Why have the media got it in for Arsenal?

When Arsenal lost a couple of games in a row just before Christmas we got slaughtered by the football media, even though they were two very tough away games at Everton and Man City, and despite the fact that Arsene Wenger and the lads had previously been on a long unbeaten run and had played some great football and won some big games, like the demolition of their golden boys Chelsea in September.

That was it according to the football press, the Gunners had blown it. No mention of the heavy fixture list and the massive injury problems the boss was having to cope with, just the usual snide remarks about bottling it, lacking leaders and the Gunners having the same old frailties.

Well where are the similar stories about the magical Jose Mourinho’s failure to make the mega money splashing Man United even top four contenders, or the untouchable Liverpool of Jurgen Klopp’s capitulation against the bottom club Swansea (at home no less just a week after they were tonked by Arsenal on their own ground)?

Nowhere, but instead the Arsenal page of the Metro website is full of reports sniping at us for one reason or another. In one story they cannot decide whether to get at Wenger for pushing the fourth official in that touchline row or to castigate him for not pushing hard enough, as they opted to go with the following headline – ‘Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger accused of girly push on fourth official Anthony Taylor’.

In another they have a go at Giroud for celebrating his dramatic equaliser at Bournemouth when Wayne Rooney just tried to go for the winner after his landmark goal on Saturday. Really? He can’t celebrate after clawing Arsenal back from 3-0 down with 20 minutes left? Righto!

So although Chelsea got lucky again when Hull did not get a clear penalty to level the game, Spurs and Liverpool were frankly awful, Man City’s defence is leakier than a sieve and United still huff and puff without scoring enough, the media find things about Arsenal to criticise. Why?

Bob.

11 Comments

  1. Spot on article Bob. Even many here get sucked into the medias vortex of negativity. Especially if they already harbor a grudge against AW. It only fuels their hatred…

    1. Nothing the English media like more than building up something only to tear it down spectacularly. Chelsea and Mourinho were the scapegoats last season after being built up following their title win the previous season. Leicester are having a quite a terrible time of it now too because the press loves a grass to grace and back to grass story- it supposedly humanises. I wonder if Rooney even remembers how he was ripped to shreds following his dip in form- he was the problem for both club and country as I recall. Now after a record breaking goal to snatch a point away at mighty Stoke, he is the darling of the media (for this week).
      Unfortunately for Arsenal, we are an easy target especially when the Press have nothing to write about. No outlet mentioned when Giroud picked up the ball following his assist for the comeback goal at Bournemouth and returned it to the centre circle, it was the celebration post the third goal that mattered. Sean Dyche was in Anthony Taylors ear along with his assistant berating him all game; AW says the word ‘cheat’ to Moss and he is sent to the stands and charged for what has now been described as a ‘girly push.’ Sky are especially selective in what they choose to show anyway. Defour stomped on Xhaka and before he could react, the cameras were switched away- obviously not to set bad examples for kids watching at home. Keeping the camera on AW during the shove while the match had actually restarted was better for the kids and the paying viewers. Their viewing figures are down anyway because of the poor quality matches they bill as “Super” these days. Besides unbiased camera angles are available on live streams elsewhere.

  2. The only way to shut the media off is to keep winning until the end more our results against top 7 has to improve. I was like this:

    V L’pool L
    V city. L
    V ever L
    V Manu D
    V tot. D
    V CFC W

    That’s actually not good enough, improving on this and maintain the other results and we will champions.

  3. If you think you are being criticized,what you have to do is to prove the person wrong.Simple as that.
    Arsenal is never known to prove anybody wrong for the past 12 years.
    Were the media criticizing arsenal before the last 12 years when we were winning trophies upon trophies?
    Take it or leave it, the media are saying the truth.
    Giroud has no winning mentality,he Should have known arsenal needed the three points before any celebration but he celebrated like we’ve won the match.Tell me ,were you happy the way we played against Bournemouth?
    This and many others account for the reason why we are 8 points bind Chelsea.
    We were also fortunate the referee gave us a penalty because Kos was offside.Did the media say anything about that?
    Come on !! Are we the only club being criticized always?
    It was a clear penalty so no need for Wenger to push the fourth official.That was silly on the part of Wenger.
    You love it when the media hav a dig at Mourinho?
    “Blame anything but Arsene ” fans.

