‘He’s not playing his game’ – Campbell hits out at Arsenal star after Tottenham draw
Sol Campbell has criticised Arsenal midfielder Jorginho for “not playing his game” and costing the Gunners a goal in their 2-2 draw against Tottenham on Sunday.
The Gunners took the lead twice through an own goal Sergio Romero and a Bukayo Saka penalty, with Son Heung-min equalising twice for Spurs in an entertaining north London derby.
An own-goal from Romero in the 26th minute broke the deadlock at the Emirates, with the Argentina defender deflecting Saka’s shot beyond team-mate Guglielmo Vicario.
Son fired home before half-time from James Maddison’s cross, but Arsenal made the perfect start following the restart when Romero was penalised for handball after he blocked Ben White’s shot from close proximity.
Saka rolled home the 54th-minute spot-kick but 108 seconds later Tottenham were level when Maddison won possession from Jorginho and played in Son, who netted his 150th Spurs goal.
Jorginho, who was introduced at half-time in place of the injured Declan Rice, was robbed of possession by Maddison for Tottenham’s second goal and former Arsenal defender Campbell was criticial of the midfielder when analysing the match.
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Addressing Jorginho’s error which led to Tottenham’s second goal, Campbell told Premier League Productions: “He’s not playing his game.
“He’s usually getting the ball and moving it quickly, that is his game. He had a chance to pass to Ben White out wide.
“He was scanning and scanning, and he just got in a muddle and they nicked the ball from him. So many goals are scored in the first five minutes after your opponents score. You have to be aware.”
But Mikel Arteta defended Jorginho after the match, he said: “What happened is I love him and we love him.
“Errors are part of football. They’re allowed to make errors because they play and we don’t play. We are all with him.”
On whether his team should’ve taken all three points, the Arsenal boss added: “Well especially when you go up twice, and the moments and the chances that we didn’t make, especially in the first half.
“We wanted more but you have to make the most out of it and we didn’t. The moments where we had dominance of the game and control, we conceded the goals and that was a big, big blow.
“Playing in front of this crowd in a derby doesn’t get much better than that, and I think the players were so excited but sometimes you can be too hyped because then we lacked some composure on the ball to get more control, but we have to take the draw, there is nothing else we can do.”
On the injury to Rice, Arteta continued: “Declan is not feeling good, he felt something in his back and could not carry on, and Fabio was a tactical decision.
“We had to adapt to it and try in the second half. We scored a goal and it was a huge blow when we conceded straight after.”