- In football the old order has changed, and Arsenal are benefitting enormously
- Another staggering Arsenal victory, and again no one can get near Arsenal
By Tony Attwood
Before the Champions League game this week, Mikel Arteta said that he felt that Arsenal are a universe apart from the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich because they (Arsenal) haven’t won the Champions League. Being a respectful sort of guy, he didn’t make any other references to the enormous differences between the various leagues that provide teams that enter the Champions League, but that is where the story of this season lies.
In Germany, Bayern Munich reigns supreme, having won the league 12 times in the last 13 seasons.
In Spain, Barcelona have won the league six times in the last 11 seasons.
In England, Manchester City have won the league six times in the last eight seasons
In Scotland, Celtic have won the league 13 times in the last 14 seasons.
In France, Paris Saint-Germain have won the league 11 times in the last 13 seasons.
But there have been hints that this decadent old order of dominance is changing. In Italy, for example, Juventus won the league nine seasons in a row up to 2020. Since then, Inter have won it twice, Napoli have won it twice, and Milan have won it once. In four of the last five years Juventus haven’t even made it into the top three!
And yet, in many cases, each season begins with a near certainty as to who will win the league this time around, except in Spain Real Madrid are giving Barcelona a real run for their money. In England, as we know, Arsenal are currently seven points ahead of regular winners ManC who are currently in third place. Chelsea in seventh have not won the league since 2017. In Scotland Celtic are currently four points behind Hearts at the top of the league. And although PSG are top of the French league it is only by two points.
What this suggests is that the German Bundesliga is suddenly something of an outlier with its constant winners still pounding away at the top of the domestic table. But their pounding by Arsenal last night suggests that maybe even they are slipping a bit as well. So a feeling (unnoticed of course, by the eternally out of touch media) is creeping across Europe that the old order is changing.
Of course, the media know nothing of this because to save money, their normal approach is to take last week’s, last month’s and last year’s news and just do a quick update. Doing it that way saves on journalists’ time and generally keeps staff costs down. But that is at the cost of reality.But such an approach has its dangers, as here, for most commercial media outlets seem to be missing the big story, which is that the old order changes.Of course, Arsenal still have their anti-Arsenal lobby – most recently criticising Arsenal’s Noni Madueke on social media, but it was good to see him return and score.
The fans who seek to be critics, egged on by the media, will carry on, but their petition against his signing was pretty feeble, and the player recently said, “You are in the public eye; people can say whatever they want about you. But being in the stadium and how the fans have taken to me in the stadium is unbelievable. I am not really worried about all of that. It is in the distant past.
The last game versus Tottenham was incredible, and that gives me such a boost. So the next game is first against second, and Madueke might play. As ever, the anti-Arsenal Arsenal lobby is irrelevant. Making fun of Harry Kane as he was endlessly disrupted by Declan Rice was much more fun. As the Guardian said, “it felt impossible not to sense a weight lifting.”I can hardly wait for the next game.
Declan Rice’s character is really growing on me. His interviews after last night’s win were great. “We know how good we are but we take it day to day.” He acknowledges that we have won nothing recently and have had some heartbreak so we are just working toward a goal. I appreciate his mixture of confidence and humility. I also love the way he has developed into a real box to box midfielder. The last one we had was really the imperious Patrick Vieira and now we have another.
I believe many people are forgetting one thing : the hundreds of millions paid for players by PL clubs go into the finances of clubs who are not competing got titles (yet). They don’t have such vasts amounts of money so they are way better at making the most out of less money where some rich clubs don’t care about the waste.
So after a few years of transfer money becoming silly money, we are seeing the clubs who ‘received’ the silly money having more means, and being better at managing it (Crystal Palace, BHA, Brentford compared to Man United for example).
And in Europe, many of the clubs of other leagues have benefitted from that silly money and are on the rise. The playing field is levelling because the silly money does create competition.
Chris
“The fans who seek to be critics, egged on by the media, will carry on, but their petition against his signing was pretty feeble….”
Most specifically the “…..egged on by the media”
This is the reason I cannot understand why people call Tony out, and a lot more of us here on Untold, for constantly taking the Media to task for their constant agendas, bias, and down right lies against and about Arsenal, especially in the later Wenger years.
I believe there is no doubt the constant Anti Arsenal campaigns have cost us points, possibly even cost us trophies.
It has done this in 3 specific ways:
1: Turned the fans against their own club and players, as demonstrated above. There are many other examples. Xhaka and Eboue to name but two. Turned fans against one of, if not THE best manager we ever had. Turned the fans against the board and the club in general. Planes carrying banners. Protests in and outside the stadium. The AAA.
2: Created a narrative that Arsenal were a poorly ran club, with poor managers and poor players that:
a) Cheat (same old Arsenal, always cheating).
b) Soft. Nancy boy softies that don’t like it up ’em, especially on a cold Tuesday evening in the Black Country
c) Bottle jobs that always throw it away.
This narrative fed, not only in to the psyche of our own fans, but also into our own past players some of whom to their eternal shame, lapped it up. It fed into the fan bases of other teams. But worst of all it fed into officialdom. By that I mean the referees.
Who better for the media to feed a narrative of Southern Softies that don’t like it up ’em, than a bunch of Northerners. A bunch of northerners dressed in black, ready willing and able to carry out their bidding.
Anyone who cannot see how this anti Arsenal media has adversely affected us over the years has to be blind. It is still going on. Yes we get praised at the moment, but FFS we are top in both the PL and CL, but in many cases it is still through clenched teeth.
For example, last night we were second game on MOTD behind Liverpool losing. I mean, was that even news!!!
Same with the Mail on line.
Two small things I know, but that would not of happened to Liverpool or Man Utd had they just soundly beaten Munich. It’s just a small example of how the media try to keep us in our place.
We are not the only ones that see this media bias. A well known blogg called The Football Terrace, ran by a Man Utd fan, is constantly calling the media out for their anti Arsenal agenda.
The fact is, the constant knocking of Arsenal over many many years now, does us harm, and should be called out at every opportunity. Thank heavens Tony, and others on here, are prepared to do just that. And just because we’ve won a match should not stop us doing it. And it certainly doesn’t affect the enjoyment I get from these victories either.
But the Media MUST be held to account, no matter what.
Keep up the good work Tony
Nitram,
Your comments are entirely on the money and greatly appreciated
I go to Tony’s Untold Arsenal blog as my first port of call . To me it’s where authentic Gunners supporters are found and yes Terry Flewers of The Football Terrace speaks well too , calling out hypocrites that exist in the dinosaur mainstream media . So there is enlightenment out there for the discerning Gunner!
So it’s good to know that not everyone is taken in by the likes of ESPN, MOTD, SKY and talkSPORT along with all those REACH PLC publications .
Well said Nitram. Couldn’t agree more.
LeMmy/Mikey
Thanks for your kind words.
Terry Flewers is particularly critical of Jammie Carragher and Gary Neville, as well as Talk Sport.
What I like is, like us, the way he doesn’t just say it, but puts up the clear examples. Firstly of the hypocrisy so prevalent in what the thicky twins say. Secondly the endless anti Arsenal agenda of Talksport. The 2 of the biggest culprits we have highlighted on Untold for many many years.
He actually highlighted something similar to what has been alluded to in a more recent article/post here on Untold, which is the laying of the ground by Talksport already in order to discredit anything we may achieve.
@Nitram,
agree 100%
Better said then I would have.