Arsenal cheating allegations are a way of covering up the failure to deal with ManC

 

 

• What else can we say except, “look at the table”?

By Tony Attwood

The most damning indictment on the state of English football right now is that fans, managers and media are pursuing a narrative that says Arsenal are bending the rules of football in every match they play, but referees are ignoring this.  Of course Arsenal are not the first team to suffer this sort of narrative  – it occurred when Manchester City were charged in 2023 with breaking financial fair play rules between 2009 and 2018, although there we have 115 charges against them, with no sign of a result.

But those charges against ManC seem to have embarrassed a lot of football journalists, so what better way of distracting from the fact that the authorities have each failed to deal with the ManC cases, than to distract everyone by asserting that Arsenal are cheating in every match they play?

So that’s the game.  No mention of the ManC financial charges; instead, let’s get worked up about Arsenal.   No worries that Arsenal’s “crimes” are hard to define; let’s just say that they cheat.

Arsenal have now scored 19 times from set pieces in 29 league games this season, and that seems to be upsetting people.  Arsenal have also introduced a new technique for handling corners, but innovation has been at the heart of football since it started.  There’s no rule being broken.

But we are in a world in which one club has been charged with 115 offences, and another has been charged with none.   But the media claim Arsenal are guilty of, well, something or other, which is not properly defined.

Meanwhile ManC have been charged with the most serious contraventions of the rules ever seen in terms of football and nothing seems to be happening.   The worst accusation against Arsenal is as ESPN has put it, “Arsenal accused of taking advantage of corner rule confusion.”  Although they don’t define what the “confusion” about the rules actually is.

It seems pathetic: if there is confusion about what is and what is not allowed, then Fifa can change the rules.  But really, have we had 100+ years where nobody noticed before that there is confusion?   Besides, as things stand, everyone can exploit the “confusion,” if it exists.

And there we see the argument: Arsenal are immoral, exploiting an oddity in the rule that no one else exploits because they are all too gentlemanly.  (Really????)   And this is in a league in which Referee Peter Banks sees over 70% of his matches as home wins, while Referee Jarred Gillett sees 59% of his games as away games, and none of the media ever even notice!!!

So why are so many commentators and fans turning specifically against Arsenal in the way that they have not done in the past with Manchester City and their charges?  Could it be that Arsenal are actually winning?  Could it be that many in the media are indeed biased against Arsenal and are looking to justify that bias by clutching at straws?

For myself,  as a writer and publisher, this story looks very much like one that starts with an informant saying, “Don’t quote me on this, but did you know that ….”

Which is ok, except that such tip-offs are mostly just a bit of vindictiveness.  But the notion that  Arsenal are behaving at free kicks and corners in an illegal way and the refs are demanding rule changes to stop them doing it, all seems a bit bonkers.

Arsenal are not breaking any rules at corners or free kicks.   If they were the refs would long ago have started penalising them.  The fact is howver that by getting journalists to start talking about the issue, the story is created that Arsenal are constantly cheating.   That accusation can only be true if referees are allowing Arsenal to cheat, since cheating means breaking a rule.   So the questiions now would be

a) Why are PGMO officials allowing Arsenal to get away with this form of cheating?

b) Are we really saying that the rest of the clubs are all super-moral and wouldn’t dream of developing a new tactical system, because it doesn’t really seem fair to other teams?

Point a) would seem odd because we’ve never seen PGMO people let Arsenal get away with anything before.  And point b) seems odd because most clubs exploit any benefit they can find to hoist themselves up the league.

No, Arsenal have found a good tactic, and fans of other clubs and some media writers like knocking Arsenal.  That’s the story, and really, it’s not much of a story, is it?