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By Tony Attwood
Last weekend we play Hull, a club that is sitting 11th in the league, holding their own – which I guess is exactly what they want to be doing. To be aiming for the top would be silly, since there would eventually be a fall, but mid-table is a sustainable position for this season, and something to build on for the future.
However, in the “last six games league” they are currently 16th with four draws and two defeats. The only teams that have performed less well in their last six games are Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Manchester United and Sunderland. And this is in descending order which means that Manchester United are in fact 19th in the “last six games” league.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph is really going to town against Arsenal, saying that “Arsenal’s dark arts are everything they were not before Arteta The suggestion is thus that Arsenal are only at the top because of the Dark Arts that were brought in by Arteta. And they are….
Ah well at that point I can’t tell you because the media don’t seem to be spelling out what these incredible changes are that Arteta has brought in and which have managed to take Arsenal through seven seasons in which thye have ended up 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd 2nd, 1st.
Now I am sure that multiple clubs in the mid to lower parts of the Premier League will be very upset about this, because their thoughts (as resular newspaper readers) must be that whatever these dark arts are, they’d like some of them, to move their clubs to mid-table safety. Bu you know what? The media just won’t tell them how Arslenal did it. Anyone might assume that the newspaper writers don’t actually know how it was done, and that they are just making things up as they (the journos) go along!!!.
And I point that out because you might think that after seven seasons three things would have happened.
First, other teams would have worked out what these “dark arts” are, and so found a way to counter them. In fact, given that Arsenal are like everyone else, playing 38 games a season, surely some of the other 19 clubs would have sorted this out. For they have not only had the games they have been playing against Arsenal, but all the other games everyone else had played. Surely someone would have worked out a counter measure by now!
Now the point is that these games are all filmed and the recordings are available for clubs to consider and study. So, once again, surely with all these films, those dark arts would become less and less dark, and more and more visible, and the managers, trainers and coaches of the other 19 clubs in the league would have been studying them, and discovering what Arsenal are doing. And then they would have found a number of countermeasures.
What’s more, although I would not suggest that clubs go round helping each other specifically against Arsenal, the coaches and managers would have watched Arsenal’s defeats and seen exactly what the other clubs have been doing in order to beat Arsenal – or at least to nullify them enough to be able to get a draw.
For the “Arsenal are using the dark arts” suggestion makes it clear that the view is that Arsenal are not current champions and currently top of the league because they have better players, and use better tactics, but because they do something else. Something which the term “Dark Arts” suggests is on the edge of legality, or maybe even breaks the rules, but which fools the referees. Yet none of these incredibly bright and clever journalists are able to spell out what the dark arts are. Yet really, if one watches enough videos, surely they can’t be that hard to find.
But still Arsenal go on winning. Maybe not by lots of goals, but on the most simple level, because Mikel Arteta has created the most adaptable and versatile side in England. That is the only explanation there can be. These incredible “dark arts” are actually the construction of a team that can deconstruct opposition defences via flowing football. Yes, that is the secret. The Dark Art is Flowing Football. And that’s why the PGMO staff and opposition defenders combined can’t stop Arsenal!
So why don’t the media admit it? After all they have seen it against Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, etc etc. But the media don’t go further than saying “dark arts” because someone told them that Arsenal cheat. So following the rule of football journalism, they each repeat what the last guy said, and come out with the line that Arsenal somehow cheat.
And in a sense Arsenal do cheat, because instead of buying in brilliant centre forwards who score goals that win Goal of the Month etc etc, they have produced a team that plays in a certain way. Further, they have back up players who will come in and immediately adopt this team style when another member of the squad gets chopped to the ground, by frustrated opponents.
And if you want some evidence just look at the films of Arsenal’s goals. You won’t find any dark arts apart from the way the opposition tries to cut them to pieces, but you will see team goals, togetherness, a mutual understanding of what each player is doing, and is about to do, combined with ruggedness and self-belief. That is what won the game at Anfield, and the other games Arsenal have won too. It builds from within, and the players believe in it.
The media don’t like it because the media is committed to the notion that Arsenal cheat (it is just they can’t really explain how) and what it defines as “attractive football” – but that is something of its own invention and they can’t really explain why the team they claim is playing “attractive football” is not top of the league.
Meanwhile what fans want is winning football, and that is what Arsenal generate. And what’s more, when the opposition venture beyond putting eleven men behind the ball, you can see some attractive football too.
