- I can’t remember when I have seen a worse load of tripe on a pitch than this
- Now the ManC issues have been revealed does that mean the PL is not fixed any more?
By Tony Attwood
Sometimes newspaper headlines do tell a bit of a story. There’s “Man Utd make worst start in 40 years after being hauled back by 10-man Spurs” and “Guimaraes looks a £75m bargain as ‘super sub’ makes difference” both from the Telegraph.
The Guardian is more sombre with “Bruno Guimarães completes Arsenal comeback to end Leeds’ unbeaten run”
The Mail however didn’t think much of Arsenal, relegating their report way down the page, and even when you get there it is as expected: Bruno Guimaraes rescues Arsenal off the bench to earn an unconvincing 2-1 win over Leeds – but alarm bells should be ringing for Mikel Arteta after another pedestrian display,
I can’t be bothered to look it up, it but when last did a team other than Arsenal, sitting second in the league after six games, equal on points with the team in first position, having won five out of six, endlessly and constantly get written up as “unconvincing?” I imagine that if the Mail had to report on Arsenal last season even now they would call Arsenal “unconvincing champions”.
And just to show it is not the sub-editor who is anti-Arsenal, the report starts “Arsenal’s title defence might soon be spared some jeopardy by events elsewhere, but the Premier League is no place for those who would rather jog to the line than sprint.” I rarely swear at journalists, but this time I made an exception. They really are a bunch of turnips.
But of course this is Arsenal and the Mail, but even elsewhere the main media feature is injuries, and the BBC runs the headline on its site: “Hincapie injury adds to Arsenal issues after Guimaraes rescue act.”
Of course it is traditional at this point to note that Manchester City have a game in hand, but then if one does that I guess one also has to note that the same club has something like 114 enquiries into their past behaviour in hand. But curiously no one seems to want to do that any more. It’s old news…. so here’s the table…
|
Club
|
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
5
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
13
|
5
|
8
|
15
|
| 2 |
|
6
|
5
|
0
|
1
|
10
|
5
|
5
|
15
|
| 3 |
|
6
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
18
|
5
|
13
|
13
|
| 4 |
|
6
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
12
|
6
|
6
|
10
|
| 5 |
|
6
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
15
|
13
|
2
|
10
|
| 18 |
|
6
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
9
|
-6
|
3
|
*All details concerning Manchester City are pending an appeal concerning 115 matches. But is there anything more to say about the Mancs? given that reports suggest that a substantial number of their supporters are now actually celebrating the fact that they cheated their way to a whole series of trophies? There are pictures on ESPN
And indeed ESPN do raise an interesting point on their website with the headline We don’t get Man City guilty verdict without hacker Rui Pinto, but it doesn’t make him a hero
And I am not sure of that. People who reveal crimes and then force the indolent, biased authorities and their newspaper allies to act are, for me, heroes, most especially if they don’t hurt anyone else along the way. And I am not at all sure that Pinto did hurt anyone – but without him Manc would be pushing along, fixing every match they played in and the media would be celebrating their every move.
Let me try it another way. Supposing there are a bunch of crooks who have stolen stuff from a very rich person’s house. They store the stolen property in a garage, and Pinto found out where that was and broke into it to reveal the stolen goods. Yep, for me he would still be a hero. I guess it is just different ways of seeing the world, and ESPN don’t like anyone revealing the law has been broken. On the other hand I welcome the fact we know about ManC’s crimes no matter how we found out.
Meanwhile at the Tottenham pre-match media gathering the Tottenham press officer announced rather imperviously that no questions about Man City would be accepted. So the journalists asked their manager about what it was like being a manager during the Calciopoli scandal.
De Zerbi gave an answer which I personally found incoherent but in essence said that he didn’t remember much because, “When you are a player, you don’t think too much and when you are a coach, the same because the focus is on your player and especially now because we are at the bottom of the table.” So no point doing a press briefing then.
But I must say I think that is illuminating as it explains Tottenham’s position in the league. As he also said later, “”I have no time to think”.
Now as you might have picked up, beside Untold Arsenal I run a website about my favourite songwriter and performer, Bob Dylan, and so I happen to know a little about that phrase “no time to think”. You don’t have to listen, especially as it is eight minutes long, but here it is in case you enjoy Bob’s work as much as I do.
the magician is quicker and his game is much thicker
than blood and blacker than ink
and there’s no time to think
