Gary Neville: Arsenal and Mikel Arteta inflame fans’ claims of referee corruption

Gary Neville believes Arsenal and Mikel Arteta are influencing fans to claim referees are “corrupt” against the club.

The latest so-called referee injustice suffered by the Gunners saw Myles Lewis-Skelly sent off for a foul on Wolves’ Matt Doherty, a decision which left Arteta “absolutely fuming ” after the game, which Arsenal won.

The referee, Michael Oliver, received death threats and abuse in the fallout from the decision. Arsenal appealed the decision and saw the red card overturned, but Neville believes rhetoric — from the club, Arteta and prominent fans — fuels baseless accusations of corruption against referees.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet, Neville said: “[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. 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, 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. In our day, we couldn’t have that much influence – everyone was at home without a phone, and didn’t have Twitter.”

He added: “I hate the idea of a referee being taken off a game. [Michael Oliver] is the best referee in the country, and the idea that he would go into that game on Sunday and be swayed towards Manchester City – he’s not going to do that, he’s a professional.”

Standard Sport have approached Arsenal for comment.