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By Tony Attwood
When things are going well, it is easy to forget how the anti-Arsenal journalists and bloggers can come out of hiding at any moment and denigrate Arsenal, Which, of course, they will do when things are not quite so good. One poor result is all it takes.
But for the moment, Arsenal are being left alone, although a look at how the media covers one or two other clubs can give us a bit of a reminder of what they can get up to.
For although there was a time when the media would never say a word against Manchester United, perhaps fearing exactly what Sir Alex would actually say in response, now, with that club under new leadership, ManU are seen as fair game, as the media search for other targets. They’d love to come back for another round of Arsenal bashing, of course, but with Arsenal having the best attack and best defence in the league, telling Arsenal how to do things better would look even more naff than their writings normally do.
But of course, there are always other clubs to knock in what the media imagine is a mere interim before Arsenal slip back down the league, and they can tell us what the manager should have done – and indeed would have done if only they had been running the club. Instead, there is, for example, the notion that “Ruben Amorim could be sacked if Manchester United lose to Sunderland today.”
In fact, the media are really throwing some dirt on that thought, with sentences like, “There are concerns within the Old Trafford hierarchy about the Portuguese’s suitability for the job,” suggesting that it is not that the club is having a bad run, but that somehow genetically the boss is unable to control matters at ManU. But surely, if it is the fault of anyone, it is the fault of the directors since they appointed him
They have Liverpool away, and although I don’t want Liverpool to win any match, one way or another, I’m going to have a bit of a smile, whatever the result of that one. And even if not, Nottingham Forest are still doing us a good turn, showing that being successful at Arsenal (as Edu undoubtedly was) does not mean that success will roll on to the next job, especially as Forest are apparently contemplating sacking their manager after six games.
Meanwhile, The Athletic tells us that Arsenal’s chances of being overall winners in the group phase of the Champions League are on the up. Seemingly, Arsenal are now favourites to win the whole thing!!
Indeed, this is all getting a bit too much, and I think we might be better off just sitting back for a moment and letting things happen.
For today’s game, the team is reputed to be….
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice;
Saka, Gyokeres, Eze
Yahoo dont forget the exclamation mark! have that prediction. Sports Mole has exactly the same prediction, but they do have a really good observation which I feel is worth passing on. They say, “Scorer of the hosts’ second off the bench on Wednesday, Bukayo Saka is now primed to make his 200th Premier League appearance – the only previous Gunner to score on their 200th PL game was none other than Thierry Henry in 2005.”
Now there’s a thought. They predict a 2-0 win, although with Manchester City having a goal difference of just one less than Arsenal, I’d like to see us knock a few more in. And yes, I know that ManC are seventh in the league, but some of these teams do have a nasty tendency to creep up when no one is watching.
The Metro also has exactly the same team as predicted above, so with three in a row identical predictions, there doesn’t seem much point in going further. As far as the media is concerned, that is the team.
The match is at 3pm and at 5,30 it is Liverpool v Chelsea. It could actually be quite a jolly afternoon and still time to pop out afterwards.
