Hounding the Arsenal: the one thing no journalist will ever admit

On the blogs we should be fighting the media and their attempt to brainwash us all with their version of reality – but most blogs do the reverse.

There is something utterly sinister within our media.  The issue raises the question of the news, and how it is created, and through it, what is happening to Arsenal in the media at the moment.

Of course in many cases there is no question about what is, and what is not, the news.  The events at West Ham against Millwall, were, of course news.  A man was stabbed, there was fighting in the streets, a football match was interrupted.  That’s news.

But having rushed to cover the pitch invasion at West Ham, and the fighting outside the ground, the media were stuck on two points.  If they kept running that story then football as a commercial industry would take a dive.  Firms would be less inclined to be associated with it, would be less likely to advertise alongside football, and the implications for the media would be huge.

Huge pressure followed from the EPL and the FA – lay off West Ham and the pitch invasion.

At the same time, the story was awkward for the media itself.  West Ham is always portrayed as friendly, family, the image of Brooking, Moore and the like.  You get the feeling that the commentators want to call it Sir West Ham.

It is the true English home of football, unlike Arsenal with all its Johnny Foreigners and clever-clever approach.

Yet clearly West Ham were at the centre of this event – and as the Millwall manager pointed out, no Millwall fan was on the pitch.  West Ham invaded from three sides – no Millwall involvement.

But Millwall are always paraded as evil – the cause of problems in football, so none of this fits at all.   The BBC had real problems with the Millwall bit – when one commentator said that inside the ground you could not blame Millwall, the others quickly huffed and puffed, and said “I don’t think you can say that.”

So two things needed to happen – the story had to be spiked and quick, and a replacement found.  Step forward Eduardo.

Players go over, dive, do all sorts of things – look at Chelsea at the end of last season to watch players screaming at the ref for example, but the fact has been long estabished, if the ref saw it and made a decision, that’s that.  You don’t touch it.

But the media needed the story, and the authorities in football needed a diversion, and they all needed to pick on a club that can be derided.  A new story, and a new person to target, and old enemy.

Arsenal are a target for the media on many levels.  The club is long-term establishment, not of the ordinary people.  It is foreign (remember it was Liverpool who first played a cup final without an English player – but we never hear that – it is always Arsenal who are destroying English football).

It is careful with its money – which is a good thing – except the media now turn it into a bad thing (Arsenal are a selling club).

And worst of all.  It is intellectual.  It applies the laws of health eating to football (how un-British do you want to be???)  The manager and his team know everything about world football.  How very different to Happy Harry and his wheeler dealer approach.  Let’s forget that he left West Ham overnight, and they then had huge problems, Portsmouth (what a mess today) and Southampton (administration, 10 points off, division 3).

But no, let’s not celebrate a funny foreigner with his clever-clever ideas.  Let’s focus on good old British muddle, and let’s ignore the disaster that Harry’s career has been, and instead let’s celebrate him.

The fact is, in a very real sense, the media creates the news and creates the images around the news.  It tells us what to think.

It has been  this way since the earliest national papers appeared at the end of the 18th century: the media creates reality.   Here’s a most simple example – if a channel does not have TV access to a forthcoming match – it removes it from the record.   The BBC teletext service ignored Arsenal / Celtic while covering every other game – even down to the Conference.  Sky doesn’t even acknowledge the World Cup, and so on.

Or consider Heysel and Hillsborough, both involving Liverpool FC, and in both a tragic loss of life.  The media decides one is newsworthy over the years,  the other not.  How true this is will be seen this season.  Last season was the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough, this season the 20th of Heysel.  Compare the coverage – or compare the Heysel coverage this year with the amount of time spent on a Liverpool fan who got locked up overseas last season.

Of course matters are getting worse now with the concept of simply making up stories.  Take the Sun’s piece about Arsenal having a short team.  Totally invented – as a comparison of heights between Arsenal and other sides last season shows (just read your members’ handbook if you want to check it match by match).

But the Sun said it and the media picked up on it.  Now, each time Arsenal play there are commentators talking about “Arsenal’s lack of height”.

