Arsenal will never do right by anyone it seems!
Being an Arsenal fan we have to go through quite a lot of ups, downs, negatives and positives from all around the world.
But we have learnt the hard way at times that all we really need is our loyal Arsenal family because nobody else matters.
And so what is the point of this article you may ask well here I will explain!
So last night the Newcastle v Southampton Carabao Cup match was on in the background. (Although I’m an Arsenal fan I love my football so I don’t need an excuse to watch it especially if I cant watch my Arsenal boys when they don’t have a game. Just saying😜)
And so it was one small commentators comment that made me both chuckle (sarcastically) but also shake my head.
The incident that made me do this was when on the pitch Southampton’s Lyanco fouled Newcastle’s Guimaraes and in doing so received a yellow card by referee Stuart Atwell.
Yet that was not the end of it because after a little melee from both sets of players coming up against one another he was forced to book Saint Maximin after he ran into the melee and pushed Lyanco for flooring his teammate.
Now I have nothing against players doing that I think team spirit and togetherness is great and it gives fans belief when they see their team together caring for one another, but what did get me annoyed was the commentary.
One of the commentators, -and forgive me for not knowing his name, he was one I’ve not been used to hearing before, – said “Eddie Howe will not mind that, his teammates sticking up for each other, that’s how it should be.”
And yes at times that is how it should be, sometimes letting your temper get the better of you can help in games and sometimes it can affect games.
Now what really annoyed me was that if it was Arsenal players doing that, and one player in particular, I think it’s safe to say going off previous, Granit Xhaka would be a name that comes to mind, I am 99% sure the commentary would be very very different.
And we know for sure had it been an Arsenal player the card would have been red not yellow.
So really if we didn’t know it, it just goes to show how one sided some, not all, commentators are!
They always have been so we shouldn’t expect any different but it does make me chuckle just a little every-time I hear them say something positive about other clubs when I know they wouldn’t say the same had it been Arsenal.
Shenel…
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I think you’re a bit paranoid.
I don’t think the writer is a bit paranoid, rather you are a bit parochial
Do you really know what parochial means, or paranoid even?
It’s been that way for decades.
Spot on HD!!
I can’t work out if it’s us arsenal supporters or if supporters from other clubs are hard done by too
I know that I will call out for a penalty for us but have a totally different reasoning if the boot is on the other foot
Irrational of course!
I have known only that way all my life as an Arsenal fan.
There was a time when Liverpool and Spurs were struggling in mid table but there was no criticism from their former players while they couldn’t help criticizing Arsenal and Wenger even though we were miles above them.
Gary Neville and Co has always been painting Man Utd as a force to be reckoned with every season since the great Alex left but they have been worse than us more often than not.
Any Arsenal fan who doesn’t believe there is and always has been a bias against us makes me wonder if we are watching the same games and listen to the same pundats.
Yes HH. They are the media darlings. It’s amazing the way the media praise that lot from N17 even though they’ve won nothing for over a decade. The media slag us off even though we’ve won FA Cups.
Neville plays it well. He criticises United but always with the caveat that they will be a force in the future. Arsenal’s criticism was always nothing is ever good enough even the top 4 and the wheels are always falling off.
Even last year Neville stuck his oar in seeing what Arteta was doing and said well top 4 is his ceiling at Arsenal so he’ll leave for another club so he can win titles. It’s deliberate, he wanted to ramp up the Arsenal can only go so far narrative such that the top 4 would be not a success, once achieved how long does Arteta stay? repeat ad-nauseam to create that storm.
What do u expect? We are unique, we are special even when we are not winning trophy. I hav seen pple become an arsenal during the worst time to be an arsenal fan, the time even I stop watching arsenal game in protest. Our fans are the most active and vocal on the Internet. Pple talk about us to be relevant and haters hate cos they don’t get why we are so love. Arsenal is a religion
I didn’t see the game so I can not comment on it.
However the point I believe you are making has been going on for years.
