Believing what you read in the media about Arsenal is not good for your health

By Tony Attwood

Go and work for five minutes in the world of football commentary and you will come across the word “panic” associated with the word “Arsenal”.   Not that there is a panic happening at Arsenal as such, but rather, you will find the implication that if fans are not panicking, then they are the only ones, as certainly everyone else is.  Indeed, there is even a suggestion that if you are not panicking, you are not a real Arsenal fan.

For, according to the media, there is panic over the players that have been bought but who are not good enough, panic over the players that have not been bought but should have been bought but have now gone elsewhere because of Arsenal meanness or laziness, panic over the players who have not yet signed a new contract, because the club won’t offer them enough but othes will, panic over those who have signed and new contract but should have been let go….

In fact, if you are in the media business, and if there is no mention of Arsenal panic for at least five minutes, then it is most certainly time to panic in the office, because the rules of the game are that no matter what, Arsenal and their fans are in a panic and your editor will be on your back. 

As a result of this situation, there are now two things that need looking at.

First (although not particularly relevant) why am I not in a state of panic?  Second, how did this media-driven concept of Arsenal in a state of panic come about?  For come about it has because there is now even a website that has Arsenal Panic as a headline.

And even when someone else is doing worse than Arsenal (for example ManU who ended up last season 32 points and a goal difference 45 worse than that of Arsenal, or Tottenham, 36 points below and conceding 31 goals more than Arsenal) they don’t seem to be afflicted by quite so much panic.

In fact, with Tottenham, there seems to be a general certainty that they will do very well next season.  And that despite winning only one of their last 12 league games – and that being against Southampton who didn’t win any of their last 15 games.

In fact there is so much panic that those panicking seem to have missed that Arsenal are actually playing today.  But no, they would argue, that should be ignored, and instead we should be panicking.

Yet this afternoon Arsenal players will be following in the footsepts of Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshire, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly all of whom started their Arsenal career playing at Barnet’s Meadow Park.

Now one thing you can do here and now, is consider your own mental health.  For watching a match at Meadow Park and seeing how the younger players are doing is going to be a lot better for you than panicking over the mindless tripe written by a bunch of semi-skimmed journalists who have been told by their editors, “Remember, nothing positive about Arsenal.”

And there are things to like about Barnet and its ground, not least because the club have been linked with Arsenal for over 30 years, going all the way back to when Arsenal Ladies (as they then were) started playing at Boreham Wood.   

So Barnet it is.  Kick off at Meadow Park is at 3pm.

Of course the success of Arsenal Women, and indeed its very existence, is down toVic Akers and we are lucky that Boreham Wood offered their ground then, as now, for some games (now for the under 21s of course, although the women have by and large moved into the main ground in N5).

So this real issue about Arsenal is there being a match today.  The journalists don’t know and don’t care, because their view is that of who Arsenal should sign.  The fact that 97% of their predictions don’t come to pass is as nought to them.  They ramble on with the doom and gloom, ignoring the fact that in recent years Arsenal have dragged themselves up from consecutive 8th place finishes to… well, you know.

Quite how this link with Barnet came about, I am not too sure, but it looks very much like one of those things that just caught on over time.  Certainly, it was an approach that received a big boost during the Wenger era when he would bring in players the journalists had never heard of.   And since they defined themselves as being experts, their argument was, if they had not heard of the player, no one had heard of the player, and Wenger was taking a huge gamble on an unknown.

Of course, they had to change that a bit when Arsenal started winning things (you’ll remember the three league titles of course, but do you recall that Wenger is still the man who won the FA Cup more times than anyone else.  Seven times in fact.  The media hated that because it was so difficult for him to be accused of panic in that regard).

But no, today’s theme is that Arsenal should be panicking and if you are not, you are not a real supporter.  And I know that because Talk Sport tells me so.    As in their YouTube: “I’M ANGRY! I’M PANICKING!” 

One can of course, suggest a number of psychologists who can help the writers of this stuff, but that doesn’t seem to be the done thing these days.   Because Arsenal and panic are now so often mentioned together, they are seen as being one and the same.

And yet no one seems to want to ask why?  Arsenal have just come second in the league three times running – which I know is not the same as winning the league three times running, but is a damn site better than, for example, Chelsea (12th, 6th 4th), who get a much better press.

But no, on AFTV  we have what they call a “HEATED DEBATE on Arsenal stalling over £4m for Gyokeres…   Or “An emotional panic move made by a new sporting director who spent WILD money…”