- ManU v Arsenal, how one referee gives 5 times as many penalties as another
- Manchester U v Arsenal: the mighty haven’t just fallen, they’ve disintegrated
By Bulldog Drummond
I was struck this morning by an article in the Guardian which tackled the question of “what is wrong with Arsenal?” They put forward the argument that Arsenal is “pursued as ever by notions of the fatal flaw, the idea that something is fundamentally rotten in their season, with an ongoing debate among pundits and voices on the internet designed to establish the exact nature of this unarguable failure.”
And yes I think that is a fair description of the media’s attitude toward Arsenal. But what makes the piece rather interesting is the follow up line: ” What, exactly, has gone wrong with Arsenal? Maybe the answer is: nothing.” And indeed the follow-up to the follow-up, “Given the surrounding weather, this takes some getting used to as an idea.”
Of course the obvious point to make is that the media have successfully defined coming second as abject failure, and rather stupidly (in my view) a lot of fans have as ever hung onto the journalists’ coattails. Now if one says “second is not failure” the argument is turned around as if to suggest one doesn’t want the club to win the league.
But the obvious answer is yes, of course I want the league won, it is just that coming second for the last two seasons is better than anything in the last 20 years, This argument can just go on of course: if we win the league I would be happy, but I’d be happier if we had won the double. If we had won the double I would be happy, but happier if we had won the treble. If we were to win the league by one point I’d be happy, but happier if we had won it by 21, ManC had lost all 115 charges against them and been relegated to the National League, and … well, you get the idea.
So my view is second place in the league is not a trophy, but it is not a failure either. Just ask supporters of the clubs who came anywhere between 3rd and 20th for the last two seasons.
In fact if Arsenal came second again, then in terms of consistency we would be right there – being consistent even with a multiplicity of injuries through the season, having lost our entire first choice forward line, and very clearly not having done what all those journalists and hangers-on have demanded in buying another striker – any striker in fact.
Put another way, Arteta is not Wenger, but in terms of results he is heading toward Wenger at his prime and the thought that a bunch of people who have never successfully managed a football club, or quite possibly have never ever managed any football club, should be able to tell Arteta where he is going wrong, is so utterly daft it is unimaginable.
And here’s another thing. Chapman won the league with Arsenal – that’s true – and if you are interested you will, I hope, be enjoying our regular series on how Chapman came to Arsenal and what they happened. And I’m sure it won’t spoil your reading of that story if I tell you that in his opening seasons at Arsenal Chapman took his time in getting things right In fact he won nothing until the FA Cup in his fifth season at Highbury and the League in his sixth season. Sometimes things take a bit of time.
Ah, it is said, but Arsenal are going backward. Look at the comparison chart – we are only just above 2022. (Data from 11v11)
| Year | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Arsenal 2025 | 27 | 15 | 9 | 3 | 51 | 23 | 28 | 54 |
| 3 | Arsenal 2024 | 27 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 68 | 23 | 45 | 61 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2023 | 27 | 21 | 3 | 3 | 62 | 25 | 37 | 66 |
| 4 | Arsenal 2022 | 27 | 16 | 3 | 8 | 43 | 31 | 12 | 51 |
And on points that is true although even with all these injuries we have still got three more points than the club got in 2022, scored eight more goals and have the equal best defensive record across these past four seasons.
And all that has been done with a team totally taken apart by injuries.
Only ManC with its infinite financial resources has managed completely to overcome the issue of multiple injuries, and I suspect quite a few Arsenal fans, including those who are anti-Arteta, will be unhappy with some of the refereeing we have seen this season, which has resulted in the injuries. And indeed unhappy with Odegaard going to play for a team that had no chance of winning anything and getting himself totally crocked.
We’ll continue with this theme in the next article.
Tony
You ask the question: Would we really be better off with the new number 9?
Possibly. But only in the same way that every other club that have scored less than us, or indeed sit bellow us in the table, needs a new striker.
Following Man City’s 1 – 0 defeat at The City ground yesterday I posed the questions:
Maybe Man City having a proper No 9 is not all it’s cracked up to be?
Maybe having a proper defence would serve man City better?
Wont hear anything to that effect from the media though will we?
My point was not really questioning either Man City’s reliance on Haarland or indeed Haarland’s ability, but rather I was making a point about the medias pathetic habit of making huge claims and judgements on a single performance.
Every time Arsenal fail to score, or not even fail to score, just fail to win, it’s because we haven’t got a ‘proper No 9’. In fact, again as I pointed out yesterday, according to The Sun: “Arsenal’s need for a proper No 9 has become a running joke in the game”. That pathetic claim being made against the backdrop of Arsenal scoring more goals over the last 2 seasons than we ever did with any our glorious strikers of days gone by.
Man City, with their ‘proper No 9’ have scored just 2 goals more than us. Hopefully by the end of the day that will be only 1, maybe none?
But here’s the thing, Man City have let in 15 goals more than Arsenal. Believe it or not, football is about more than just having a ‘proper No 9’ it’s about a team. About how the team creates and scores goals. AND, about how the TEAM, defends and PREVENTS goals.
In the final analysis do we need ‘a proper No 9’. No. We score plenty of goals without one thank you very much.