And this is what the media will never tell you.  That they interpret everything to their own ends, and push that interpretation down your throat so much you start to believe it – even when it is quite untrue.

And what they can’t interpret they invent.  Arshavin needing a new contract because of tax?  Fabregas dropped from Arsenal against Celtic because he is off to Spain?

The media is desperate for you to believe that there is a real factual world out there which they report.  A world in which Eduardo dived and should be punished.  A world in which Arsenal’s team is short of height.  A world in which the media is just faithfully researching and publishing the truth – when in fact they are both inventing facts, and more incidiously, deciding on the interpretation of facts.

What is really sad is the much of the blog sphere follows this way of working – seeing the way the media works as a blueprint, rather than as a dire warning.  On the blogs we should be fighting the media and their attempt to brainwash us all with their version of reality, but this doesn’t happen.

There’s no point even suggesting any of this to any aspect of mainstream media, because even to admit it might be an issue is to admit to a chink in their armour, and they won’t have that.

But just remember, every time you turn on Sky or pick up a paper.  You are being told how to see the world, and how to respond.  And that is exactly the vision that has worried people for quite a few years.

(c) Tony Attwood 2009

52 Replies to “Hounding the Arsenal: the one thing no journalist will ever admit”

  1. Excellent article, Tony..

    For me, the media has been anti-Arsenal for the last few years. It is because, We went against the trend. No team in England can match the Football we play. Our new stadium is better overall than the New Wembley(The pitch is atleast 1000 times better). We have a very good youth Academy which has lots of talented youngsters. Our Debt is controlled and unlike any other team’s debt. We dont pay a BIG transfer fee for a play, The max we payed was 16m for AA.

    Everyone envies everything We have done and are jealous. So, they start Arsenal-bashing. I dont mind that, but the thing which hurts me is when Arsenal fans go against our club. I wish atleast now, true Gooners unite and support our Club. Lets get behind the team.

  2. I can acept the fact we got beatn but wat really made me mad was how sky sports news will never review the penalty or the penalty against A.A and why the heck the man fans booed eduardos every touch! Wtf ronaldo used to dive week in week out and did we boo him!! I used to enjoy watchn man utd play when ARSENAL wernt playn bt nw i hate man utd!!

  3. I tend to agree with you, looking at the clips from sun. It is Arsenal that does the wrong things while Man u are shown in good light. Well I only wish we can learn and be stronger from this. Refs are human and they have soft spots for Man U so the only way is to win our games.

  4. I have been an Arsenal fan for decades but recently moved to UK and was appalled at the anti Arsenal media hounding that i have seen in the last few weeks. I agree completely with your thoughts and its quite disappointing. I wonder how will the same media react if we win a trophy this season despite the lack of height and eduardo’s incident against celtic. I wish we had won the Man U’s game yesteday and that would have silenced the media atleast for 24 hrs.

  5. Tony,

    I completely agree with you, but do you not think this goes further than football. The media do this kind of thing with all kinds of reporting and news.-Noam Chomsky has written a great book about on the subject, called the “manufacturing of consent”. As far as football goes our club needs to rise above this. We believe in our methods and we know that we will be proven right. Hopefully it will help to create a fortress mentality and have a positive effect on the squad.

  6. rupert murdock has a major stake in the sky news co-operation. he owns the news of the world, has major shares in the sun and set up fox news in 1996 to compete with turner’s cnn. turner is a liberal murdock a conservative. In a famous interview murdock admits to shaping public opinion on the iraq war.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF9HpuZm6-g. you only need to watch fox news to know how anti foreigners that network is. president obama could tell you a lot about this. some of the news they give is just borderline racist or has a racial undertone. from immigration to crimes that involve black and white people. fox news called michel obama obama’s baby mama on live tv. now how does this relate to the arsenal?. you might say its conspiracy theory but this is real. and we’ve seen it over the years from portraying foreigners as divers to declaring although indirectly that english men never dive. believe it or not his influence in the sky news network means that these things cannot be taken for granted and the bias we’ve seen from the media is more than mere coincidence.

