Gary Neville accuses Arsenal fans of being ‘entitled’ and ‘exaggerating’ response to refereeing decisions | OneFootball

Former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has accused Arsenal and their supporters of “exaggerating” their response to controversial refereeing decisions.

The Gunners have received four red cards in the Premier League this season, the latest coming when Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off against Wolves, which has since been rescinded meaning the youngster will not serve a suspension.

But speaking on the Overlap, Neville questioned the reaction of Arsenal fans on social media and claimed that is also influenced by manager Mikel Arteta.

“They [Arsenal fans] use language like corruption, which means they think he’s getting paid and bought off – which is obviously not the case,” Neville said.

“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.”

Neville also made a similar point on the podcast It’s Called Soccer, arguing: “One thing I will say is and, to be fair, I’m not bothered because Arsenal fans are not great fans of me anyway, but I think they’ve become so entitled.

“Honestly, they were playing against Wolves. Wolves have had more bad decisions against them in the last 15 months than any other club in the country it feels like. They had some shockers against them last season.

“I just feel like every time Arsenal have a decision against them and it was a bad decision, but I feel like the exaggeration in the response… maybe it was the same with Manchester United back in the day and that’s why people didn’t like us and maybe that’s what Arsenal are creating now, that siege mentality and Mikel Arteta likes that.

“But I can see why people didn’t like us back in the day in relation to referees because they felt like that about how we reacted and the same with this Arsenal team.

“There is a definite exaggeration from Arsenal and their cohort of people in their sphere. Every time they have a decision against them it’s like the end of the world!”