When I lived near the club and went to games I would buy the football edition of the Evening Standard and wonder if the paper had been to the game i had been to.
No matter how well we played the other team were always the better team.
At the moment the wonder boys of football who know so much about football they can’t hold a job in football dare not attack the players this season.
So they are going after the manager because he supports the team.
when he should be doing what they do that is: watch the game with their thumbs in their mouths wondering how they can slag off Arsenal.
The times ‘they are a changing’ but it would seem to me that some things never change and one of them is the damming if Arsenal do and the damming the club if it doesn’t.
It’s difficult for humans to be completely unbiased, because we have emotions and cultures
Luckily, we have advanced technology in football now, so any official decision can be evaluated thoroughly
For example, our last goal against Man United. I bet it would’ve been decided as an offside, if it happened before the technology existed
I’m a retired referee as well as a gooner. That gives me a different perspective. When I watch any game I pay more attention to the referee and where he is when he makes a call and how he handles disciplinary situations. I do not notice any prejudice against Arsenal on the part of any of the referees. Some individual players, like Xhaka, earn themselves a bit of adverse prejudice but not whole teams.
The arsenal “don’t like it up em'” era? Coniciendly the period in time that knocked Wenger down. 24th October 2004. Go watch that game as a ref and explain the decisions. Equally explain the aftermath and then the years of Arsenal “just don’t like it up em” explaining the insane levels of fouls committed leading to the repeated broken legs. Only when it spilled over into Europe and effected Barca and UEFA clamped down on it did we see a change in rules regarding dangerous tackles and those tactics in general.
If you can’t find the whole match and your looking on youtube watch the mike riley (evadparry) one not the sky one which shows some issues but not all and makes Rooney’s dive seem innocuous.
For context for those who forget or were not alive or old enough then. At the time the media generally believed Wenger was embarking on an era of unprecedented success and where Sir Alex had fallen short often in Europe Wenger would succeed that was the message the entire summer before in tabloids which dominated everything then. I think PL incorporated and the PGMOL by extension got scared.
Donalds thank goodness there is at least ONE non paranoid Arsenal fan on here.
I am not at all surprised that you are a ref and therefore probably one of few unbiased fans anywhere. The sheer hypocrisy from biased fans who convince themselves that refs have an anti Arsenal agenda and are themselves biased against us, is of course complete nonsense.
But it is the staggering lack of intelligence shown by so very many extremely pro Arsenal biased fans that most makes me weep with frustration.
I say this as an Arsenal fan since age seven and I am now 71.
It doesn’t have to be a conspiracy if enough vested interests share the same interest it’s not a conspiracy but happens the same and to be fair PGMOL is chock full of legitimate conspiracy. It’s a fairly uncompetitive arena because they take so much abuse. Never mind the pay gap when financial incentives are needed and you’ve been abused previously.
Intelligence is what it is, my Dad’s mensa and caused me all manner of grief in my life and continues to do so. His intelligence doesn’t make it better. The same way my intelligence doesn’t make me better than anyone i talk to on this site. Content of my arguments and whether they make sense or not do. That is it and your never always right no matter how well thought out because you might have missed something (even if its something you’d never seen before, still missed), that’s life.
Also an intelligent man like yourself Jon would surely already know conspiracy theory was a term coined by the CIA to distract from legitimate theories.
Angus, Yes I do know that, though it has no relevance at all to this matter. On your father and the matter of intelligence, I simply take a polar view from you.
I have always found intelligent people to be far more use to society than dull witted folk. And many fans, though perhaps not dullwitted in normal life matters , ARE dull witted in thinking refs have an anti Arsenal agenda.
If you doubt this , just look on other teams fan sites and you will the same paranoia as on here. QED!
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
It is my firm belief that after Wenger’s extraordinary success in Highbury era he embarked on a new direction that was nothing short of superhuman intelligence!
At the time when the billionaires had started pouring extraordinary wealth in the PL the great Arsene went in the other direction and at the horror of many he was actually succeeding. David was winning and the Goliaths were afraid.