  7. I look forward to Morten Gamst Pedersen’s two match ban, oh thats right, Eduardo can actually dive Pedersen can’t, UEFA start your mission here…I will you on for those who might argue check out pedersen trying to win a penalty

  8. Great article Tony. It has got to the point where the media seem to be inhabiting some parallel reality. Maybe they have a journalist’s thesaurus as part of their software, and when they type ‘Arsenal’, adjectives such as ‘flashy’ ‘lightweight’ etc automatically come up on their screens, so that their neural pathways don’t get overburdened with any form of non-normative thought patterns.

    If you were a conspiracy theorist you’d think the Eduardo distraction happened rather fortuitously right before the big OT showdown…..lol.
    I was amused to see Kenny Dalgleish not even bother to put a modest veil over his xenophobia. Apparently Johnny Foreigner with his nasty ways brought diving to the English………….lol…..hilarious.
    Not quite Rodney Marsh’s version of history though.

    Hacking people’s legs off though is a peculiarly British virtue. I’m surprised Lineker doesn’t just say as such.
    ‘Arsenal, tasty to the eye, but they don’t like it up ’em ‘.

  9. Superb piece of article here. I agreed completely with IndianGooner there. Arsenal is one-of-a-kind club. We try to live within our means, and media called Wenger stingy. So I guess it is better to have a 700 million debt and the manager keeps on spending. Come on, what kind of business is that?

    And nobody talked about Inter Milan the same way as they talked about Arsenal. Before Santon is promoted to the senior team, the only notable Italian in Inter is Materazzi, and he seldom features in their first 11. But it is Arsenal that got the most attention for fielding non-English first 11. They don’t even consider we have Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Jay-Emmanuel Thomas, Henri Lansbury, etc. Seriously, the media is a joke.

    And now when there are 2 diving incident within a week period, only Eduardo that’s being branded a cheater. How bout Rooney there last night? He dived, he got the penalty, and he is a great English player. Nonsense.

  10. I like how your post is bringing certain things to the foreground. My view is that unfortunately, words define our reality. If the words being communicated about arsenal are all negative, then people will have a negative opinion of arsenal. The media is all mighty, and if this is their agenda (which it appears it clearly is) then there will be plenty of hard times ahead for arsenal football club.

    Arsenal resisted the billions of dodgy Usmanov, who knows if David Dean is playing a role in destabilising the club so that it can be taken over. This is just mear conjecture and probably miles off from the truth. But all media campaigns involve MONEY/POWER. Someone out there is putting money or exerting influence into the media machine to bring the club down. Who this is (could be one or many different parties?)

    But it looks crystal clear to me that there is a systemic attack on arsenal. Frankly speaking it would appear there are far more negative articles in the press about arsenal football club that any other english club. I wish i could test this. I do subscribe to various news sites and arsenal seems to have more articles than other clubs but this could be because i only bother reading these articles!

    What I love about your article is that the action plan is clear: “make as many positive blogs about arsenal, the manager, and the players”.
    Thank you!
    Not only will Arsenal survive the storm, but they will

  11. Excellent article !
    Just the other day I made a comment on another blog (they were hoping Eduardo got banned because diving should stop):
    “Blogs used to be an alternative to mainstream media. Now you are just becoming their sequel. Sad, really”.

    Only to read this excellent article now…there’s hope yet !

  12. well man united will get there pay back; see how they cope with injuries to rooney and dirty tackler fletcher they are so out of forth place! and rooney penalty was a dive if you watch closely he dived before contact he dived into almunia poor sod and diaby goal….

  13. Tony you are a genius.Excellent article and spot on. The media are an absolute disgrace.Rooney is as much of a cheat as they say Eduardo is.he was already on his way down before almunia ‘touched’ him.
    On motd yesterday torres did a disgraceful dive, i don’t see anyone mentioning it.
    man u got a piggy back from deano to beat us yesterday.again nothing.
    Arshavin got hacked down by flether(a scot) let’s not forget that. But nothing play on..
    We deserve better.

