paying who reffed your game . The difference was there were audio recordings taken to the authorities where you could demand investigation
I swear the moment it’s proven M Oliver is corrupt or bias then he should lose his job
The reality is if we got a controversial decision go our way on Sunday we wouldn’t care would we ?
Bias is very hard to prove though, but it can definitely happen. Refs sometimes don’t like certain teams, manager’s, and or players. As we recently saw with that sacked ref.
Human’s are fallible, so it’s extremely unlikely there wouldn’t be biased decisions made.
3 out of our 4 red cards have been completely biased.
So if we FINALLY get some luck with a red card, I’ll take it on Sunday, but it won’t cancel out all the drop points from the previous reds.
Usual nonsense from Neville. I think he’ll find that it’s the officials fault as to how they are seen by Arsenal fans.
I find it rich what Neville says.
This is a man after all who played for one of the biggest bully of a manager in Alex Ferguson.
I watched a program me some time while ago, and it said that it wasn’t unusual for Ferguson to intimidate the official when walking past him in a corridor.
And let’s not forget the Fergie time as it was called.
This will surprise a few of the regulars on here who know my thoughts on Arteta, (Get ready).
So Gary Neville, before having a pop at Arteta, take a closer look at your former manager before having a go at Arteta.
What’s wrong with me, I spoke for Arteta twice in the same sentence, I’ve got to go and have a lye down. 🤦♂️
You certainly called out Neville and Fergie.👍
I watched it though mate and he does admit he and his players used to do that and Fergie would put pressure on
I think he’s saying because we now have social media we got to be more careful because now some fans go to the length of death threats which has to be the priority in stopping
Yes, social media can be a dangerous thing if abused to promote or encourage terrible actions in the non-cyber world.
How dare people hold refs accountable! Oliver shows MLS a straight red, but a lunging spikes first tackle by Gomes was only a yellow; his 2nd yellow.
Of course Webb supports Oliver, but a neutral body overturns the red card. Some of the evidence presented was video from that game, which VAR refused to review.
Because officials making mistakes happens every week
It will happen this week
What do you want to happen to him ?
I think threatening to kill his 2 year old daughter or blowing up his car is enough
Dan
I agree with Ken1945 that you should separate what happens regarding officiating on the pitch and the disgraceful actions by lowlife afterwards.
My view is that the rules surrounding the use of VAR need urgent revision for the good of the game and for a greater level fairness to being seen. This closed shop attitude does nothing to stop conspiracies from being perpetrated, whereas greater clarity from the officials during matches surely would improve Joe Public’s perception and immediately focus the minds of match officials in getting decisions right
To me, saying mistakes occur every week is a bit of a cop out. We know they do but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement
My point is Sue how else can he be held accountable?
He got the decision wrong and has been criticized for it to the point he has police outside his door ?
He made a mistake which happens every week at various grounds
What else can we do to the poor guy
If you made a mistake at your job life goes on ?
Dan
I heard on the radio the other day that every time a red card is shown, the referee should go to the monitor which I don’t think is unreasonable. A moment to calm down, and then the chance to be sure that the right decision was reached. There is no shame in revising the decision or standing by what the ref believes was the right one.
Overall, yes a mistake made by the likes of me doesn’t involve scutiny and life goes on. Oliver and the other referees have made a decision to pursue their profession of choice which does. I am not suggesting for a second that the behaviour of the mindless minority excuses anything but other careers do involve high levels of examination and censure if errors are made. My suggestion was that the authorities must intervene to improve the outcomes with VAR which often does the right thing, but at others does the complete opposite.
Plain common sense SueP.
On the subject of actual evidence, perhaps we should wait and see exactly where the abuse came from and, likewise, the death threats?
To say we have to accept these decisions, shrug our shoulders and wait for the next set of mistakes, is the biggest cop out I’ve ever come across in football.
All fans of every club are up in arms about the mistakes, the inconsistency and the bias that individual referees have been seen to have against individual clubs.
We only talk about the decisions against The Arsenal, because this is a Arsenal site.
Can’t say fairer than that 👍
Yes SueP, these calls are often difficult to make accurately in any case so it makes sense to allow the pitch ref to take a much better second look to confirm or correct his call. He doesn’t even need to be second guessed by a video assistant, just let him go to the monitor and use the VAR technology now at our disposal. We don’t need additional ref’s opinion just the ability to improve upon the initial call if necessary. VAR could still be used to correct offsides and help on plays which the pitch ref doesn’t see that he perhaps needed to.
@Dan, the idea that Mr Oliver had made some favorable decision for our club doesn’t mean that he’s not bias it only shows that he’s probably being discreet which is logical.
If he’s making decisions against us at every opportunity he won’t have last this long. He would have been unbelievably dumb to follow your narration of biasness which he’s not.
I don’t believe there’s a conspiracy against us but is the league corrupt? There’s corruption everywhere…. I say.
A game when the title is on the line would be a strange time to be discreet ?
Especially when VAR sent him to monitor so if he had listened to them it wouldn’t have been suspicious
I just think common sense shows he can’t be bias