by Ivebeen Downthepub
Let’s knock Arsenal. Find a story, any story, and paint Arsenal in a bad light. Here are just eight of the current crop of raging negativities…
1: Arsenal’s goal should not have stood in the game v Villa
“‘I’ve just seen a replay’ – BBC man claims VAR made huge potential Aston Villa error v Arsenal.
The story is that “in the 41st minute of the game, Thomas Partey seemed to have a hold of Tyrone Mings in the Gunners’ penalty box, preventing him from fairly attacking a Douglas Luiz cross.”
Trouble is, very few other people think so.
2: Gabriel Magalhaes to miss games.
Why Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes is set to miss games following Brazil decision
It is of course nothing to do with Gerrard, but apparently, the Indy thinks he has the right to tell an Arsenal player how to conduct himself.
4: Time to get Xhaka
Of course, if it is an Arsenal match with Xhaka playing then that is going to be a great opportunity for the media to kick someone, and if there is a kicking to be done the Mirror is in there first.
Ex-ref plays down Granit Xhaka theory and claims Arsenal star’s booking “had been coming” is the headline as Dermot Gallagher (of whom it has been said) “defended the decision to give Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka a yellow card, as he believed the former Gunners’ captain had it coming.”
Now I am not sure “he had it coming” is technically an offence in football and even the Mirror admits that “the nature of the incident seemed to be very minimal, thus making the decision a very harsh one.”
Team Talk gets involved in this one too, with the headline ‘He can’t complain’ adding “Gerrard bashes Arsenal talent for moaning about Aston Villa physicality.” Note the use of the pejorative “moaning”. Gerrard is quoted as saying, “I’m sitting here now with screws in my hips, I’ve had about 16 operations, I’m struggling to go to the gym at the moment,” and I am wondering if Gerrard is saying that is a good thing – that is how football should be. “I got an MBE for being kicked.” If so he should give it back.
5: Who is not signing for not who?
‘He will not sign’: Fabrizio Romano tweets huge update on Messi-like Arsenal and Spurs target
Thus runs the headline from HITC again with the suggestion that the player won’t sign for Arsenal, when in fact they are saying he won’t sign for Juventus, and could well sign for Arsenal. But they just can’t bring themselves to write a positive Arsenal headline.
6: Don’t exaggerate, don’t overexaggerate, don’t self-exaggerate, just don’t…
Former PL referee claims “Saka is overexaggerating challenge from Mings.” And I wonder about this over-exaggerating malarky. Does that mean that exaggerating is good, over-exaggerating is bad? Sadly
7: The forced sale
Yes TalkSport, the sprout of all knowledge, tells us via that headline that Saka’s current deal with Arsenal expires in 2023, though, the Gunners have the option to extend it for a year, which you would think they would activate.
“The 20-year-old has lit up the Premier League this season and looks to be going to the very top. Therefore, you can’t see the England international leaving on the cheap in the summer and given that they have opened contract talks with their academy graduate, it is much more likely that he commits his future to Mikel Arteta’s side.”
So what is the point of a headline about the sale that Arsenal may be forced to make? Forced by whom? Why? We are not told, largely because this is a load of mindless drivel.
8: The £19m player’s performance
There was one big problem with £19m player’s performance for Arsenal on Saturday
We are back with the endlessly unhappy HITC who tell us that “On far too many occasions, Leno’s distribution let him down against Aston Villa. Goal kicks were flying out of play for throw-ins or going nowhere near Arsenal players. This ultimately allowed Villa to get the ball back and launch attacks, especially in the second half.”
Now I don’t have any statistics to show a) how many Leno kicks went out for throws, and b) how many kicks go out for throws from other teams.
The research I’ve found suggest there are on average 17 goal kicks per PL game, so let’s say Arsenal had eight of these. I didn’t count how many were taps to defenders but perhaps half, so that is four. So maybe two goalkicks went out of play. And that is a headline maker?
What a bonkers load of twaddle.
Make it 9.
Several reports on the over zealous celebrations we were guilty of after the Villa victory following complaints by Young and Gabby Agbonlahor. Apparently we are the only ones who celebrate victories and it has got to stop, all the other teams just trudge off miserably after winning a game.
@Mick,
from what I saw, it was more the team celebrating Leno’s clean sheat and Leno’s impeccable save at the last minute. It was the team happy for one of them more then the team happy to have won.
Any kid or team sports lover could see that. But then again all these so-called journalists are noe thing NOT : sports lover.b
Xhaka yellow card proves that he is target for the referee, one foul and the referee was telling him that’s his 3 foul of the day and Demot Gallagher who has the chance to proper watch the game before passing is almighty opinion support such clear stupidity of the highest order by saying he got it coming.
Now we can’t celebrate winning football match again because players are now getting petty against us, the see the youngest team in the league all going out to bully them only to have their ass kicked and running around the field trying to lay a glove on them comes out beaten around will result to labeling us over celebrating.
Everybody as run out of negative articles to write so they can just come up with totally bulls story just to keep traffic on their sites cause all their anointed teams are falling like flies everywhere.
What are perfect season for the ALL OR NOTHING TV SERIES.
Thanks for all your hard work collating and presenting shed loads of statistical evidence to back up just about everything you state.
On a different tack entirely did you hear or see anything about Mikel’s meeting with the officials who rig matches?I was expecting a full confession , but not so much as a peep.
Moving on isn’t it about time we swapped referees with those in the J-league now that Riley’s retiring from accepting brown envelopes from dodgy sources this could be our moment to gain the initiative. 👍🧐👍
As a p.s. the last post needs the following added to it IE ‘allegedly ‘
This is 3 months old, but contains some shocking statements from Mark Halsey – Premier League Referees Struggling
Steven Gerrard’s comments about Saka highlight the double standards with which he conducts his affairs. Airports can’t be much fun with all of those screws.
@Seismic,
imagine the uproar if Mr Wenger would have allowed himself to criticize a specific player, or if Mr Arteta did.
I’ve lost all respect for the guy now. Just a sore loser taking out his frustration from his supposed ‘hero-wise man’ position on a young player.
But the best part is that Saka probably just shrugged it off, and thought twice before deciding not to hammer him on social media like the youngster he is could have done….for example :
well at least I did not fall because of the wind from the other player’s run…they had to actually hit me ;=))
Chris and seismic
“well at least I did not fall because of the wind from the other player’s run”
A very windy day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP8u_AD2VCk
The guys a totalhypocrite.
And another windy day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1jvUjuzKn8
And another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvLJFoEEm-c
Jeeez. people like Gerrard really shouldn’t of been given a mouth.
@Nitram,
glad I made you smile….
Nitram, the second video was notable, not only for the dive, but for a rarity – a correct decision from Mike Riley.
Seismic
Good spot. Rarer than Rocking Horse $h!t.