  14. Top top article agree wit everyting you said der…it was refreshing to hear Steve Coppell agree with Wenger on the Eduardo situation on Goals on Sunday..at least somebody likes us! Irish Gooner

  15. Once again, an excellent article and really excellent responses. As for the media, if we expect them to behave otherwise then we will inevitably experience constant frustration and disappointment. However, they cannot ignore success, and we will be very successful this season. All we need to do is stick together and ignore the propaganda. If we do this nothing can hurt us or our uniquely gifted team.

  16. First class article, Tony.

    You are right, this is a battle and none of us who support Arsenal should ever forget it.

    There is not a football programme that I can stomach these days, nor a newspaper.

    We are the Arsenal and we are truly on our own.

  17. It is this sectonal press and sttitute that is responsbile for why England cannot win the world cup or even the european championship. They dont do proper analysis without bias, now that the refrees have joined, the game will be worse for it. So much publicity and praise for english players and yet no result. we know why most english refrees support Man U. It is most unforutate.

  18. MOTD last night were brutal again. they showed eboues little dive, and his booking, but missed roooneys booking. ive just been to the justice for eduardo site, and the videos of rooney/almunia are very telling. its clear, shrek boy dived, won a penalty, took it himself, and put it away. sound familiar? the only difference is that eduardo didn’t look for his penalty, but shrekboy had turned 180 degrees and had his hand raised a split second after hitting the turf. oh and he got man of the match – despite receiving a yellow for a cynical tackle.

    this is indeed very worrying. i am very nervous about describing the press and footbal authorities’ attitude as a conspiracy. normally when you get on the wrong side of a conspiracy, by the time you’ve realised that its a conspiracy, its too late. just look at the biggest conspiracies of our decade, the election of bush, and the starting of the iraq war – both illegal acts, both orchestrated by more than one person.

    their main weapon against us is negativity. Aside from the rare incidents where they can wheel out the big guns, its mostly just a war of attrition. sniping articles in the most popular papers, all with a ring of truth but no substantiative facts at all.

    i totally agree that e-arsenal must band together as one and get behind the whole arsenal machine. lock stock and barrel. if its war, then its them and us, we have to put our petty differences aside and make sure that our ‘us’ stands as one (wo)man and generate as much positivity as possible.

  19. ur the man tony, whenever i see negetivity around for arsenal i just come to ur blog n it pleases me…keep writing…

  20. Your articles are always very incisive and I make sure I read your blog before going to any other one on Arsenal. The last post above even voices my fears better than I could express them. Is there a conspiracy? Maybe. Maybe not. However behaving as if there is one would only make you stronger if you dealt with it decisively and well thought tactics. Our support for ‘Le Professeur’ must be total the war is not only his to fight. Let him him do ALL that is necessary to shame the critics who invent their own realities in order to achieve a certain aim.

    Their intents and aims are to cause disaffection and ill-will towards Arsenal and its management and when that is achieved it would make a ‘take-over’ less burdensome. No retreat no surrender. Now they are offering a puerile apology for such an obviously disgraceful conduct against a self-respecting gentleman. The referee’s and the 4th official’s own reality were to deflect from criticism against their handling of the match. Painful as the loss was the boys got my attention for a great match against Man Utd.

    Please keep up your good work and let all Gooners fall join hands to fight the conspirators.

    Bolaji

  21. Two things I want to say:
    (1) I may be blinkered but I’ve never really noticed any sustained media bias against Arsenal. Maybe it’s because I’ve been accustomed to select the good news and ignore the rest.
    (2) After the appalling injuries sustained by Eduardo, any referee with a modicum of compassion would accept that for at least this season, he should be allowed to avoid the likelihood of unecessary collisions without being accused of diving.

  22. May I say thanks to everyone who has put kind thoughts about the article here. I appreciate that very much – and it is, I believe, a clear indication that none of us is on our own with this issue.

  23. Excellent article.

    What I really can’t understand is why the club treats the media with anything other than contempt.

    The media should be forced to pay for tickets, none of this free entry rubbish.

