Is it time for the media to take a more reasoned approach about Arsenal?

 

 

 

• At last someone starts the serioius fight against VAR
• Despite all the injuries Arsenal are the 2nd highest scorers in the League

By Tony Attwood

I am sometimes asked why I spend so much time commenting upon the ravings of journalists on football topics, and the reason is simple.  Because journalists conspire either deliberately or incidentally to run the same sorts of stories and ignore other areas of reportage, they and their editors give the impression that what is in the media is all there is to know about football.   Whereas in fact there are all sorts of things happening in football which are discussed in the stadia, but which the media never touch.

If you want a simple example, the fact that Arsenal get given fewer penalties than the clubs they play against, whereas other clubs in the “big six” have the reverse – they all get more penalties in their favour than are given against them.  And this can’t be explained by a lack of Arsenal attacking.   We’ve published all the figures here are a few of the articles

• Penalties for and against. Are Arsenal being hard done by?
• Penalties for and against Arsenal. The Mike Riley factor
• Fouls and cards: are Arsenal being hard done by?
• Refs give far more penalties against Arsenal than other clubs: but why?

So these are the types of investigations that Untold does, and which the media ignore.  But this raises the question, what are the media running instead of our type of serious analyses?   Surely they must be really important reports of major footballing issues for them to ignore totally the fact that there seems to be regular and persistent bias against Arsenal over a large number of years! 

Well, a quick look at a few of today’s headlines will tell you what they are covering instead of serious issues, such as the odd behaviour of referees in the Premier League.

Take for example the Guardian, a newspaper that likes to pride itself on being campaigning on behalf of everyone over human rights and justice, balance and fair play.  They are running the headline “European football: Mourinho grabs rival manager’s nose after Turkish Cup defeat.”

Of course, to be fair they do cover Arsenal but quite often such coverage is in terms of potential Arsenal transfers.   Such as Arsenal eye summer move for Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams after initial talks.  And the only trouble there, is that over the last few years under 10% of the transfer stories they have covered have turned out to be true.

But this is not to say that the paper doesn’t actually cover serious matters.   For example their headline ‘I never realised something wasn’t right,’  which relates to the report that Carlo Ancelotti has been accused of €1m tax fraud.    But this tale does begin to give us an insight into what is going on.   If anyone outside of football ever said that his accountant did the figures for his tax return so he can’t be blamed, I doubt the paper would even report it, because it is standard practice in most countries to say that the individual is responsible for his/her tax returns.   You can’t pass the blame onto your accountant – although everyone fiddling his tax returns does just that.

Ange Postecoglou reported in the Telegraph as trying to reduce the heavy burden he carries through having a bit of fun with his alleged comment that, “There are great candidates for my job,” but really is that of any importance to anyone?   Most managers don’t last long.  In fact a 2023 BBC report revealed the average time a manager has in his job in the 48 top leagues in Europe is 1.31 years.  So the Tottenham chap is already well past his sell-by date.  (Arteta, in this regard, of course, is on another planet, just as Wenger was).

Mind you the Telegraph really does like having fun as with “Watch: Jose Mourinho pinches nose of Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk.”

The Times of course likes to be more serious and has Arsenal renew interest in £50m Williams in bid to avoid another wasted summer.   And that is worth noting because of the word “wasted”.   That suggests that Arsenal could have foreseen the level of injuries this season, and then signed top players to cover for these injuries.  And when the player or his agent said, “hang on you’ve already got Saka [or whoever] playing there” Arsenal presumably would have said, “Yes but we are pretty sure he’s going to have a three-month lay-off this season, so you’ll get your games.”

And, to conclude back home we have “Arsenal fans will be ‘fuming’ with Premier League announcement for Everton” from London world.    That’s over the choice of referee.   And of course, it is a way of avoiding doing any serious analysis.  “Fuming” suggests unreasoned emotions based on prejudice.   They really ought to spend more time reading Untold’s referee coverage.