Kevin Campbell has claimed that Stevie Nicol’s comments on Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, not being able to ride tough challenges, ‘just wasn’t true’, as he told the Highbury Squad.
Former Liverpool defender, Nicol, recently slammed Arsenal’s rising star for ‘putting himself in situations where he’s getting caught’ after a tackle from Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings.
Prior to the international break, Arsenal recorded a 1-0 win at Villa, with Mings booked for a challenge on his England teammate, even though replays showed that he was merely passing the ball.
Nicol told ESPN that he ‘hasn’t seen people blatantly going to try and kick this guy’ and the Scotsman added, ‘he is a guy who doesn’t take an awful lot to come off the field.’
Those comments just didn’t sit well with former striker, Campbell, who issued this response.
“The most important thing is to really analyse what he said because I think that’s the professional way,” said Campbell.
“He made some comments about Saka that just wasn’t true. At the end of the day, we are going to defend our player. But we are going to defend the truth.
“Saka has been ever-present. He is hardly ever injured. He’s just the nicest kid you could wish to have. There is nothing out there in the media that he is doing bad stuff or things like that.”
The challenge from Mings on Saka w`asn’t a yellow card because he was simply stretching out and passing the ball.
But that doesn’t mean that Nicol’s comments on Saka are correct because it wasn’t so long ago that Crystal Palace’s James McArthur should have been sent off for kicking the back of the Englishman’s leg like it was a football.
The Palace midfielder wasn’t sent off for his actions, as Arsenal will lock horns with their London neighbours when domestic football return this week.
The game will be played at Selhurst Park, so it’s going to be interesting what the reaction will be like if there are a few tackles flying about.
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