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Roy Keane Weighs In On Katie McCabe Red While Slating Arsenal's Ref Obsession

Roy Keane Weighs In On Katie McCabe Red While Slating Arsenal's Ref Obsession
Eoin Harrington
By Eoin Harrington Updated
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Arsenal's greatest foes in the Premier League used to be the likes of Alex Ferguson's Manchester United or Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. Nowadays, they appear to be PGMOL and the referees tasked with officiating their games.

The Gunners lead the league in red cards, with four in 23 games so far this season. The most recent of those came on Saturday, with a highly contentious call seeing 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly sent off against Wolves for a late tackle on Matt Doherty.

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The decision to send Lewis-Skelly off divided opinion, with many seeing the call as too harsh. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was the most vocal in slating the call after the game at Molineux.

"I think it is that clear that I leave it to you guys," Arteta said, "I am absolutely fuming but I leave it with you because it's that obvious that I don't think my words are going to help.

"[An appeal] is for the club to decide what the best decision is. It's that obvious that maybe we don't even need to."

Arsenal fans online were utterly furious at what they saw as an injustice against their team. The situation turned ugly when referee Michael Oliver and his family received death threats from a small number of Arsenal fans.

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It is not the first time Arsenal have been up in arms about referees this season. Despite the drop-off from Manchester City, Arteta's side are no closer to winning the league this time around - and match officials have been the most common scapegoat.

Roy Keane decided this week to confront the narrative of Arsenal being targeted by referees and even called out Ian Wright for insinuating such a mindset existed.

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Roy Keane was spot-on with comments on Arsenal's mentality

(The discussion on Arsenal and referees begins around the 32:30 mark in the above video)

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On this week's episode of Stick to Football with Sky Bet, the panel discussed whether or not Myles Lewis-Skelly should have been sent off for Arsenal in Saturday's trip to Molineux.

As the rest of the guests debated back and forth, Roy Keane butted in with a succinct statement, pointing out that Arsenal had won the game. The ex-Manchester United captain argued that Mikel Arteta's post-match comments had once again shown a small-minded mentality, choosing to focus on perceived injustices rather than praising his 10-man team's mentality in battling back to victory.

Can I just make a point about Arsenal? The thing I find amazing...it happened a few months ago as well.

Everyone will think it was the wrong decision...whatever, that's your opinion. I still thought it was a reckless challenge, he should have got back. But, anyway, he'll learn from it.

Arsenal won the game. They regrouped and won the game. Arsenal had a great opportunity for the manager to come out after the match and say, 'We're not even discussing it, we have to roll with it, our players showed what they're about.'

Focus on you getting the result instead of still going on about the referee. Leave the referee! You've won the game!

The referee's going to get criticised anyway, everyone was criticising him. You [should] show a bit of class.

It's hard to argue with Roy Keane on this one.

Too often this season have Arsenal been dragged into making excuses for their poor performances, with Arteta repeatedly using referees as a smokescreen to defend his players. To do so after a hard-fought win, however, speaks to something approaching paranoia surrounding this referee-centric mentality.

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Keane joked that the Stick to Football producers should "Call security" when Ian Wright expressed sympathy for Arteta's outlook. Irishman Keane would then draw comparison with the reaction to Katie McCabe's equally contentious red card in Arsenal's defeat to Chelsea the following day.

Imagine you're the manager in the dressing room afterwards. 'Lads, don't even mention it, we've won the game.' Turn it over to a positive.

Are the days gone when the manager comes out and has a go at the player? The Arsenal manager could come out afterwards and say, 'Well, it was a bit daft. He gave him a bit of a challenge, but we won the game.'

Bring it all down! The next day, the women's team, McCabe abuses the referee - I've done a lot worse - but after the match, the manager said, 'I'll have to speak with her.'

Everyone's saying, 'You have to protect the players' - no you don't!

Arsenal are still (just about) in this title race but their mentality will face a huge test when they host Manchester City this Sunday.

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