By Tony Attwood
Thus we approach the end of days: the very last Wengerian game. Let’s see where he left the injury list
| # | TEAM | No. down | Last man fallen | What he done |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watford | 9 | A Gray | Knock |
| 2 | Leicester City | 9 | D Simpson | Groin Injury |
| 3 | Everton | 7 | W Rooney | Knee Injury |
| 4 | Burnley | 6 | A Barnes | Arm Injury |
| 5 | Liverpool | 6 | S Mane | Knock |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 6 | V Wanyama | Thigh |
| 7 | Crystal Palace | 5 | J Ward | Ankle Injury |
| 8 | West Ham United | 5 | J Hernandez | Knee Injury |
| 9 | Arsenal | 4 | M Ozil | Back |
| 10 | Chelsea | 4 | T Courtois | Back Injury |
| 11 | Swansea City | 3 | K Bartley | Knee Injury |
| 12 | Huddersfield Town | 3 | E Kachunga | Ankle Injury |
And so our four men down are…
Koscielny, Santi Cazorla, Elneny, Ozil. The slight hope that Elneny might be back for this one has gone. Huddersfield have Kachunga and Williams definitely out and Hefele a doubt.
And here’s an interesting twist from the BBC preview of the game. “Laurent Koscielny heads a long list of injury absentees…” Now how is four a long list? Not least when one of them (Santi) has been out all season and has never been in contention for anything more that a five minute kick around at the end at the very most, and now we find not that.
If four injuries is for the BBC “a long list” then what does the nine injuries of Watford get counted as? Well, wouldn’t you know it, there is not a single mention of their injuries in the BBC preview of the Watford game.
Meanwhile in the papers there are the usual looking back and forwards bits and here’s one that really made me smile. Eleven years ago before starting Untold Arsenal I would have exploded, but now, well, it’s just every day. It is of course from the Guardian who chose a blogger who would say, “There were a few tantalising hints that Aubameyang might deliver.”
Obviously I have been going to different games. “A few?????????” This guy has come newly into the team in January, a team that lots of commentators say is appalling, the worst ever etc etc etc, and he has scored nine goals in 12 games, and that is “a few tantalising hints…” Well, one of us is on a different planet, and I know a lot of people say that it is me. Maybe they are right, but “a few tantalising hints…” And that is before we consider what Mkhitaryan has brought to the team, the evolution of Elneny, the fact that Jack has stayed fit, the return to his previous goalscoring form of Lacaz. Goodness me.
I do like to make comparisons of these things, as when newspapers talk about the number of red cards Arsenal get – it is meaningless unless we know how many red cards other clubs got, and how many of them were rescinded. And with this “a few” comment here is something the Guardian chose not to reveal, or maybe couldn’t be arsed to look up.
On the issue of Aubamayang, only one player in the entire Premier League has got more goals than Aubamayang and that is Mohamed Salah. Now when you take that fact and add the points that
a) Arsenal have been having an utterly appalling season (in the words of most pundits) with
b) a team made up of jokers and idiots (according to Martin Keown),
c) and Aub came in on transfer was complicated and prolonged and Arsenal have been having a torrid time away…
to be the second highest goal scorer since arriving is, in my book at least, amazing. It is beyond “a few tantalising hints…” just like the centre of the galaxy is a a little way beyond the moon.
And the reason I bang on and on and on and on and on about these tiny details in the media is because this approach is incessent. These are very minor points but they appear every single day against Arsenal in a way that I don’t see them appearing against any other club and together they deliver a programme of commentary that is designed to undermine the club and all its players.
Of course the Guardian can say, “it’s not our fault – we asked a blogger and that is what he said,” but it is just one example – they asked a totally 100% anti-Wenger blogger who wrote “For the first time in two decades, we’re going in to a summer feeling eager anticipation” as part of his commentary, and that is the view they take all the time. I can tell them that after the third FA Cup win in four years there was some eager anticipation among some of us. Yes, we slipped back thereafter, but that is not the point. It is how you feel at the time. That is what “anticipation” means.
So it goes on across broadcasters and writers, a bit like the low-level noise that children make in classrooms as a way of undermining a teacher with the occasional Martin Keown type who will actually say outloud to the teacher “it’s all crap.”
They are just a bunch a naughty children. The problem is they have taken over not just the classroom but the whole school.
- Huddersfield v Arsenal. How the Huddersfield manager transformed Arsenal.
- Huddersfield v Arsenal. A team with a home record almost as bad as Arsenal away.
- Huddersfield v Arsenal Sunday 13 May 2018 – The Match Officials
Tony – why do you pour fuel to the fire that’s general nonsense of supposed punditry & idiots disguised as experts? Rather let’s push only the agenda of Arsenal until it takes over this whole space!!! Unfortunately in this world the “nag-atives” are many and sadly amongst some of our own deluded fans. Perhaps I might suggest a link up with Arsenal.com. Surely they will see the need for such a positive support website
Good article.
Unfortunately, the anti-Arsenal narratives from the mainstream football media
and the mobs on social media will continue,whoever we appoint to succeed Arsene.
The reason I write about the media so much is simple. They produce commentary day after day under the guise of being neutral and reasonable when it is nothing but, and very few other people come out and criticise them, in order to suggest to people who are taken in by it that there is an agenda here, and that this is not neutral reporting. Such commentaries from others were very important some years back when the media’s bias on other issues were slowly revealed and people gradually became more and more aware that nuance is a much more dangerous weapon than outright bias. Sadly no one else seems to want to take up the battle vis a vis football, but I still think it worth fighting.
It’s too early in the day to read garbage, some coyote seemed to baiting neighbour dogs from our place at 4am (now 5:30am). But there seems to be at least 5 different articles on the two targets to take over from Wenger. Any bet all the suggestions are different?
COYG!
Apparently Mike Jones and Neil Swarbrick are retiring from being active officials. I guess they will both become involved with VAR, in an effort to find out how to continue slanting the pitching while appearing to be using the latest technology.
Apparently The (sweet) FA has decided to start putting up articles that can only be read if javascript is turned on. Dorks. Anyway, the article is 5 days old. But apparently Sian Massey-Ellis has been given some kind of assignment or accreditation related to UEFA Champion’s League? Congratulations whatever this actually involves.
Ah, there’s the story. I don’t normally read the BBC or Telegraph. She is to be at the Women’s Champion’s League final.
Here is my take on this usually “fake” Arsenal news from the Main stream media.
In these days of no longer being able to differentiate between what is true and what is false, the historical practice of protecting so called “sources” should be outlawed. This would mean that major practitioners of news, can only report what they know to be facts. In other words, the truth.
This would mean that the notorious “Sky Sources” or The S*n, Heil, Xpress and the rest who hide behind “according to reports” cannot say that unless they include factual evidence of where those reports come from.
The other thing, that needs banning by law in this country, are links between sporting organisations, betting companies and the Mainstream media.
I think that, worded correctly, a petition to government to debate these measures, would gain support from football supporters everywhere, not just Arsenal fans.
Interestingly PEA also has the best strike rate of anyone in the Premiership with a goal for every 3.1 shots whilst Salah hits 4.5 per goal and the new saviour of English footbal, Harry K, actually takes twice as many shots as PEA per goal. But then the ‘media experts’ wouldn’t want to report that as it might put us in a good light…………..