The great Arsene was an obstacle to the new era lest others follow his approach.
What followed was a conspiracy and sabotage with everyone in it. The refs, the media, Stoke city etc…..
Ridiculed in the media, career ending injuries to our players with refs laughing it off and the FA doing nothing. We were the only team to be ridiculed for achieving top 4 while for the others it was a huge success.
The media even managed to turn fans against the great Arsene and the extraordinary work he did to make the club stable for many years to come.
The reason Wenger was ridiculed by the media AND us match going fans was he ranked top four higher than winning the domestic Cups !
You have paused aging? When I started commenting on this site approximately three years ago you were already over 70!
Donald, I am also a retired referee and a Gooner.
I would like to ask you, as an example, if you saw any biased refereeing when the Neville brothers kicked Reyes all around Old Trafford?
Or when PV was sent off for, supposedly, kicking van nistleroy at Old Trafford?
Or when Sol Campbell was alleged to have fouled Rooney, leading to a penalty at Old Trafford?
Or when AW was sent to the stands, after being red carded at Old Trafford?
Or when United players regularly surrounded the referee to argue his decisions at Old Trafford?
Or when Fergie would point at his watch and the referee would play extra time that no one else could explain at Old Trafford?
Fast forward to today and seeing MA being booked for breaching the technical area.
Was Pep booked for kicking a water bottle and hitting someone?
Was Klopp sent off for running on to the pitch?
I’m sorry my fellow Gooner and ex referee, there always has been harsher treatment of The Arsenal, than any other PL club.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.
spot on here ken.
—————————-Mad About Arsenal——————————-
Made me smile
I’ll add the effectively last man foul by ferdinand in the 50 game at Old Trafford, and I’ve never been sure exactly what the penalty that van nistelroy missed against us (the one that sparked the infamous reaction from our players, keown in particular) was given for. Note that the most memorable or decisions occurred across 2 key games btw.
I also remember an awful foul by nistelroy on Ashley Cole that didn’t get justly punished but not sure which game it was.
I do think we got more than our share of bad decisions in those days, but it was overwhelmingly in games against utd – if you want to claim bias, I’d be thinking of it more in terms of bias in favour of utd than against us, especially when you think of the way “fergie time” and “Scholes can’t tackle haha (and so it’s ok if he two-footed that guy)” wasn’t particularly aimed at us, it affected everyone they played against.
Comparing wenger’s sending off in 2009 to incidents that happened years later with Klopp and guardiola is a bit much. Those kinds of manager incidents are rare, and there aren’t such clear rules about how to handle them, so it’s not surprising if different refs react differently.
Also, in the old days, our players were quite bad wrt surrounding referees, to be fair – it wasn’t just utd that did that. keown and parlour have been quite open about it since.
But here we are in the present, seeing MA being pilloried for stepping out of the technical area, while Pep not only stepped out, but also kicked a water bottle that hit someone – meanwhile, we have seen klopp and mourinho run half the length of the pitch to celebrate a goal… and all of those incidents were depicted as three managers showing passion and enthusiasm.
This is the commentator reaction (which I don’t believe is so one sided as all that) rather than referees?
You have to admit, MA is an especially energetic manager on the touchline, far more than most in general. It’s not surprising he attracts attention for it – he might even be doing it intentionally…
Ken, even back in the 80’s Utd were favoured over us. 2 games in the 82/83 season spring to mind. The 1st leg of the League Cup Semi Final at Highbury, Whiteside did a dangerous tackle on O’Leary early in the game and only got a yellow card, which the Utd players, lead by Robson protested about, saying it was his 1st foul.
The second was the Semi Final of the FA Cup at Villa Park, where Stewart Robson was running the game for us and they ended up kicking him out of the game.
I still can’t understand how David Luiz got sent off a few years ago at Wolves. He’s chasing the Wolves players, the Wolves players boot then hit Luiz’s knee, he falls over and the ref gives a penalty and sends Luiz off. Scandalous.
