Apart from the results is any football reporting actually correct?

 

• Ludicrous schedules, anti-Arsenal media, invented tales, declining eyesight

By Tony Attwood

It seems a bit bizarre to ask the question, but having had a day which included sitting at home without very blurred vision (following hospital treatment on my eye this morning) I have had little to do other than to contemplate this, that and anything else that came to mind along with watching some rather blurred TV.

But even so I thought I would share my thoughts with you.

Rotation:

We recently debated the issue that Arteta refuses to rotate his team, and that is what is holding Arsenal back.  But a quick survey of how much Arteta rotates Arsenal, and how much other teams are rotated showed that although Arsenal had a lower rotation rate than others it was only slightly lower, and could be fully explained by the fact that Arsenal had fewer injuries than other clubs this season.   So the whole “Arteta won’t rotate” issue is actually false.  

Arsenal are planning on buying multiple players this summer.

We’ve been tracking the rumours about Arsenal transfers each summer for something like eight years, and the highest ever accuracy rate in terms of media predictions was 3%.   Now it could be argued that Arsenal are singularly useless at completing deals under Arteta just as they were under Wenger, but in fact these numbers are pretty much the same as for other clubs.  In reality 97% of the transfer rumours don’t come to pass.  (Sometimes it is 98%).  The development of young players gets very little coverage but is a constant feature.

Arsenal always collapse near the end of the season

In terms of this season that collapse consisted of one league game.  Last season there were three bursts: two defeats and a draw in February, three draws and a defeat in April, and then consecutive defeats in May.   So yes there was something in that last season, but so far, not this season.  Sometimes yes sometimes no – just like most teams.

Arsenal will change their manager

This one often comes around.   We had years and years of Wenger about to leave or be kicked out.  Now we get it with Arteta.  He came to Arsenal in 2019, and by 2020 there was talk of him leaving or needing to be kicked out, just as there has been this season.   We also had years and years of the same with Arsene Wenger.  When he was winning titles and cups he was going to move on to Real Madrid or Barcelona, then when he wasn’t he was being kicked out.

Journalists and their sources  know what really needs to happen

Opinions are there day after day after day, telling us who is going to be bought, who is going to be dropped, and so on, but there is not the slightest bit of evidence that these opinions are accurate previews of what is about to happen.  In short journalists who write about what Arsenal will do, are massively inaccurate.  It is hard to imagine why they should be believed about anything.

One player is utterly useless but the manager can’t or won’t see it

Another story that comes around time and time again.  “Everyone” we are told “can see that X or Y is the weak link in the team”.  The story runs for a while, and then stops when someone else does some analysis to show that in fact that self-same player is an essential part of the build up or some other vital aspects of the team’s play.

Arsenal need a goal scorer.  

One of the funniest ones this season, considering Arsenal have scored more goals than any other club in the league.   Indeed it would be just as amusing if Arsenal had scored the third most goals.

But really, just look at the top ten clubs in the league in the order of goals scored…

 

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	G	A	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	33	23	5	5	77	26	51	74
2	Manchester City	32	22	7	3	76	32	44	73
3	Liverpool	33	21	9	3	72	31	41	72
4	Aston Villa	34	20	6	8	71	50	21	66
6	Newcastle United	32	15	5	12	69	52	17	50
5	Tottenham Hotspur	32	18	6	8	65	49	16	60
9	Chelsea	31	13	8	10	61	52	9	47
8	West Ham United	34	13	9	12	53	63	-10	48
10	Brighton and Hove Albion	32	11	11	10	52	50	2	44
15	Brentford	34	9	8	17	52	59	-7	35

 

The fact is that extraordinarily lazy editors tell extraordinarily lazy journalists they need an Arsenal-knocking story, and these self-same journalists just rotate the same garbage match after match because a) they are too lazy to do any research and b) much of the time there is no story to be had.  Liverpool are playing as I write this, so Arsenal may not be top by the time you read this and Manchester City have a game in hand, but my point remains.  Almost all commentary on football in the media is tripe.

Does it matter?

Well yes because what is happening is that the journalists repeat their fantasy visions over and over again, and because they are all copying each other (which is easier than actually doing any research) the stories through sheer repetition become believed.  Then when they don’t come to pass, Arteta gets the label of being “obstinate”.   Then the owners think maybe they should change managers just to shut the fans up.