Stop The Favouritism by Dan Smith
There are a lot of theories of what is wrong with Arsenal at the moment, but one of our serious issues is our players are not as good as some make them out to be. It’s created a culture within our fan base where they are so desperate to see us succeed, they try to convince themselves a talent is better than in reality.
That’s why Gooners are comfortable to blame the same names, while others they won’t have a bad word said about.
For example, I wrote an article saying it was unfair to make Bellerin a scape goat for our loss in the NLD.
Call me old fashioned but you win as a team, you lose as a team? Bearing in mind we are 15th, that doesn’t happen based on only a couple of players being rubbish.
Out of the 76 comments to my piece, here’s how many of our squad got what you could call negative feedback….
Bellerin 8
Xhaka 4
Ozil 3
Mustafi 3
Holding 2
Willian 2
Kolasinac 2
Chambers 1
Saka 1
Sokratis 1
Auba 1
When you dissect who did what was wrong for Spurs’ 2nd goal, a player deciding he was just going to walk off the pitch during a counter attack didn’t help. Yet no one mentions that in the comments!
To clarify readers were harsher on 5 players who didn’t even play last Sunday compared to a player who left us a man light at the back.
As the week progressed, the following topics were submitted…….
Ian Wright not happy with our tactics of crossing the ball so much
Arteta would be sacked if he were English
Laca needs to offer more
Queries over our throwing coach
Should we just sell Willian in January?
I only found a couple of articles about Partey walking off, which for me was a crucial moment in the game. Both I read were more a criticism over our manager’s handling of the situation and a defence of the midfielder.
Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion and free to write whatever they want. Yet let’s be honest. If that was Xhaka or Mustafi doing what Partey did, would they have escaped any criticism?
At the very least would they have not been questioned why they didn’t lay on the pitch and give the official the option of stopping proceedings?
Only you know you moral compass, but I know the answer.
Partey is our 45-million-pound signing who we want to believe is world class.
So in other words we now have favourites? Which means we are not objective? How we judge what we see is based on who does it. That’s called an agenda.
I support the name on the front of the shirt, not on the back.
I call a spade a spade. Partey I hope will be a decent purchase, but he messed up last weekend. Can you imagine a Vieira doing that at the Lane?
Some have blamed everyone but the midfielder, saying it shows the lack of leadership because clearly no one had told him the significance of the fixture.
He’s 28 years old? He’s been coached by Simeone? Do you think he would get away with that in the Madrid Derby?
While we are on the subject of favouritism, can we stop saying how great Gabriel is and how he’s the signing of the season. Again, a classic sign of you wanting to believe that, so you run before you can walk.
He scored and kept a clean sheet at Fulham and straight away he was a great signing? Just wait and see, he could be great but when your 15th in the Prem no one has been great. Was he great when Villa were scoring 3 at the Emirates? Yet go back to that game and it was all Holding’s fault.
At Old Trafford wasn’t Holding just as good as Gabriel? Can you name me another great Gabriel performance? West Ham maybe? Liverpool in the League Cup? Certainly not enough to be immune from the flak his peers get.
The same happened with Sokratis.
He was Unai Emery’s buy and fans were slow to ever question him, because it was easier to pick on a Mustafi or Koscielny because they were from the Wenger regime.
Partey and Gabriel could become great players for Arsenal, but it is okay to point out if they too are not playing well. It doesn’t make you less of a fan.
In his last year Arsene Wenger claimed we were in danger of losing our values. We have fans with an agenda. One rule for some payers, different for others.
Is it me or did our fan base never used to be like this?
Dan Smith