Gary Neville has slammed Mikel Arteta for fuelling a narrative among Arsenal fans, suggesting referees are ‘corrupt’. The former Manchester United defender highlighted Arteta’s recent tirades against match officials following several contentious decisions.
The tipping point came when referee Michael Oliver sent off Arsenal‘s Myles Lewis-Skelly in the clash with Wolves, sparking outrage and vile death threats from some Gunners supporters on social media. With police now investigating the threats and Oliver receiving official support, Neville pointed out the stark difference between today’s online vitriol and the siege mentality at United under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Neville said: “They [Arsenal fans] use language like corruption, which means they think he’s getting paid and bought off – which is obviously not the case.
“We [at Manchester United] lived in a club which created a siege mentality about the referees.”
Neville also accused Arsenal of exacerbating post-match tensions instead of quelling them, saying: “Arsenal are doing a bit of that as well – there’s no doubt that what Arsenal do is inflame the situation after the game, rather than calm it down.”
Despite acknowledging his own team’s past attitudes, he insisted: “They’ve done that for 12 months – but we can’t say that’s wrong having played in the dressing room that we did.
“The difference is now with social media, when we were playing back in the day and doing similar things with referees, we weren’t inflaming what would be a cause of corruption on social media.
“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.”
Reflecting on his time as a player, Neville concluded: “In our day, we couldn’t have that much influence. Everyone was at home without a phone, and didn’t have Twitter.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk