Arsenal: Treatment Of Joel Campbell Is Treason

Arsenal was being driven by Joel Campbell against Swansea before he was taken off to a swarm of boos as the treasonous Arsene Wenger did the unthinkable.

Joel Campbell joined Arsenal in 2011 and it was clear from the start that all he wanted was to play for Arsenal. Due to work permit issues, that took a bit longer than expected. Loans upon loans finally gave way to him finally arriving at Arsenal. All he wanted was a chance.

It took longer than expected but, somewhat begrudgingly, Campbell was given his first Premier League start earlier this season with Alexis hurt and Walcott and the Ox in and out of injuries and consistency. It was against Swansea and immediately we saw how valuable the young Costa Rican was.

He is always hungry. The guy is always hustling for the ball, dribbling effectively and causing the defense troubles. Lots of troubles. Campbell maintained the role through Alexis’s return. However, Arsenal hit a rough patch and it cost Campbell his position, though he was far from the guiltiest party.

Fast forward to our most recent encounter with Swansea. He was given another chance to do what he did in his debut. And he did, and more. This time around, he scored a truly fantastic goal to put Arsenal up. His runs were troubling the Swansea back line, something even Alexis could not manage to do.

Which obviously merits being the first one taken off in the 60th minute.

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The rain of boos from the Emirates was telling enough. This was a poor substitution that Wenger tried to brush off after the game as necessary due to ‘exhaustion’. I call bull.

Campbell was not happy to come off, nor should he have been. He was still penetrating Swansea’s back line up until the moment he was taken off. He was not tired. What Wenger did has to have some sort of personal undertone because Campbell did not deserve to be taken off.

I have been thinking of words to describe how egregious the injustice was and I settled on treason. Treason is, rather obviously, to turn against one’s own country. That is what Wenger is doing here. All Wenger ever preaches is internal solutions and building from within.