By Sir Hardly Anyone
In the previous article the point was made that the Guardian report of yesterday’s game was ludicrously negative. But of course it is not just them that takes this approach to Arsenal.
On Match of the Day Gary Lineker was critical of Arsenal players in the match against Liverpool. Is that news? Well of course I don’t know what sort of news world you live in, but it wasn’t news for me. That’s what he does. That’s what he always does. At every opportunity. Over and over and over again.
For me it makes rather boring TV, but obviously some people like it, because they keep watching it and in an indirect way, as a payer of the BBC licence fee, I pay part of his salary. I don’t like doing that, but I have no choice. In the UK we have to pay the licence fee if we want to have a TV.
But anyway, there it is, same as usual. Lineker knocks Arsenal. So what then is the point of Red London running the headline, “‘Poor again’ – Gary Lineker slams this Arsenal star in 3-1 defeat to Liverpool”?
Now obviously some people want to read this, otherwise the blog wouldn’t run it but I wonder what the point was of pointing out that Lineker was at it again.
Of course that blog was not alone. Just Arsenal News ran, “Five huge mistakes that Unai Emery made against Liverpool”. That was straight after, “Arsenal player ratings v Liverpool – one player gets 3 and that’s generous” and so that message is clear, we’ve had two weeks of thinking things were going ok, the new signings looked promising and that despite having to integrate them while key players were injured, but in fact we were rubbish all the time.
Read Arsenal went further with, “You idiot” – These Arsenal fans slam player after 3-1 defeat against Liverpool.
And more and more I was thinking, “why publish that?” Is it to make a few quid from getting people to click on the adverts, or because the author really felt it was important to say this.
Now in the latter case, by and large Untold publishes articles that either we think are informative, or are putting forward a point of view that is not heard elsewhere (which is why we are “Untold”) or we find them funny. But why publish a few fans’ comments about a player under the heading “You idiot” – These Arsenal fans slam player after 3-1 defeat against Liverpool. It can only be because of the money or because the writer wants to generate more and more negative thought about Arsenal. And why would anyone want to do that?
I can think of reasons but maybe it is best not to mention them.
Certainly we don’t need the blogs to tell us negative things about Arsenal – the mainstream will do that for us. ESPN was straight in there with, Luiz’s shocker proves it’s the same old calamitous Arsenal.
And it went on and on and on. Luiz’s idiocy makes matters worse at Anfield said David Luiz full of excuses about his woeful performance.
There is very little to break the sheer unadulterated monotony of all this, although I must say the Daily Mirror did have a good try with VAR referees caught ‘having takeaway delivered’ while overseeing football match.
And that really makes my point. That was entertaining. These other articles I list are neither entertaining nor informative nor original. So what is the point?
Well, with Football London at least we know the answer. They aim to run an anti-Arsenal story every half hour, 24 hours a day, in order to gain a monopoly of the AAA audience, so they were at it again with Ex-Spurs man Danny Murphy slams Unai Emery and Arsenal on Match of the Day after Liverpool loss. Mind you at least that had the benefit of making us think once again of why “Match of the Day” insists on having such a mix of people on its panel.
The BBC, much to its shame, has long since been following the anti-Arsenal trend, although at least it has the excuse that by running Arsenal in a negative light on its shows, it increases its audience, since Tottenham, WHU, Chelsea, Stoke and other such clubs have supporters who like seeing Arsenal being knocked. Their headline was ‘Liability Luiz costs otherwise promising Arsenal’
The Mail went slightly off piste for a while late in the night with Arsenal boss Emery facing major defensive headache after admitting Monreal could leave the club which was odd since if Emery doesn’t want Monreal to leave he can always say no.
Oh yes and even though the transfer windows clinked shut a while back, we are still missing out on players, according to CaughtOffside, with Talks in London this week: PSG prepare £100m swoop for Arsenal transfer target to replace Neymar
So it goes on and on. And I am really back to the simple question: what is the point of publishing this? I mean, if you were/are a blogger, knowing all the torrent of negativity that follows each and every Arsenal game, why would you bother to add to the slush? What is the point?
Remember all the stick we used to get for backing Wenger ? Hard to forget I know.
Now here we are, just over a season into the new managers reign, and yet again here WE are trying our best to put our performances into perspective and support our new manager.