Donald there may not be bias against Arsenal but it was there for United. As Ken and others have given examples. I remember one game united vs city there were 3 minutes of added time but the game ended in the 98th minute right after Owen had scored the winner. Or that spurs disallowed goal with the ball nearly touching the back net but the refs didn’t see it whereas the whole world did.
We were robbed of few titles back then because of refs favoring united.
Post Highbury Wenger was a threat against many getting wealthy so he was really subbotaged.
Last season, Tierney refereed Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat by Chelsea at home, booking three Arsenal players and none from Chelsea.
He refereed three Arsenal games last season, all of which Arsenal lost. The third game was Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
Paul Tierney is from Greater Manchester. That’s a record of P3 L3 GF0 GA8 under Paul Tierney last season.
How can he be totally neutral? Just my opinion.
What an utterly ridiculous and biased article!
I wouldn’t say you are biased – just always right.
Charles you are far too kind and also incorrect I am often wrong but one thing I am not is a person who will not recognise and thus make allowances for my OWN Arsenal bias. My own bias , when I am not bantering other teams fans, in print, is something I control and do not let it make me believe in untruths, as so many on here sadly do.
Even ones who I would regard as intelligent, in general
You say in a comment here that you are 71 some one has commented that you are in fact 73. Who is right?
I can’t get past the assumption that some commentator you’d never heard of before would have called an arsenal game differently in the same circumstances, as though he/she must be a part of this supposed culture of bias (conspiracy?) against arsenal.
Some commentators/pundits probably do hold a level bias against arsenal, others will have a bias in our favour – some will even overcompensate in trying to work against that bias in whichever direction. Often, though, it’s our own biases that affect our judgement of incidents, and of commentators’ differing opinions on them.
This is textbook victim mentality.
Davi, commentators who are biased have no control over the outcome of a game – referees who are biased have control over the outcome of a game.
One two letter word difference, that can produce such a major outcome to a game.
You are right – I was addressing the article, here, which was focused on the commentators, rather than the referees (or at least three example given in the piece was).
I personally don’t see much evidence of serious bias in refereeing against arsenal in the present. I do think we get lucky about as much as we are unfortunate these days. I do agree with you that something was fishy about some of the officiating of Manchester utd games when ferguson was in charge, but that’s about it. (I was far more minded to believe there was a conspiracy against us in my younger days, tbh).
Please Shenel, do not turn JA into Untold Arsenal. One conspiracy blog is quite enough.
We get our share of bad referee calls, the same as most other clubs, and some pundits are always biased against us, but I’m sure the players & manager etc aren’t thinned-skinned enough to be quivering over what match commenters may or not say about us, and really, we make our own PR. The media is full of us right now. and justifiably so.
Untold site provides evidence for its claims. What evidence do you have for your claims?
For most pundits and whoever, the only evidence they provide for their claims is their festering tongues.
If you know your club history then you will know that Arsenal were the team of the thirties. They were tagged, labelled ‘Lucky Arsenal.’
So we can forget the skill of the players. the ability of the management of the club. we were ‘LUCKY’ that’s all,
Try challenging Untold on some of it’s so called “evidence” and see how quickly you’ll get barred.
Why do you think it has such a minuscule commenters section?
There’s no acolytes and suck-ups left who believe in the absolute BS, and in the way an honest Arsenal supporting Guardian journalist was regularly accused of deliberately misinforming her readers.
The original title of ‘The Guardian’ newspaper was ‘The Manchester Guardian’ and notorious for its mistakes.
RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT IS ???????
Remember that we’re also not allowed to celebrate victories. Especially those hard-fought ones, away from home and with a man less.
Disagree with the article which I think is ludicrous People really need to get over their paranoia.
Of course Arsenal have had bad decisions against. Does this mean there is general bias against Arsenal?
Some pundits aren’t interested in Arsenal or favour some other club. That’s life.
Don’t dwell on it
Refs are humans and humans are prone to error..that why we have VAR
Some decisions did go our way and vice versa
If there was an agenda we wouldn’t be first