- Tottenham v Arsenal. Arsenal once more find themselves playing 12 men
- Approaching the derby, we wonder, are Tottenham short of cash?
By Tony Attwood
Of course, the main consideration today is this afternoon’s match and the team we might put out. And I will deal with that below, but before I do I wanted to look at a headline I saw today which seems to me to symbolise exactly what is wrong with how the media approach Arsenal.
The extract below comes from The Athletic which is published by the New York Times, and which I do quote sometimes as generally it seems a reasonable publication with writers who do a spot of research.
But it seems I was wrong, for today they write, in the article How long is it since each Premier League club last suffered relegation? the following:
“Arsenal were relegated from the old First Division at the end of the 1912-13 season and played two campaigns in the second tier before competitive football was suspended in the summer of 1915 as a result of the First World War.
“The north London club finished that second season (1914-15) in fifth position but upon the resumption of the game — in one of the most controversial episodes in the history of English sport — were ‘elected’ to the top flight to replace Tottenham, despite the fact Barnsley and Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had finished above them in the second tier in 1914-15, stayed down.”
Now there is no reason to mention that issue today – it is not an anniversary or anything – but as they have chosen to run that story AGAIN, I feel the need to correct their errors.
The full story is here, but in essence, all the clubs in the football league at the time attended the meeting and were told they could vote on how the expansion of the two divisions should work. First, Chelsea made a pitch for a place back in the top division, claiming that they had been relegated in the final season before the league was abandoned because of the war, due to match fixing. That was the big scandal that was debated at the AGM. The League had the chance to kick out the match fixers – Manchester United and Liverpool – and there are details of that matter here. But the clubs chose not to do that. Chelsea were elected back to the top league.
Then to accommodate this, the clubs opted to expand the league by two clubs upon its restart. So Man U and Liverpool who could have been kicked out of football for clear and obvious match fixing, were left alone, and Chelsea were given a place in the first division because they had clearly been relegated through the match fixing. That left one spare place in the expanded first division.
No speechese were made, but half a dozen clubs applied for the extra place, including Arsenal. You can read a complete review ofthe situation, including extracts from newspapers of the day, on this site. And just in case you think this is just me spouting propaganda, I didn’t write that article, and it really does show the actual newspaper cuttings of the time.
There is no suggestion of bribery by Arsenal – that was something made up much later. Arsenal were given their place in the top division, because they had supported the Football League from the start (not playing in the Southern League as Tottenham had) and were getting big crowds at both home and away games, which, of course, everyone else in the league benefited from. If you do feel inclined to believe that the voting was fixed, I do hope you will have time to take a look.
Anyway, back to now… And just in case you haven’t noticed, Arsenal haven’t lost any of their last six away league matches. While Tottenham haven’t won any of their last six home league matches.
Put like that, the result looks pretty clear. But then, of course, it isn’t put like that because that shows Arsenal in a good light, and that is not what the media want at all.
The Standard goes with
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Zubimendi, Rice; Saka,
Odegaard, Trossard; Gyokeres
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Rice Zubimendi, Odegaard,
Saka Gyokeres Trossard;
Sports Mol e have a slight variation
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice;
Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard
But you get the flavour. Settle back or stand up. Either way, shout a lot and hope for a good win. And if you want to be a football journalist you can enjoy half time by making up some wild and utterly untrue tales about Arsenal’s history. That’s what the media normally like to publsih.
