Has there ever been a footballing moment like this?

 

 

• Why is no one asking why, in football, some things are debated and others not?
• The first top of the league club to have fans demanding the manager’s sacking

By Tony Attwood

And seriously, I wonder: have we ever had a situation before where a club is in the semi-finals of the Champions League, plus six points and three goals clear at the top of the Premier League, been hammered in virtually every sentence on TV, radio and in the media, as Arsenal are?

I suspect not; at least I certainly can’t remember such a time in my life of watching Arsenal (which goes back many, many, many a long year), and yet here it is in publication after publication, broadcast after broadcast.  Arsenal are utter rubbish, and oh, well, not quite sure how, but yes, they are in the semi-finals of the Chjamps League and top of the best league in the world.

And this positioning is not an oddity, for it is not as if Arsenal has just risen up from mid-table or by some special dispensation, been plonked into the semi-finals.   Last year.  I know, Arsenal didn’t win the Champions League, but I seem to recall they only lost something like three games in 14 in that competition (I haven’t checked), which isn’t that bad.

Plus, what is certainly true is that Arsenal have come second in the League for the last three years.   

Now I do recall that for years in the Wenger era, people threw at this site the phrase “fourth is not a trophy”, although I can’t remember anyone actually claiming that it was.   I guess the phrase soon will be “runners-up is not a trophy”, and somehow that will satisfy the columnists and bloggers and make them feel good.

But the simple reality is that Arsenal are in the semi-finals of a competition for the best clubs in Europe, and are six points clear at the top of the league, has won more league matches than anyone else, has lost fewer league matches than anyone else, has conceded fewer goals than anyone else, has a better goal difference than anyone else, and has scored just one goal fewer than anyone else.   And from that reality comes the simple question: has any club ever been attacked so constantly by the media for failing on all fronts, in the way that Arsenal are now being attacked on a daily basis, while having a record like that?

My answer is I doubt it.   But I would go further and ask, “What is the effect of this constant, unending and all-consuming attack on the club?

In fact there are three immediate consequences I can think of, and the interesting point is that only one of these three has to be something that is actually happening for Arsenal to be affected negatively

First, it can give Arsenal players the jitters.

Second, if there are any referees out there who are biased against Arsenal, they will be encouraged to extend that bias a little further

Third, it will encourage the nay-sayers who write blogs and newspaper columns and spout their negativity on the airwaves so forcibly to redouble their efforts and become ever more critical.

But…. and on this one point I am not so sure, but I am hopeful, it might have a positive effect on Arsenal and its players, and even encourage a few supporters to be ever noisier in favour of the club.

We are being told that Arsenal are useless, awful, dispirited, lucky and basically rubbish.   And yet here we havea club that is in the semi-final of the Champions League and six points clear at the top of the Premier League, and it is just possible that Arteta and his players might start thinking, “hang on a minute… we are apparently useless on all fronts and yet we are the best team in the Premier League and one of the four best teams in Europe…

“So if we just keep calm and keep on playing as we are, we could actually win one or both of those competitions.    What’s more, having won one, those who have stayed with us, who truly support the club and its players, and who don’t go around criticising us at every available turn, will be having a brilliant time.

“OK, it is clear that in such a situation the media will call us Lucky Arsenal, but that is hardly new.  They were doing that in the 1930s when Arsenal were ruled by Chapman, and in the Unbeaten Season, so why not do it again now?   After all, the one thing we know about journalists and their editors is that they are nothing if not a bunch of copycat negativists who only later change their copy to say, actually, they thought Arsenal would do it all along.

And in contemplating such matters, we might turn our thoughts back to the very start of Arsenal’s success under Chapman.   Today, many fans seem to assume that the previous manager of the club was sacked, and the next thing we knew was that Chapman was winning everything.   But in fact, in the four seasons under the guidance of Chapman before he won the league with the club, Arsenal came 11th, 10th, 9th and 14th in the First Division, and the media were suggesting Arsenal were not going to win anything because they were inherently rubbish, Chapman wasn’t any good, and London teams never won anything because the players spent all night in the West End.

They then won the league in four of the next five seasons.

The media has its story and it has been running it for years.   My view is, “so what?”   They have been wrong multiple times before and will be wrong multiple times again simply because they are ruled by an unchanging “knock Arsenal” agenda.  There is no need for us to be sucked into such mindless gibberish and utter tripe.