    1. agree, very good points raised here.. there are obvious things that we shouldn’t be biased based on our love for the club or the old man. some have gone against us and some have gone on our favor, that’s the flavor of football. what is football without controversy? Maradona’s hand of God, Penaldo diving, Dean celebrating Spurs’ goals, ref giving Ronaldinho a red while he meant to give him a yellow, and so on, all these adds flavor to the sweet game of football

  4. I have read a number of stories criticizing Pep and their aging squad, even before Christmas.
    There were also a number od articles questioning Jose and the poor results Man U got. Both managers have not even been in charge of their clubs for one season.

    To me the media in the UK are brutal with any club and more so manager when they taste blood. Look at their role in the firing of managers, including last year Mourinho.

    They don’t just have it out for Arsenal they have it out for any team struggling. Arsenal are an easy target and our lame capitulation against a struggling Everton after being 1-0 up and the same the following weekend against City made for easy criticism, but we the fans, were not happy with those efforts either.

  5. the Media along with pundits especially the Liverpool bunch live in the current success of Liverpool when in fact it’s just a run of good form that has dipped again. the media have alot to do with managers loosing their jobs and as paranoid as that sounds you can’t help but think that they have had no such success with wenger.if arseanl had no champions league football it would a dream come true because then and only then would it be a sign of a team loosing their way because they lack some imaginary quality that other teams have .do you any team that leads by example with champions league football. ‘hell no ‘ so they don’t talk about it, the media helped the f a to get that misconduct charge on the way and that idiot Sol Campbell thought he was being cleaver by mentioning it like he decoded a riddle

  6. The media have it in for Arsenal (or more rtelevantly Arsene) becuase of several reasons, firstly as that odious little ginger turd Adrian Durham sooo succinctly put it, “Arsenal fans bite” we are always the most vocal and the most defensive and a whole lot of that stems from the fact that we are prickly about ten years of under acheivement after so much potential and broken promises from both Wenger and the board so while we still love our club and defend its actions against all critisism we are pinfullt aware that when people like the siad “odious little turd” critisise the club for lack of ambition and spending despite the highest charges of any team in Europe and a manager who collects 8 million a year for repeated failure we still feel the need to defend the club through loyalty and ingrained sense of pride.
    Its like bear baiting for the press, especially NOT helped whena team that SHOULD be challenging fails to, a manager who should be improving fails to, and a club who SHOULD be spending and showing MORE ambition …fails to.
    You can blame the press in a way, they ask the questions we all want to know the answers to, yet get fobbed off by Wenger with the attitude that EVERYBODY who asks these questions are stupid, Its always the refs fault OR the linesman or the other teams dog, OR every pundit in the world is wrong and cant see the genius that is AW’s plan of action ect ect.
    THATS WHY THE PRESS ARE ALWAYS AFTER HIM and the club cos he’s made himself a target and he has’nt won anything of note for a decade, The press are loathsome in many ways but with Arsenal they ask the questions thet we as fans are NOT allowed to and when Wenger does his usual thing they get annoyed and go after him

  7. Why the media got it for Arsenal,we bottle some games we are expected to win, proving some pundits that hates the club right time after time, games are not comfortably won,last season we had a better away record than home,We have an overall poor result against the big teams for the past 5 years,we haven’t won the league for 12 years now,we haven’t made a proper challenge in Europe for 10 years and on top of it we have an Owner who doesn’t care about football,just the money he makes,so many reasons. If Arsenal wants the media to slowly get off their back,the club has to win trophies,starting with the EPL,then Beating chelsea and bayern munich next month,playing confidently on the pitch. Somethings I said might be so negative,but deep down we all know that’s the fact.

  8. As much as we may not like it, if you give the media something to talk about they will talk, even our past players jumps on anything negative about arsenal, it is just the way of the world.

    I will just say that the only way we can stop these negative comments is to continue winning games.

    The thing that i find rather amusing is when ex-players criticises some of the present players for not doing certain things on the field and in their hay day they were actually worst, that is like the pot calling the kettle black

  9. I guess this article is based on alternative facts, because everyday I read articles in the press about how poorly pep is doing at man city, yet he’s been only 6months in a different league. When man utd couldn’t win a match to save their lives, we heard about it non stop, this is a mourinho who just started coaching man utd. When arsenal beat Chelsea 3-0 conte was next in the firing line. Kane/ibra go 7 matches without a goal, even untold arsenal is writing articles about these. So, who is the press for? Who are they against?
    U win titles, go unbeaten etc, you’re the professor, Mr arsene knows best. You can’t win a title in young man’s lifetime, of course it means you don’t know what you’re doing.
    AKB writer, u celebrate the press when they celebrate you, don’t cook up alternative facts when they castigate you

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