Kevin Campbell wants to shift any blame for Crystal Palace’s goal away from Gabriel Magalhaes, claiming that Arsenal’s Thomas Partey was the one at fault.
The Gunners let a 1-0 lead slip on Monday when the midfielder was dispossessed inside his own half by Jordan Ayew, who played in Christian Benteke to cut across Gabriel’s left before placing his effort in the net.
Campbell insists that the onus on the goal should fall on Partey however, and not the defender for his failure to stop the former Liverpool striker.
“Well, you cannot blame Gabriel because once Benteke picks it up he has so much room,” Campbell told the Football Insider. “It is very difficult to stop someone when they have the width of the 18-yard box to shift the ball. It is hard. You need a bit of help.
“Unfortunately, if you allow the opposition to turn the ball over in a dangerous area you are in trouble. That was Thomas Partey’s fault.
“He is a top, top player but Palace trapped him. They won it in a dangerous area and we paid the price.
“It was all our own doing. If you don’t give the ball away you take away a lot of Palace’s threat. They set the trap up and Arsenal fell into it.”
Once again, Arsenal are conceding goals from errors in our own half, and occurrence which was all-too familiar through-out last season, something we cannot get over it seems.
The error most definitely comes from Partey, putting Gabriel on the backfoot and struggling to rescue the situation this time. Saying that, the defender could have done better this time around…
Can the international break be used an excuse for such mistakes?
Patrick