The ten craziest things the media have said about Arsenal in last 48 hours

 

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By Sir Hardly Anyone.

Beware: your mind is being played with.

The aim of many blogs and newspapers is simple: to generate Arsenal stories that cost nothing to research or create, but which get readers.  And the simplest way to achieve this aim is to focus totally on trivia, doing it so often that the impression is given that the trivia is actually news.

When this approach is undertaken by just one or two media “outlets” they look foolish.  But when hundreds of them are doing it, and some are doing it up to 40 times a day, that the mindless trivia becomes the news, simply because it dominates the blogs and newspapers.

The outcome is that casual readers can be convinced this is actually the news, thus allowing journalists to create stories without even getting out of bed – while at the same time they are able to manipulate the agenda to make it ever cheaper to produce.

This process has removed all real news and instead replaced it with increasingly negative and ludicrous reports which now dominate the supposed “news” about Arsenal.  Arsenal is thus made the laughing stock of football, not because it is, but because such a scenario is convenient to journalists.   Here are just a handful of the latest stories…

1:  ‘If this is true every player needs to be sold’ – These Arsenal fans react to damning rumour about Ljungberg

This comes from Read Arsenal and tells us that “A number of Arsenal fans have shared their reaction to the rumours suggesting the players are “refusing” to support Freddie Ljungberg.”   That number appears to be five.  The evidence that this is the case is… non-existent.

But “these Arsenal fans have shared their reactions on social media” anyway, and the blog felt it was worth publishing.  The overall suggestion is that the club is doomed.

2:   Freddie Ljungberg identifies the one change that can end Arsenal’s winless streak 

Football.London spent quite a lot of space reminding us that Unai Emery had now gone, and Freddie was in charge.  And allegedly his big tactical insight is, “If you score the first goal you don’t have to go chasing the game.”   I doubt he actually said that in isolation, but even if he did, is it worth a headline for any reason other than to trivialise Arsenal?

5:  Ljungberg calls on senior Arsenal stars to halt ‘downward spiral’ 

Goal.com ran this headline which if it is about a real event at all, is about an event of no consequence.  So the boss said, “Come on guys, show the youngsters how to get a grip.”   Well, yes, pretty much as you might expect.   Is it a story?  No.

6:   Freddie Ljungberg explains why Arsenal youngsters are not being trusted to end Gunners’ woes 

Football.London’s third offering in our top ten as befits a blog with a 40 Arsenal stories a day habit.  And the story is that quite reasonably Freddie does not want to place the burden of turning the string of losses into a set of wins on the  youngsters shoulders.   Pretty big news eh?

7:   Marcelino lands in London amid Arsenal speculation 

The Metro always has the feel of a retrospective publication, and its return to the old “spotted at the airport” theme fits in with this totally.