    The hacks that insult the club should just be refused entry anyway.

    They shouldn’t be given seats either, they should be forced to sit on the stairs or stand at entrances and shouted at if they get in the way.

    And what’s this feeding them at half-time rubbish? They should have to stand in the queues like everybody else.

    In fact, they should be made to step aside if any fan (including opposition fans) want to get in the queue.

    These scrotal warts are scum and classless.

    Why treat them with any respect, they certainly have made more than a mild point of earning the treatment they obviously deserve.

    The media are out to trash the club, why don’t we just return the favour?

    It’s not as if we need them, they only do us damage, so what harm would it do to p!ss on them?

  24. Tony, I cant find the words to express my feelings about your article. Some of the things you mentionned crossed my mind but because I dont live in England I dont get acces to all the media and apparantly I “mis” a lot of bashing against The Arsenal.
    I just (re)read a few months ago “1984” in the original English version and some things that are described in this book made me think about the bad media againts our team.
    As in 1984 the media is rewriting the facts surrounding the Arsenal and a lot of people are doing or trying to do the work Winston Smith did.
    We have to get together as Arsenal fans and let the media know everyday and on every forum we can get on, that we don’t take it.
    Call for bans of the media that are trying to tell bad things about our team that are not true, should be applied by the fans and said to that media.
    Maybe if we send XXXXX mails to that media, why not stalk them with mails?, by telling them to be fair to our team make a difference. Maybe I’m a little bit naive on this but we have to do what we have to do, to defend our team.
    Victory trough harmony, lets all work together.

    Even las night a registred to a site where they tried to put Wenger in bad daylight. I gave a sarcastic comment on it and called them xhenophobe. I’m fed up with it.

  25. Well said. One reason I love Arsene and Arsenal because everything he does goes against England’s xenophobic tendencies (not that I’m singling out England, as any country in the world is almost exactly the same).

    “I’m ready to take the blame for all the problems of English football if that is what he wants.” Brilliant.

  26. Great piece, Tony.

    Are showing paranoia here or is there really a conspiracy against Arsenal?

    I don’t know. There has always been an anti-Arsenal feeling in the media for as long as I can remember, “lucky Arsenal” was always to the fore. The 70/71 double got so little praise etc, etc. Same with the GG sides- “boring Arsenal”, which was only true for his last 2 years.

    They loved Man Utd, particularly & understandably after Munich, & Liverpool because the Kop & the Beatles emerged as a big thing around the early 1960s. Those clubs could & can even now do no wrong.

    I think the press, with a few exceptions, just hated the establishment that was Arsenal. Didn’t like us but it was not a conspiracy.

    These Wenger years, do appear to be something altogether different, but they have been the big armchair times, when football has become much more uniformly popular & thus distorted into something quite unreal at times, particularly financially.

    Do we get the ….th red card under Alex Ferguson or anyone else? etc etc.

    It is so universal too, BBC, ITV, Sky all seem to be taking the negativity to new levels. Like Consolsbob I feel “there is not a football programme that I can stomach these days, nor a newspaper”.
    There is always some sort of snidy negative comment about us, while they fawn all over virtually any other team, especially the others in the top 4.

    Wednesday really was too much. At the game I was surprised a penalty had been given. Maybe Eduardo dived to gain an advantage or get out of the way or perhaps he did not dive at all but the ‘keepers knee & his momentum took him down. You can look at it a thousand times & it is still inconclusive. Probably Eduardo himself doesn’t know for sure, because it happened so quickly, out of a brilliant bit of play that forced the ‘keeper to come out in a hurry. No one knows for sure but Jim Beglin, an agricultural left back, did – it was a “DIVE” because my employers want it to be a dive, & no one wants to give a “Johnny Foreigner” the benefit of the doubt.

    Keep it up Tony & friends we do need to fight back.

