Paul Jewell’s accusations of biased refereeing by Phil Dowd following Wigan’s loss to Arsenal and Henry’s pointed reminder to goalie Chris Kirkland, to stop wasting time was used by Sam Allardyce today to make the case that Arsene Wenger uses these tactics to pressurize the referees into giving favourable decisions to Arsenal.
“It’s a very, very clever manager who uses the time-wasting scenario as a tool to get the fans going, who in turn then get the referee going, by making them aware of what the opposition might be doing,” Allardyce said. “Arsène Wenger has used or tried to use psychological things like that often over the last few years.
This is an ongoing case of ballyhoo between Sam Allardyce and Arsene Wenger. Methinks that Sam Allardyce protests a bit too loudly of intimidation.