By Tony Attwood
When it comes to pointing out the latest load of codswallop from the perfidious English media, Untold Arsenal is quite often not only in the lead but often we are simply out there on its own. Indeed, if you are a long-term reader of my ramblings you will know that some readers criticize Untold for endlessly going on and on about the perfidious media and its coverage of Arsenal.
But maybe we’ll have to reign that in following an excellent article from Football365 which opens with the headline “Arsenal anxious after Arteta admission with lessons learned over latest Liverpool revival”
That looks like the usual load of turnips being dug up, but no, they are in fact joining in the fun of poking bad writers with pointed sticks (although other implements are available). For their story actually says, “Never one to miss an opportunity to mine clicks, the Daily Mirror website stoke the flames of speculation with this headline: ‘Mikel Arteta admitted leaving Arsenal is ‘inevitable’ as Barcelona eye hiring him as boss’.
“In the first paragraph, we are then told that: ‘Mikel Arteta has admitted it is “inevitable” he will one day be sacked as Arsenal manager amid speculation Barcelona are keeping tabs on the Spaniard.’”
But as they then clarify, Arteta’s statement actually was, “As a manager, probably, [the biggest fear is] the fear of getting sacked. I made a very conscious decision the day I made the decision to be a head coach, I said it would happen, today, tomorrow, in a month’s time, in ten year’s time, I don’t know when it will happen.” The comments were made on Michael Calvin’s “Football People” podcast on October 6.
So there we are; we are not alone. At least one other website (and quite possibly many more) is fully aware that most football commentary that comes pouring out day by day is mindless drivel, written with the intention of misleading supporters into thinking Arsenal is forever falling apart.
And I would guess, they also think it is worth commenting on, because when supporters believe the tripe that the media expounds day by day about Arsenal, then, the moment results go against us, they will turn on the team.
That is understandable of course – having been fed day by day stories about the manager jumping ship, the hundreds of players who we could easily have signed but went elsewhere because we were too slow or too mean with the money, and the ludicrous tactics Arsenal currently adopt, which could easily be improved if only the club would employ this semi-skimmed journalist who has never worked in a football club in his life, obviously some fans are influenced by the barrage.
So, many thanks to Football 365 and the “Football People” podcast. And maybe the message will go forth and multiply, or whatever the message equivalent of that phrase is. We can only hope it happens.
But let’s move on with some injury news ahead of tomorrow’s game…
We know Emile Smith Rowe is out, but we are now being told that there is a potential return date of 26 December. And although Arsenal are not admitting to anything new in relation to Mohamed Elney (the last formal club statement was 2 September) it seems he had recovered faster than imagined.
Indeed Arseblog has the headline “I’M BACK” – ARSENAL BOOSTED BY ELNENY’S RETURN TO TRAINING”. They quote a post on Instagram, in which Mo wrote: “Surprise, I’m back. #Ready to Fight.”
Bukayo Saka has also been downgraded (or should that be uprated) from “No return date” to “ready to play”. That may well not mean that he will play in the Europa on Thursday, but could be back for the next league match, which is something of a relief.
Oleksandr Zinchenko was said to be “very close” and “back very soon” on 20 October, so we can take it he’s back. With Matt Turner however there doesn’t seem to be any news around but there really hasn’t been any news for the last few days, so we don’t really know.
But as we pointed out in the last piece we do have at the helm our most successful permanent manager ever in terms of win percentages for managers who have overseen more than 25 league games. Which in itself is rather encouraging.
