Peter Schmeichel Slammed by Arsenal Fans for ‘Laughable’ Comments After 2-1 win vs Chelsea

Peter Schmeichel’s comments in the wake of Arsenal’s 2-1 victory against Chelsea have caused a serious stir online, with many Gunners supporters incensed by what he had to say.

Sunday’s London derby was a match decided on set-pieces, specifically corners. Arsenal, who are among the most dangerous in the league from dead ball situations, opened the scoring when William Saliba headed home a well worked routine, before Reece James’ devilish delivery was headed into his own net by Piero Hincapie.

Despite the Blues’ efforts, a clanger from Robert Sanchez gifted the hosts another goal from a corner, as he came off his line to grab a cross. Later deciding to retreat, that allowed Jurrien Timber to head home what would be the eventual winner.

The manner of the goals, though, has sparked debate, particularly as other corners and set-pieces during the game saw widespread grappling from both sets of players. Arms were frequently wrapped around each other as they wrestled for a potential advantage in their battles with the opposition, and that didn’t sit especially well with former Manchester United goalkeeper Schmeichel.

Peter Schmeichel Criticises Set-Piece Habits After Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

Covering the match for Viaplay, Schmeichel was asked to give his thoughts on how set-pieces are contested now in games. And it’s fair to say he’s not a fan.

He said: “All the goals we’ve seen now – all the pushing and shoving and pulling players down, I think we need to get onto the referees now and say, ‘This has got to stop’.

“It isn’t. You’ve got like six, seven, eight fouls on every corner kick we see. It’s not good. It’s not.”

After his words were echoed by former Arsenal winger Freddie Ljungberg, who said neutral fans would be disappointed by the constant grappling in matches that is too frequent now, Schmeichel added: “We need to stop this. We can’t have all these games and the championship decided on corner kicks. We just can’t.”

Check Out the Full Video Below:

His comments were similar to those of Yaya Toure, who said after the game that he wanted to see a little more quality from the league leaders. But Schmeichel’s words haven’t gone down well at all with fans of the Gunners, who have slammed him on social media.

Focusing on his ‘spirit of the game’ comments, one fan cited the goalkeeper and Denmark exploiting the backpass law to win Euro 1992, saying: “The audacity of Peter Schmeichel (who is basically the reason the back pass law exists) to be talking about “spirit of the game”, is laughable.”

Another focused on United winning the 1999 Champions League, saying: “This is the same Peter Schmeichel that won a Champions League because Man United scored 2 corners in the last minute. Should we take away his medal?”

Someone else chimed in with a similar point, writing: “Won his first Champions League thanks to two late corner kicks… and they were poor all match. Hypocrisy is loud.”

One more took objection to the idea that corners couldn’t play a part in deciding the title race, saying: “It’s part of the game… why do they constantly cry about it only when Arsenal are scoring them??”

And a final fan added: “The same guy who won UCL through corner kicks. Hypocrisy is too much and the hate for Arsenal is just way too much.”