By Tony Attwood
In its previews of the match, the media couldn’t find much to worry about in terms of playing Portsmouth away, and so it turned out to be. But given that there were no thoughts of an Arsenal defeat, the media naturally reverted to the old tactic of attacking Arsenal players.
In this case the opted for calling Gabriel Martinelli “public enemy No 1”. He isn’t of course, such an accolade would go to mass murderers, but such reality has never been the concern of the media. And as we know, Liverpool fans know and Gary Neville knows, Liverpool they can rely on the media to boost any cause they dream up. Fortunately, Martinelli is made of stronger stuff and chose this moment to deliver his first hat‑trick for the first team. A good response I thought.
Corners continue to be one of Arsenal’s favourite manoeuvres, along with other set pieces – indeed, it appears from the stats that Arsenal have scored 17 goals from set pieces this season. The media have noticed and started to say “one wonders where they would be without them,” but of course the answer is simple – with this array of talent Arsenal would find another tactic with which to pull teams apart and knock in the goals.
In fact Arsenal have scored 40 goals this season – and that is not just the second highest in the league, it is also 25% more than the media’s favourite Liverpool.
What I particularly liked, however, were the chants about Sky Sprouts and Nevil, who called Martinelli “an idiot.” Such crass generalisations are of course, what the media is made of and what journalists live on, and it is great to see Arsenal players recognising the football media for what it is.
We might also take note of the continuing superb possession figures – and yes, I know we were playing a second-tier team from the lower reaches, but even so, 63% is still good for possession, as indeed was the performance of Nwaneri, who we haven’t seen much in a while.
So Arsenal are, rather obviously, still top of the Premier League and Portsmouth are only just above the relegation spots in the Championship, so a win is what we might expect, except that the media were trying to convince us this game could result in an upset.
In such circumstances, the media, of course, have no praise. “Arsenal should have been out of sight by half-time,” says the Guardian, claiming that Martinelli wasted a couple of excellent chances. And yes, of course, that is right, that we should not be carried away by any of this. That was a fact emphasised by the fact that Chelsea, who we play next, beat Charlton 5-1, also away from home. Although in that regard, we might perhaps note that Charlton have only won one game in their last 12. That was their eighth defeat in the last dozen games and the second one in which the opposition knocked in five, so once again the gap between the top two leagues is noted.
But then for Chelsea, this was their first win in six games and just their third in 12, and we’ll be taking a further look at this form in the next couple of days.
And indeed, I suspect Martinelli could well start in the next game against Chelsea to give Leandro Trossard a bit of a rest, and as a challenge to Martinelli to do what he just did, two matches running. And I do think in the days of mega costs for any player of even half decent qualities, Martinelli, who cost Arsenal £6m, has been an absolute bargain.
Meanwhile, of course, the transfer window has creaked open (it always creaks open in order to differentiate its end when it slams shut) and Arsenal have been involved in one arrangement so far with the men’s team. That is Louie Copley. He has signed a professional contract and now goes on loan to Crawley Town of League Two. where they are 21st out of 24. A note in the media says that young Louie “aims to emulate Declan Rice,” which by and large seems to be no bad thing.
More thoughts soon.
Neville branding Martinelli an idiot for trying to move an injured player from the pitch in a league where timewasting is prevalent is a bit rich coming from a bloke who spent most of his career actually trying to injure players!
Anyway, I took a bit of stick in the pub from Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U fans. (Although born and brought up in North London, I now live in Warwickshire, so I can’t explain that anomoly since none of them were Londoners, Scousers or Mancs!!)
Anyway, their argument was that we scored from corners again as strongly inferring it was a bad thing. I asked what they’d be saying if we were the worst team in the league for scoring from corners. Obviously the conclusion was that we’d get criticised whatever happened. (Apparently, the media just set the agenda and fans of other clubs just join in.) I even had one of the Chelsea fans criticising us for being so dirty…..until I pointed out the fouls and cards difference between the two clubs! Some people just seem to be oblivious to facts, much prefering to indulge in parroting the rhetoric! I can’t imagine that’s news to any of you though!