Joel Campbell has acknowledged his impressive goal against Swansea counts for nothing after Arsenal failed to hold on to their advantage and slipped to a third straight defeat.
The 23-year-old was Arsenal’s most impressive player in a morale-sapping loss at the Emirates, with his substitution for Danny Welbeck just after the hour leading to a furious reaction from home supporters, and seemed to have set his side on course for a crucial three points.
It was an outstanding strike from Campbell, making his first league start in a month, who dived to reach Alexis Sanchez’s lofted through ball before sweeping a low effort past Lukas Fabianski.
Campbell’s fourth goal of the season, and a second against Swansea, was to be in vain though as Wayne Routledge and Ashley Williams profited from Arsenal’s defensive errors to claim three points for the visitors.
It left Campbell cursing a potentially crucial failure as Arsene Wenger’s side failed to close the gap on Leicester and Tottenham.
“It was a nice goal but to no avail as we did not get the result,” he said. “It is a shame not to win at home when we held the lead, but we will continue working to win our next game.”
That match sees the Gunners travel to White Hart Lane for a derby in which the absence of Petr Cech and Laurent Koscielny only reinforces the sense that Arsenal take on their greatest rivals as underdogs.
With defeat only set to increase the gap between Arsenal and the top two Campbell has refused to give up on Arsenal’s stuttering campaign.
He told sportbycampbell.com: “It is complicated but there are still ten games and were six points behind, we hope to win the remaining games to be champions.
“Until we are mathematically out of it we won’t stop fighting for the title.”
