- Arsenal and ManC prepare for the opener, and who has been signing whom
- The future of football has never been more uncertain. So what happens now?
By Tony Attwood
It amazes me how the FA brazen things out, as with their match a week before the season starts and calling it the Community Shield, after they were banned from calling it the Charity Shield, on the grounds that they have failed to keep proper records of which charities actually got any money from the game.
But still, there we are, the FA are the gods of football and they can and will say and do as they wish. (But that doesn’t stop me complaining about them).
So what of the Arsenal team?
The Standard tells us Jurrien Timber and William Saliba both remain unavailable due to injury, so Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera are in line to start on the right of defence, alongside Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori. But I think we guessed that.
So they give us
Raya;
White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Guimaraes, Lewis-Skelly;
Dowman, Odegaard, Tzolis;
Havertz
But the Mirror chose instead to give us a taste of where they are taking their football commentary this season with the headline “Seven players will miss Arsenal vs Man City Community Shield final” which really ins’t very helpful at all. And it is hardly a “final” since it is the only game for the Shield.
What also does annoy me is the media that chooses to tell me how I am thinking, as with the Metro headline
“Arsenal fans will be eager to get a closer look at their two new recruits in Bruno Guimaraes and Christos Tzolis ahead of their defence of their crown.”
No I am interested in how Arteta is making this team work as a unit – because that was the secret to winning the league last season and coming runners up in the Champions League.
And although I like a good laugh on occasion, I am not amused when, on their page concerning today’s game, the Metro have “Predicted Arsenal starting XI, To face Paris Saint-Germain” which is actually not very much help since that is not who we are playing today. Seemingly no one in the paper noticed, although they might do now we have mentioned it.
The question is, how much are these writers and editors and all the rest of the crew paid to produce this stuff?
The Guardian says, “Community Shield offers insight into Arsenal’s desire and Maresca’s Manchester City impact,” but they fail to give us a predicted team. So we are starting to ask, is this what football journalism has come to? Last year’s team or no team at all???
The Facebook site Daily Sports Match came to our rescue in the end and offered
Raya
White Masquera Magalhes Calafiori
Guimares Odegaard Rice
Saka Jesus Martinelli
The Standard doesn’t have a line-up, but it does tell us the negative: “Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Martin Zubimendi are all set to return to the squad, though they are unlikely to start”. I’ve given you the link in case you think that sort of writing is helpful, and you can read the whole piece. Maybe you can find more in it than I can.
Football London, however, are trying a new approach in which they don’t actually tell us their idea of the players who are going to start the game, but instead give us lists of players intermixed with adverts, leaving us unclear if they have any idea of the team or not.
The fact is that the gap between the summer international matches and this one has not been big enough and we are all being short changed, with clubs and players forgetting that it is us, the supporters who help pay their wages, and the club and players together should put playing the matches that supporters can go and watch first, and making sure they have the first team, fit and well for such games.
Yes, it is fine to see some reserves play, but not at the prices we are being charged to get a ticket.