And what’s more I’m not even sure a vast majority of the media truly believe we do. I know many of them are stupid, but they are not blind, and even they can see those numbers. We score a LOT of goals.
Nope, it’s just typical of the media when it comes to Arsenal. It’s just the latest stick with which to beat us. They have created this narrative of our need to have a ‘proper No 9’ simply because it gives them a stick with which to beat us with. It matters not a jot that there is absolutely no basis in reality to support the notion.
They have done this many times before.
The most notable of which was with regards to our goalkeepers. For years and years we had endless stick about our stoppers, irrespective of who they were, how well they played, or in fact how well Arsenal did.
Here are some other old favourites:
Discipline? They love that one. Still pops up on a regular basis to this day.
Injuries? That’s another one they love. I remember quite clearly how Wenger’s training methods kept breaking our payers legs.
The lack of noise from the fans? Highbury the library. Remember that. It rhymed and everything.
Same old Arsenal, always cheating. That particular stick has morphed into ‘Dark Arts’ but it’s still a stick.
Boring Boring Arsenal. Having a wonderful defence was nothing to be proud of, at least not when it came to Arsenal.
Lucky, Lucky Arsenal. That’s going back a bit. Maybe once they get over this ‘Proper No 9’ nonsense they’ll give that old chestnut a run out?
We may get a shock, and they find a shinny new stick with which to beat us? That could be fun.
Whatever, mark my words, once they get bored with the stick they are currently beating us with, they’ll find another one soon enough and start beating us with that on a daily basis.
It’s what they do.
Maybe we should take it as a compliment, because as Mae West once famously said- It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
But, if it is a compliment, it is a pretty twisted one!!!
As I have said before , It’s horses for courses .
When teams come to us and try to play football we can annihilate them and score for fun .When however we come up as the media like to say a”” low block “”which has replaced bus parking as a tactic to be applauded apart from when we do it, our quick passing one touch football runs into trouble .
You don’t need a load of stats to tell you because your eyes can see whether you are standing on the North bank or indeed watching on a screen, sometimes we need the alternative that scrambles the lucky goal and that an out and out target forward might just give that.
The forward doesn’t need to be a multi million player but one that is happy to be a squad member and knows that he will get the twenty minute cameos and occasional starts .
Over the years we have seen it , Kennedy at WHL in 71 with a last minute header , Bendtner coming off the bench with another header , As Gabriel proved before the media ganged up on our corner routines , a player that moves and attacks the ball can unsettle the most comfortable defences and that is something which as an option we do not have .
Sorry Porter your eyes do deceive you. We score against and beat loads and loads of teams that employ a low block, and that is despite almost all our first choice forwards out. In fact we are as good as anyone at doing it, except of course Liverpool, who have had the good fortune to of had their first choice front line available all season.
Our occasional struggles this year, and they have been occasional, have nothing to do with not having a ‘proper no 9′, and much more to do with having 4 of our 5 top scorers out injured. Arteta has said it is the loss of our wide players, our main threat, that has caused us issues.
We have failed to score on just 4 occasions, compared to:
Man City 4 times.
Chelsea 4 times.
Brighton 4 times.
Nottingham Forest 5 times.
Aston Villa 5 times.
Newcastle 5 times.
Even Tottenham with their all singing all dancing Angeball have failed to score 5 times.
The only team doing better is of course Liverpool, who as I said have had their first choice attack in place all season, so it’ is no surprise.
I also have eyes, and I can see we have no more trouble than anyone else in breaking down a ‘low block’ and what’s more I have the stats to prove it.
Nitram,
Nitram, I share your views entirely about the recurring media agenda, with its different themes. Certainly our keepers were relentlessly and unfairly denigrated and unfortunately, a number of so-called fans believed them.
A couple to add t o your list:-
Arsenals soft centre and lack of leaders: – they certainly didn’t like it up ’em on a cold windy night in Stoke (more accurately, perhaps it should have been they didn’t like their legs being deliberately broken on a cold windy night in Stoke)
Arsenals defensive frailties / woes.
Nirram,
I think you’ve nailed every point to be made about the ‘lack’ of a proper #9 which, unfortunately, passes for journalism these days, ignores. There could be any number of reasons for this, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the affect this false narrative has on the public. Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it. Worked for Goebbels. Worked for Trump. Your list of “some other old favourites” is priceless and on the money. I think that very often the fans are as lazy as the so-called journalists. They just read an article and go to the next without really thinking about it or the author’s intent. Lies and statements of “fact” about AFC abound but the un-discerning don’t discern. I don’t expect the average reader to be as nutty as some of us here (myself) regarding the anti Arsenal bias but a small bit of questioning might help. That leads us to UA. Here we get analysis backed with facts for those of us who still care about those messy items. But, being an internet blog by and for Arsenal supporters, the general public doesn’t get the benefit of the research by the contributors and responders. I learn things here all the time, and I consider myself fairly well informed. I question everything I read, see , hear, etc. regardless of source. I’m wired that way as I notice a lot of Untolders seem to be. But the general public? Not so much. It’s easier not to question, more comfortable. Maybe it’s human nature but it doesn’t make for an informed fandom. Alright, I’ll stop. You all know this already.
Re ManU today, go out on the front foot and it’s over. COYG!!
Time for an alternative anyone ?