I hate the media and there anti Arsenal agenda, but honestly, who can blame them when they get so much mileage out of so many of our fans.
These whingers are pathetic, there is no other word for it.
It been relentless and unnecessarily negative but plays in to the anti wenger mob who after agreeing and encourage by twat like the so call talk shit host have just carried on to the new management it will never stop so all I can say is carry on been a support and getting behind the players and mangerment
That’s both Man Utd and Spurs losing at home,
United to Crystal Palace who went into the game with the most shot shy attack in the premier league.
United themselves only managed a meagre 3 shots on target.
Spurs to Newcastle who apparently were in utter disarray.
Spurs managed and even worse 2 shots on target.
Even pathetic Arsenal managed 3 shots on target.
Neither United or Spurs will get anything like the stick we got from both the media and our own fans for losing away to the European Champions.
Go and read how the Guardian reported Uniteds HOME defeat to Palace.
This is what the match commentator says about Spurs:
“As for Spurs – they are not playing well, are they? It was flat and one-paced out there, even after Eriksen came on. In fact it reminded me of a similar home defeat to West Ham at the back end of last season. Ndombele should add some dynamism when fit again, while they’ll be glad of Dele Alli’s ability to sniff out bits and pieces near the box when he’s fit again. But something isn’t quite right. I wonder whether they can go through yet another season without a proper striking backup/alternative to Kane. On the evidence of these first three weeks, the battle for places three to six could be wide open”.
Compare that to the histrionic way our defeat is reported.
If people are still in denial about how rabidly anti Arsenal the media are compared to other teams then I give up.
Nice one, Nitram 👍👍
Although I’m gutted about our result, Newcastle cheered me up (and Palace!!)
@nitram, remember it’s untold who ran a series of articles by Walter, black sheep and then Tony which to summarize said it’s time to do away with the slogan of support for the club, manager and players. Tony made it clear that when that was set as the site’s motto, it was clearly intended as support for Wenger. What’s worse? Those articles were written when Emery’s team was going through a rough patch. So, I disagree that untold has been a bastion of support for the new guy
Sue
Thanks.
I’m sorry but I think it bears expanding upon.
These are the Guardians observations on Spurs HOME defeat to relegation candidates Newcastle:
“As for Spurs – they are not playing well, are they?”
“It was flat and one-paced out there, even after Eriksen came on.”
“But something isn’t quite right.”
These are a few observations on Arsenals AWAY defeat to European Champions Liverpool:
” “Anfield again proves the mirror that reflects Arsenal’s ugliest failings.”
“Another trip to Anfield, another heavy defeat for Arsenal.”
Now as some have said, by and large the content of the article is not that bad, but it’s all to do with the negativity they want to project upon us.
Lets not forget this about Spurs.
-They haven’t won the title for over 50 years.
-They’ve won 3 cups in the last 35 years (1 FA Cup and 2 League Cups)
We won 3 FA Cups in 4 years over a period that basicly was classed as abject failure !!
Jeez, if we’re failures what on earth are Spurs ?
And lets not forget how over recent years Spurs have become serial bottlers. Is that not an ‘ugly’ failure?
Year after year after year Spurs fail to deliver on any promise they may of showed. Year after year the media continue their Spurs love-in.
Even my Spurs supporting friends are embarrassed with it.
Sue
As for the result, yes disappointing but it was hardly a shock.
The fact is Emery is still trying to get things sorted.
New players not yet up to speed. Injuries.
Overall I thought we did okay and showed promise. Losing at Liverpool isn’t the catastrophe some of the media want to make it out to be.
If we beat Spurs this defeat will just become a dim and distant memory.
If we don’t I dread to think what our wonderful blogosphere will have to say. It wont be pretty that’s for sure.
Nitram.. We’d better win next week! I don’t want any tinkering, messing about, benching our best players.. this is one game we simply have to win! It will be unbearable if we don’t. I really can’t stand Liverpool.. so last night was bad enough, but against them next week will be 10x worse!!
I could do with a laugh, so will check out the headlines tomorrow (regarding the spuds loss) you know the media love them because of Kane.. no doubt they’ll say they played well, but were unlucky 😂😂 Unlucky my a**e!!! Haha!!
