Joel Campbell scored his third goal of the season for his English Premier club Arsenal in a 3-1 win over Sunderland in the third round of the annual FA Cup on Saturday. The Gunners were down 1-0 early when the Costa Rican forward answered by sending home a Theo Walcott cross in front of the box.
Joel Campbell's goal that levelled the scores. pic.twitter.com/URv5LG4khX
— ModernArsenal (@ModernArsenal) January 9, 2016
Campbell had never scored before for Arsenal in the regular season coming into this year, his fifth with the club. His resurgent 2015-2016 season has helped lift Arsenal to a first place ranking in the English Premier League and given once-skeptical manager Arsene Wenger a reason to keep putting the 23-year-old Costa Rican into the rotation.
“He shows slowly, game by game, that he has the talent to do it,” Wenger told reporters last month. “If you look at his numbers since he played, you look at the number of goals he has scored and the number of assists he has given, you can say it is much better than people think it is.”
Happy for the blessing of the goal … Great victory to advance to the next round pic.twitter.com/cO3LZlHmm4
— Joel Campbell (@joel_campbell12) January 9, 2016
As injuries have piled up to star players in front of Campbell like forward Alexís Sánchez, the Costa Rican national has stepped up with three goals in 11 appearances.
Reports circulating in the British media recently have said Arsenal could re-sign Campbell to a weekly contract of £60,000, or roughly $87,000 per week.
Campbell was subbed off in the 80th minute of Saturday’s match after the Gunners had already established a decisive 3-1 lead. Arsenal now advances to the Final 16 of the FA Cup, where it will meet the winner of Newport and Blackburn.
