By Tony Attwood
- There are signs that Arsenal are winning the battle against the eternally negative media
- The run of wins and run of defeats against Manchester C
- How the media are setting Arsenal up for a disaster?
Today, possibly for the first time, or at least one of the first times, a few journals are devoting time to reviewing the work of the referee for this weekend’s big match. The approach of the articles is pretty much standard – that referees are doing a great job, that they know how to control the managers and the players, and everything is working well. Nothing new to see. No need for a fuss.
Which is ok if that is what you want to read, but it can become a problem when we get to articles such as that recently run by Sky, which says Arsenal’s attacking issues remain a big problem
That headline appeared on Sky’s website recently, so I thought I would offer their journalists, who are undoubtedly doing a valiant job trying to follow the dictates of Sky’s anti-Arsenal editorial policy, while making some sort of sense of what they write. And here it is: a league table in the order, not of points gained but of goals scored.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Manchester City | 31 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 63 | 28 | 35 | 64 |
| 1 | Arsenal | 32 | 21 | 7 | 4 | 62 | 24 | 38 | 70 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 33 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 58 | 45 | 13 | 58 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 33 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 53 | 42 | 11 | 48 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 32 | 15 | 7 | 10 | 52 | 42 | 10 | 52 |
| 8 | AFC Bournemouth | 33 | 11 | 15 | 7 | 50 | 50 | 0 | 48 |
| 7 | Brentford | 33 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 48 | 44 | 4 | 48 |
Now, what you might notice there is that not only are Arsenal just one goal behind Manchester City, (who are currently having a big luv-in with the football media), but also when we look at the top six clubs in terms of goals, Arsenal have scored 14 more than the sixth top-scoring club, which has played one more game.
While of course, Arsenal also have the best defence in the league.
It is a detail, I know, and not that important really, but it is when details like that spring up all the time, one begins to appreciate the extraordinary pressure Arsenal, the players and management team are under from the media. It is not so much that the media say things that are wrong (although they do often do that) but rather that they are misleading.
And so we might move on to asking….
Which club has the fewest yellow cards this season? Arsenal. (Tottenham have the most with just on double Arsenal’s number). And just in case you were remembering that rush of red cards Arsenal got last season, Arsenal have had none this campaign.
And to add a little point of detail, last season the media went utterly beserk because Arsenal got six red cards, including that one when Declan Rice kicked the ball back two yards to the spot where a foul was committed, and got sent off for that. This season, with the season not completed of course, Arsenal have not only the lowest number of yellow cards but also the lowest number of red cards (zero).
We might compare that total of reds with seven for Chelsea – more than Arsenal got last season, when the media was calling Arsenal an utter disgrace and the dirtiest team ever to set foot on a football pitch (or something like that), whle Chelsea still have five more games to get even more players sent off. But strangely, while Arsenal’s total of reds last season was headline news, no one mentions Chelsea’s red total very much. Could there be some sort of bias here?
And that is not it. Maybe we should ask, do Arsenal foul more than other teams? No, they are 16th in the fouling table, committing 21% fewer fouls than the team with the most fouls committed.
So are Arsenal putting in tackles all day long, and thus slowing the game down? No, Arsenal are pretty much mid-table for tackles. Tottenham for example, commit 16% more tackles than Arsenal in an average game.
So where does all this “Boring Boring Arsenal” stuff come from? Well, because of the quality of their defence, Arsenal have the fourth-highest possession rate in the league. And although we should note that possession by itself is not generally a good thing unless it leads to a club being at the top of the league. I’ll let you go and look that one up.
Anyway, the team…;.
The Standard go with
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Zubimendi, Rice; Madueke,
Eze, Martinelli; Havertz
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Rice; Zubimendi, Eze,
Madueke, Gyokeres Trossard
And the Manchester Evening News has
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Zubimendi, Rice; Madueke,
Eze, Trossard;
Gyokeres.
So there we are. We all know what we are hoping for.
.
.
Tony, let us hope that Anthony Taylor has not read your reminder about zero red cards this season.
Love the attacking lineup!
Got precious little from Taylor – as we predicted. I fail to accept how a Mancunian has been allocated today’s match.
Performance much improved . Unlucky to lose, every bit as good as MC and created more scoring chances, hit post twice. Odegaard and Havertz at the end could / should have scored.
Taylor tilted the game just enough to make the difference, as many of us expected – not as blatant as Oliver.
Odegaard was good, but less influential in later stages, probably through lack of fitness.
All still to play for. COYG
The ‘b’ word is back, of course, even though Arsenal a) were not tipped by most people to win the title and b) were not expected to win today…
A one-goal defeat is no disaster, as it means our goal difference is still superior for one more match (as surely Man City win at Burnley on Wednesday’s ‘game in hand’); besides, after that, we have 2 home games against Newcastle and Fulham before City play in the League again at Everton on 4th May. In short, nothing has really changed, we were able to win the title even if we lost at City before this match, and that is still the case now.
Oh, and by the way, Atletico Madrid ‘bottled’ the Copa del Rey final on penalties to Real Sociedad last night…
Very good performance from our lads today, Taylor not as vindictive as he could have been, for example I am certain that Gabriel’s head clash with Harland would have seen red had Oliver been in charge.
I think we had slightly more and better chances, I do not remember Raya having any saves to make. Once again our finishing could/should have been better plus the couple of near misses which hit the post.
If we ultimately finish 2nd for the fourth time in a row and go no further in the Champions League I will still regard the season as a success. Unfortunately we will receive endless stick from the media and rival fans for being ‘ failures’ and ‘bottlers’ plus of course endless calls for Arteta to be replaced immediately.
Trophies are great but you can still be runners up and be regarded as having a fantastic season.
Lets give the team 150% support till the last minute of the last game, but however the season finishes I am proud to be a supporter of the Mighty Arsenal.
Up the Arsenal, COYG.
Taylor did all he could with the small calls he had to make. A little nudge from an Arsenal player would result in a foul, not when a Mancity player made the same foul. The no fouls given for fouls on Havertz when he could have been through on goal was a bigger call where he gave his home town the advantage. A late foul on Hincapie just outside the area he also let go…. It was a very professional tilting performance from the ref from Manchester.
I totally agree with Walter here.
When we play Manchester City away what what do we get ? A neutral referee?No not at all. A Manchester referee. Well what a surprise. A Manchester referee. Anthony Taylor. It’s like playing against 12 men. The PGMOL like the Premier league is not fit for its purpose. No wonder we have a monopoly with the same North West team winning 8 out of 10 years.
Can you believe that Man. City only committed 5 fouls in the game?
I can’t.
Pitchtilting in plain sight.
Possibly, the fact that Haaland started the tussle with Gabriel and would have also had to be sent off is the reason why Taylor didn’t produce the red card.
In addition to points made above by others, I saw him chatting and smilìng with MC playèrs on aa few separate occasiions.
As predicted, but still disgusting.
Walter and John L make good points. Despite what the referee subtly and not so subtly let them get away with I thought Arsenal had the better of the play and chances. In one sequence, two great saves from Donnaruma and one off the post. Within seconds. And for the 2nd goal, Haaland was holding and pulling Gabriel’s arm. A very good, tough match that could have easily gone the other way.
Arsenal play so much better with an attacking side and plan. Best performance in some time.
AND IT’S NOT OVER! COYG!