Chelsea v Arsenal. The team, the media game, and the game on the pitch

Besides which the Chelsea team for the cup game was not much like the team we are likely to see this evening.   And at least for everyone who can’t get to the game, it is on Sky.  The Evening Standard newspaper predicts a draw.

 The Metro gives us a team suggestion of

Raya

White Timber Gabriel Lewis-Skelly

Zubimendi Odegaard Zubimendi  Rice

Saka Gyokeres Matinelli

But most commentators also throw in the thought that Kai Havertz could get an involvement in the game, although of course, the last thing Arsenal need is to have a player on the pitch whom the opposition can target in terms of kicks and fouls, knowing full well that the ref will simply tell the player to get up and get on with it, until eventually he is injured again.

Meanwhile, the issue of Viktor Gyokeres is still buzzing around the media as the journalists feel it is an easy way to knock Arsenal (£64 million for a striker who doesn’t score).  But that just shows how much time some of these journos spend in the bar rather than actually watching the game.   In this case, watching how Gyokeres, like Saka, attracts players to him, leaving more space for both wingers to get in and score.   Put two men on Gyokeres, two men on Saka, and then, oh look, Martinelli is free to get the ball, run at goal and leave the defence running around in panic.  I quite like that approach.

So the media can go on and on saying Arsenal made a blunder with this transfer of a centre forward that everyone told the club it needed.   Meanwhile more and more the defenders are told earnestly by their managers to continue to mark Gyokeres, and stay with him no matter what, thus giving ever more space to Arsenal wingers to score.

And of course, one of the main tenets of media scribbling is to be at one with the rest of the sports scribblers.   So they go on and on, pumping out the line that Arsenal’s centre forward is hopeless, while ignoring the fact that Arsenal are the second-highest scoring team in the league and the club which has the best goal difference in the league.

How do they explain that?   Well, actually, they don’t because, of course, seen in those terms, there is no explanation.   But all the media say the same thing, so, they argue that they must be right and the manager is stupid.

Thus, today we have the quote that, “He managed just eight touches of the ball in Arsenal’s recent goalless draw with Liverpool.”  Which suggests Arteta is a useless manager.   So useless that Arsenal have come runners-up three times running.  But Arteta is no idiot, and he knows where and when the team’s tactics work.   Just watch the corner routine.  Time and again, we see the same runs, and time and again, the defences screw up.  Does the manager who can do that have a blind spot for one player?  It seems unlikely, especially as we are the second-highest scoring team in the league.   

We can believe who we want: the manager of the club top of the league, or a journalist who has never managed a club in his life.  Or worse, one who has been a complete failure.  

Moving onto Chelsea, there is a rather odd tale doing the rounds that one of the reasons why their last boss fell out with the rest of the club was that he didn’t take notice of the medical advice he had on players who were coming back from injury.

And this is something the media don’t normally bother about much, since they just normally go ahead with their own predictions.

But while SportsMole suggest that “Off-field and on-field chaos has been the theme for Chelsea” when we find them talking of Arsenal we find them chattering about a “long-awaited League Cup crown”, which I am not quite sure I recognise.   “Long-awaited?”  Yet they do have the grace to recognise that, “For all of Chelsea’s attacking exploits at home, Arsenal are now on a terrific 13-game scoring streak on the road.”

The Mole concludes that the Arsenal team will be the same as that provided by the Standard above.

There is no real recognition that Arsenal will play the third of four consecutive away fixtures against Forest on Saturday evening, with a different team again, especially as there is another away game against Inter on 20 January – but then I suppose these details and the main thing the media want to focus on is today’s problems (real or imaginary).

The conclusion from the Mole is that “Arsenal’s draw at Chelsea several weeks ago was a case of two points lost, but the Gunners should happily accept a stalemate in Wednesday’s first leg.”   And I think we could all be delighted to see the return of Havertz, even as a late sub, and a decent win at the Arsenal ground in the return game.