  27. Another thought about Wenger and his pressconference yesterday.
    Mostly Wenger is not in a really good mood after losing a game (like me) but yesterday he was lake an (rather good) standup comedian.
    His answers were very humoristic and this shows that the boss was maybe unhappy on the result but was very happy whit what he saw on the pitch.
    4 months ago we were torn to peaces by MU in the CL but yesterday we outplayed them and we even didn’t have players like Cesc, Nasri, Rosicky and Walcott on the pitch or bench.
    This shows how strong we have become over the last months and this was, I think, the reason why Wenger was in a rather funny mood. And we all know he hates losing but he saw the team is ready, just kill them off was the one thing missing today.
    But on the overall play we dominated them in their own stadium.

  28. Many times i really wonder why this media is anti-arsenal. As am not in england, i don exactly come across all the thrashing from the media about arsenal.
    Most of the times when arsenal and any 2 of the other top 3 clubs have match at the same time (especially in champions league), only the other matches are lively telecasted.. and not Arsenal Match.
    may be its because of the fan following in the region… But among my friends many are arsenal supporters….

  29. Many times i really wonder why this media is anti-arsenal. As am not in england, i don exactly come across all the thrashing from the media about arsenal.
    Most of the times when arsenal and any 2 of the other top 3 clubs have match at the same time (especially in champions league), only the other matches are lively telecasted.. and not Arsenal Match.
    may be its because of the fan following in the region… But among my friends many are arsenal supporters….
    Coming to the medias ill treatment of arsenal.. i think arsenal give them the least amount of news among the big clubs.. So they try to generate the news which wil sell thier papers. this is where they use thier creativity and hate towards this club

  30. Tony, your piece today brought tears to my eyes. Not because I am weak or a cry baby, but because you touched a raw nerve. The treatment meted out to Arsene yesterday confirms the “Them Vs Us” phenomenon that Arseblog wrote about before the match yesterday.

    Mike Dean, if I had my way, should never ever be allowed to continue refereeing. As for the Eduardo case, it doesn’t surprise me that Rooney is seen as clever. He is not a foreigner. Little wonder the national team has won nothing for so long; and the British Referees have failed spectacularly at every major footballing event.

    If the FA & the press are xenophobic, what about Platini? He seem to have a deep seated jealousy of Arsene Wenger. But I think that his hatred of English Football in general is higher. No wonder the SFA is helping him to destroy it. And the English Media, in their mediocrity is helping them. Sad.

  31. I’m proud that we don’t do thing the English way.
    We do not:

    1. Kick lumps out of opposing team players
    2.Spend recklessly
    3. Surround the ref every time a decision does not go our way
    4. Hoof the ball upfield in hope that some striker will fight past the defenders and get to it
    5. Dive (this is relative, but only thanks to Eboue)
    6. Deliberately kick the ball away from us if we are going to be tackled inside the box to “win” a penalty

    We do what predominantly English teams cannot by:

    1. Playing creatively, with good technique
    2. Buy sensibly
    3. Getting on with the game
    4. Appointing a God as our manager (although there is only one God on Earth right now, so that one would be pretty hard)

    I’m proud of us!

  32. Stoke City are ahead of us at the moment. Somewhere, the Gods of football (not the one on Earth) must be killing themselves.

  33. I have read a lot comments on many blogs and i am amazed that nobody has mentioned the valencia elbow on vermaelen. No card just an obvious attempt by the ref to pretend he was dealing with it by talking to valencia. My initial thought on the situation was that alex fergi had sent valencia out there to do that.To rattle his game. He is being recognised as a key for arsenal. Thats a dirty tactic in football thats known.forget the negativity this is battle of morality

  34. Good post. The utter cowardice and cynicism displayed by Mike Dean and Alex Ferguson yesterday has me questioning why I support a club that plays in England. I love Arsenal and find Arsene Wenger to be one of the most admirable sportsmen I’ve ever encountered. But the institutionalized corruption of the Premiership makes me wonder if supporting this team is nothing more than an exercise in masochism. I might as well follow Serie A, where at least there is no pretense of fairness.
    I know that no one wants to read the prattlings of an American about how a performance like Dean’s would result in at minimum a review and more likely a suspension from officiating any professional or even collegiate level sport in this country. But it’s true. As much as I dislike the NFL and it’s constant delays for replay of close officiating calls, the underlying principal is that the game will be called fairly and not decided by a mistake by an official. Outright bias of the type displayed by Dean yesterday would be virtually impossible.
    Sorry for the rant, but yesterday’s match has left me with a sour taste that may linger for a while.

