Having been flat footed by Arsenal’s last display, the football media are now lost

 

 

By Tony Attwood

• Abuse of young players in football clubs: authorities duck, but action is happening
• Arsenal desperately need a striker because you can’t score goals with kids. (Oh!)

We are just three days away from Arsenal’s next match but after the amazing free-for-all all in the Champions League, it is interesting to start thinking early about what happens next – and what the media makes of Arsenal’s last game.

Although in doing so, I must admit, I got a bit sidetracked by what was perhaps one of the most bonkers lines (coming inevitably from Football.London) which told us that Arsenal showed glimpses of being back to their best on Tuesday night.   So if seven goals means we got “glimpses” of Arsenal being back to their best, then if Arsenal were back to their best, how many would they then score?  The mind boggles, but I will accept another seven, and just “glimpses”.

But then it is bonkers week in Football.London (as it is most weeks) as they also have the headline “Liverpool points deduction truth as final Arsenal Premier League title hope emerges”.  And the truth is that there is no chance of a Liverpool points deduction, and nor has there ever been.  It is in fact mindless gibberish.

So how can even as bonkers and ideologically bent website as FoLo get a headline that opens with “Liverpool points deduction truth”?

Well, the answer is that, “Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett has suggested that points deductions could be dished out if fines do not have the desired effect after Liverpool boss Arne Slot was charged by the FA.”

Thus without a blink of an eye we move from “truth” to a suggestion by a retired referee.  A man who is in fact, the president of non-league club Penistone Church FC who are ninth in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division which is itself the ninth tier of English football.

“I would like to see referees at the final whistle moving towards the tunnel rather than standing in the middle looking for handshakes and any complimentary comments,” he told Football Insider.

And that is it.

Of course, the man was a referee, and he is the president of a semi-professional club, and he has made a suggestion, which of course will not be followed up.   That for the media is worthy of headline news, if anything is.

But let us try and return from Football.London to planet Earth, except even in this regard, it is horribly easy to get hijacked en route as FoLo have the headline

Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli – Latest Arsenal injury news and return dates ahead of Man Utd.   

Kai Havertz we are told is out of the rest of the season, which I think we knew.   With Martinelli they don’t have any information on his latest scan, so there is nothing new there either.  Saka isn’t back in training yet, which is not news.  Moving on they tell us that the manager has said that “Tomiyasu is going to be out as well for a period.”.  As for Gabriel Jesus it is “Not looking good at all.”  Thus news = zero.

Now of course what the article could have done would have been to focus on how the club without any of its strikers and with the media daily leading the demand that Arsenal sign a striker (as they have been doing for three years), has managed to be such a top scoring club in recent years, getting more goals in the past two seasons than at any time since the 1930s, and then in the last away match in Europe scoring seven.

But no, this is not discussed.  There is no article on how Arsenal could use the methodology that was developed for this week’s game in Europe in their league game this coming weekend, away to Manchester United (4.30pm sunday).

And yet this is rather an exciting opportunity for Arsenal because Manchester U have amazingly lost more home matches (seven) than they have won (six).   And they have conceded more goals at home (24) than they have scored (20).   In the measure of clubs at home, they are 12th.  

In fact, if the results went the right way, Manchester United could slip down to one place above the relegation three this coming weekend, which would be quite amusing, but that isn’t being mentioned either.

There is quite a lot about players who Arsenal are said to be chasing, but as we know from past experience, they won’t buy.   And the reason this is deemed to be news is so that the media can then blame Arsenal for dithering.