The light at the end of the Arsenal tunnel is just the express train heading right at Tottenham

 

• The light at the end of the Arsenal tunnel is just the express train heading right at us
• Why is there no asterisk whenever a league table is published?

By Tomy Attwood, with a grin despite yesterday

If you are a regular reader of my ramblings, you will know that I ceaselessly, endlessly, and then some, criticise the media for the way they report on Arsenal.     And of late, I’ve been criticising some of our fans who are joining the media’s side of the equation (I can’t call it a debate, because name-calling and accusation-making are not debating points).

But now at last I am delighted to say more and more fans are fighting back – turning away from the appalling anti-Arsenal media and indeed those who proclaim themselves to be Arsenal fans but spend most of their time moaning and complaining about Arslena.

I was particularly taken today by a piece from Scarlet Katz Roberts, which the BBC published in its Fans Voice section back in February.  I  know I am late in coming to it, but that often happens.  Events overtake me, and I have been living in a strange fantasy land in which I somehow imagine that fans will eventually turn on the media and say, “Stop this anti-Arsenal approach now,” and they will listen.   Of course, they don’t, but maybe that article from a couple of months back still has a chance to make an impact.

The piece begins, “Arsenal as a club and a fanbase have been at the sharp end of criticism from some media outlets who tell us we want it too much, subs shouldn’t be running onto the pitch after a League Cup semi-final victory! Why is Arteta so animated on the sidelines? He must be a fraud. Why is Odegaard taking a photo of the team photographer? Etc etc.”

Now what I particularly liked about the article was that it didn’t just ask the questions, it also answered them by saying…

“To those who might describe Arsenal fans as ‘insufferable’, I would say 1) Maybe you’re right and 2) So what?”

I do write about the way Arsenal and Arsenal fans are ceaselessly criticised by the media because when I started doing that, I was pretty much on my own.   Now I find that others agree.  Scarlet Katz Roberts writes about the “celebration police are joined by the decorum police, because Arsenal fans are annoying.”

And as Scarlet Katz says, “whoever thought it was going to be pretty to watch a fanbase who have just missed out on the title three years in a row, after a period of ridicule that has stretched 20 odd years, is absolutely deluded.”

I guess I am lucky myself because as a) an old man and b) a guy who, if he is known to anyone for anything, is known because of a string of letters I am entitled to put after my name, and yet who can scream and shout with delight as much as anyone when Arsenal do something wonderful.

And when not screaming and shouting, I am happy to reflect on the table below.    And yes of course, I would be happier still if in the “Arsenal today” line it read 22 wins and 73 points, but I’ve been supporting this club for multiple decades, and shit happens.  I have grown up enough to know that.   I would love it if it only happened to ManC and the rest and not to “my team”, but that is not how it goes.     

 

Pos	Date	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal Today	32	21	7	4	62	24	38	70
2	Arsenal  a year ago	32	17	12	3	57	27	30	63

 

For various reasons, associated with where I was brought up in the 1950s, and the club my father and grandfather supported, and so the club I was taken to as a child, I support Arsenal.   And now, with my parents sadly passed away, part of that support is an emotional attachment to my origins.

So I don’t go around knocking Arsenal because the team didn’t beat Bournemouth.   And I don’t start saying we are going to lose it and come second again, any more than I demand that Arteta should go.  Of course not – he’s a lot better than the last manager we had, and as the eternal 

I am not quite sure of the numbers, but I think seven PL clubs have changed managers this season, and some of them have changed managers several times.   And the club that is top of the league is the club that hasn’t done that.

And yet there are people out there saying we should change the manager!   And the worst of it is that because the media will always boost such nonsense, and there is just a chance that Arteta might say, “Fk this for a laugh” and leave for a more pleasant, less infested environment.    And then, like Totteringham, we’d end up with someone not just worse, but far, far, far worse.

That light at the end of the tunnel is waved by journalists, tempting the club into the wrong move.  Just remember that.

Premier League table as it stands now