  35. Aaditya we are a game behind most of the PL.

    Brilliant article as usual Tony – I gave up papers years ago, but not even in relation to Arsenal as I came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as objective reporting of the ‘news’. What you get if you are lucky is a fact distorted via the prism of one man’s opinion. The reporting on Arsenal represents this reality x 100 reinforced by hatred and jealousy and no fear of making it up as they go along. What saddens me the most is when I hear supposed Arsenal supporters parroting the rubbish spouted by the media. If the events of this week do not remove the blinkers from their eyes nothing will, but those of us who are not too blind to see need to stick together and back our players and manager to the fullest. It is them against us and we will prevail – Victoria Concordia Crescit!

  36. thank you so so much for this. i feel happy now because i know we love ARSENAL and we are proud very much of OUR ARSENAL!!!!!!!!!!!!

  37. Talksport on Friday night took the piss big time following Arsene’s comments regarding the charging of Eduardo. Collymore reckoned that an eight game ban was more appropriate for the fact that Eduardo “cheated Celtic, the fans, the game etc etc”, of course Collymore was a model footballer wasn’t he? MOTD last night glossed over the Arshavin penalty claim, backed the referee with regards to the “stonewall Man U penalty” and failed to mention any Rooney dive prior to Almunia’s rash dash to get to the ball. Eboue’s dive was more newsworthy and Eboue is an easy target. The only TV / Radio media source I could turn to is Arsenal TV and especially the fans forum with Tom Watt but since Setantas demise this seems to have gone too. In this media age it is tough when all is against you. It makes you feel paranoid but thats part of the plan.

  38. Tony thanks for providing the perspective and balance that is ever lacking in the British Press’ views on Arsenal. However, Walter, thanks for your contribution. Our concentration should continue to be more on our football on the pitch.

    Arsenal lost; a lot of talking points on Rooney’s penalty, Eduardo’s reception, Wenger’s send off and Diaby’s illuck but, Arsenal’s disallowed goal but, at the end of the day, Arsenal lost. Period.

    We can take solace in the fact that we lost without Nasri, Walcott, Rosiky or Fabregas on the field. We can also take solace in the fact that Arsenal fought back to the very last minute instead of hanging their head like bullied puppies.

    We can take solace in a maturing and stronger team that is emerging and forget about the British press that none of us in Arsenal or in Arsenal’s fan club can change any time soon. There will be other next times and at those next times, we can aim to get the British press to respect our football and our winning attitude and, grudgingly, our boys.

    Fem Dee

  39. Great article again, Tony. This is the place to be for all the TRUE Arsenal fans. Something tells me, ManU arent gonna be that lucky whn the visit us at the Emirates.

  40. To All Arsenal fans: I found out something interesting tonight purely by accident. A group of four (4) friends sat at a table next to mine. From their discussion, I gather that two of them are Chelsea fans, one Spud and one ManUre. Apparently, they, as well as some of their other friends, have been visiting many blogsites pretending to be Arsenal fans with very negative comments. They boast that they themselves are amazed at how many Arsenal fans follow their comments.

    Well, if this can happen, Isn’t it time for true fans to stay true and consistently write comments that will encourage our boys as well as ourselves? I just thought that I will let you all know. So what are YOU going to do as a fan?

  41. TA.I support Donny-my home town team. But being related to an Arsenal hero has always given me a soft spot for the Arsenal. However- I am totally blown away by the wonderful AW, the ethos of your club, the way they try to play and the respect shown by most of the fans for the Arsenal Experience. Let me tell you- other fans, managers, Boards and players are jealous as green jelly of all you have. And when not watching their own club- they would prefer to watch the honest and unsynical Gunners to any other team, including Barca, because they are watching a family, a growing family at work and play. Keep together- you are the torch-bearers and the best.