All i can say is.. thank you Newcastle!!
Let’s be honest about our performance at Anfield:
1) we created chances, especially in the first half but missed every one…so our great scorers failed to score…shit happens,
2) Luiz really bottled the defensive side of his job, giving away a clear (NOT soft) penalty and getting caught wrong-footed by Salah 40 metres away from goal and not one of our defenders properly covered for his mistake, a day he’ll be eager to forget,
3) Torreira proved that he should be a starter and Ceballos proved that he has work to do to adapt to a difficult league while Pepe showed why we paid so much for him, and Gunedozi also shows why emery has faith in him ,
4) we still have Holding, Bellerin and Mavropanos and Ozil to reintegrate into the squad, any of whom can make a significant difference,
5) Emery is still playing mix and match but tactically he has the right idea and had our attackers been marginally more clinical and precise, it would have been a different afternoon.
4)
We’ve published over 9000 articles on this site and what with me getting older and the memory not being so good as it was, I can’t remember all of them. But I must admit I don’t recall Walter, Blacksheep and myself arguing we should do away with the banner slogan that has been at the top of the Untold page since its inception. I do remember adding, in a moment of anger, a phrase along the lines of “but not the owner” to the banner, but I then took it down after a day’s reflection, and we were back to the banner as it has been pretty much from the start.
Of course the slogan was set up with Mr Wenger in mind as the manager since, well, he was the manager, so of course it was him. But the club and the team were part of the slogan from the start. Mr Wenger was a key figure in the support because I felt (and I think my friends felt, but they can speak for themselves) that he was being hard done by in the press, and his contribution needed to be more recognised. There may well be the occasional piece by myself in which I wavered, but I suspect not as much as you suggest. I’d like to see the articles to which you are referring – can you give examples.
It’s quite sad really that our so called fans still fail to comprehend the media agenda against us , and still remain gullible to their manipulations. Sad for them !
I really wanted to hear Glen Hoddle try to explain the Spuds failing last night , till I realised that I did not care a shit for them or for him.
I just had the cursory and occasional glance at the tv (with the sound off, of course!) to see them shooting themselves in the foot , but was taken aback to see 5 minutes added for ???? . Must have missed some major injury then ?
Same with the Man Utd game. I think it must be getting tough for Fergie’s former fledglings to stay calm and united behind the present manager.And players who seem hell bent in messing up gifted penalties .
Just a simple off the cuff question . Who is the most successful English club manager so far of all of Fergie’s former Man Utd players ?
Its probably not Bryan Robson ,Mark Hughes , Mike Phelan ,Steve Bruce,Henning Berg , Paul Ince, Gordon Strachan, Roy Keane ,Gary Neville , so which probably only leaves Ole Gunnar Solskjær .
Do they circle the wagons , or ………
Looking back at the game in Anfield, Arsenal could have done better. The primary failing was the playing of the ball in our defensive third, allowing the press to get the better of our forward momentum. Once we were moving out of our defence, we had good control & possession. We missed our initial chances and allowed Liverpool to gain confidence.
The Luiz gift of a penalty also gifted Salah the room for the third goal.
Those two goals were the difference in the result. The missed lob & the poor attempt at finishing also made a difference. A little tweak in the movement of the ball from defence would have made all the difference. In the overall picture, I think Arsenal were the better team even though the result is damning.
Lily
Ok, as Tony says show us.
You will excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.
I wonder if it is now time for a clarification from the Leagues as to under which circumstances the pulling of a player’s shirt should result in a freekick/penalty.
I only have the h9ghlightd on arsenal.com to go by, but it seems to me that the tug on the short did not impede Salah in any way, but perhaps assisted him to pull him around to put himself in a better position to score.
We see shirt pulling the whole time, so why is it not punished every time?
Did I not see someone guendouzi’s shirt was pulled by a Liverpool player in the led up to their first goal, the shirt pull, possibly, preventing him from jumping up with Matip?
Is it too much to expect consistency?? I suppose, yes.
Lily
Good job I’m not holding my breath.
Like so many who come here making claims that cannot be substantiated, when challenged you just disappear.
I’ve no doubt like them when it suits you’ll be back again with your 2 lines of ill informed wisdom.