  42. David Pleat’s Chalkboard on the Guardian is supposed to be purely about tactic. In effect he sung a hymn of praise on Arsenal’s players and how well we played (this guy was an ex-Spur, wasn’t he?). There is no question we played one of our best games at Old Traford yesterday – better than the one we won 1-0 2 years ago.

    All isn’t doom and gloom. When we get result against Citeh in a fortnight, because we won’t get unlucky again, the media will fall in love with Arsenal again. Their new nonsensical story: “Arsenal the Great Underdog defeat cash-rich Arabs! It’s not the money, stupid!” If you need reassurance, I don’t see anywhere further than the football we are playing.

  43. Sorry to intrude, I stumbled upon your site when looking for something else. I compleltely endorse the author’s criticism of the media in general, but the irony for me is that Arsenal, in the main, actually get the best of it! I know you will have 300 examples of how you have been wronged, but try supporting Chelsea if you really want to get some media grief (OK, I know, you’ll all say, that’s what you deserve, etc… but I’m trying to be grown up about this. I have friends who support Arsenal and Spurs, though I can’t remember how that happened!). Just as a for instance – how many times have newspapers had to publish apologies about lies printed about Arsenal in the last 6 months?

    Personally I’m really keen on getting diving out of the game – and yes that would include punishments for Drogba and Ashley Cole. Most footballers are like spoilt kids – if you don’t punish them they behave worse.

    Anyway, enjoy the season (but not too much!)

  44. LRV – yes, it happens. They are known as “Trolls” and soon get found out…so childish.

  45. Being an Arsenal fan since 1971 , I ‘ve felt that there were many instances
    where we unfairly singled out, while the likes of Man ure & Liverfool were accorded special treatment.This has never really bothered me as I have never lost my faith in this club eventhough I worship it from afar.All those “arse ” related jokes just bounced off.My advice to Arsenal fans is not to get hot under the collar ,ignore the fools and keep the faith- our time is coming again.This team will do us proud.

  46. We all know everyone wants us to fail.

    No other teams has ever achieved things like we did.

    But I love the fact that everyone is against us.

    We’re the best club BECAUSE of those driven hatred against us.

    It’s why we NEED to reunite and SUPPORT our team no matter what.

    —I stop reading sports newspaper awhile back. And I watch Football shows on TV for entertainment. I come to Arsenal sites for real news and senses—

  47. I went to the BBC 606 and wrote a quick article about hatred against Arsenal, Foreigners and how the likes of Rooney and Stevie G get away with murder, week in , week out! It took them less than 20min and they removed the article! Corruption in the media is real and articles are motivated, financed just to tarnish people’s reputation! See how Fox talk about Obama! Freedom of press is such a nonsense and I agree that we should pressure the club to make the media pay to watch games! We should only allow teams for the live screening because of the legal reasons, premier league contracts and so on! Everybody else should simply pay to watch! Wenger should also do like Ferguson and ban certain media from our conference room! It is not childlish, they need to realise that if they want to bring the club down, they will be remove! We are all entilted to our opinion but there are so much nonsense and lies ! They hate Arsenal ,but how many English players can you see in teams like Liverpool and so on! The media support over rated players like Rooney and Lampard or so on, but they have never ever won anything for the country and will probably never will!!! Come on Arsenal!!!
    I also think we should have a proper Newspaper to support the club and fight the media approach by targetting our fans and sharing the good news with them! An Arsenal Newspaper out, twice a week and sold everywhere like any other newspapers! Also allow it to be sold online through a digital copy! We need more to fight back and not only blogs!!! We shall also tell true arsenal fans to stop buying those papers and encourage them to buy our own newspaper.

    Thanks all for sharing!

    Thanks for a great article!

  48. Tony, a brilliant article and agree with every point made.
    Being an Arsenal fan for over 20 years i am used to the media beatings we receive on an almost daily basis, aswell as my dad who has supported the arsenal for 45 years knows only too well the hammerings we receive.

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