Mediawatch: Arsenal and Koln troll Spurs fans! Erm…

Matt Stead

Moyes on film
On Friday:

Also on Friday:

“Every time Andy plays is everyone going to say, ‘That’s a foul’? I think it’s becoming ridiculous. He gets zero protection.”

Even from his own manager.

 

Busy thinking ’bout Moyes
“I didn’t do enough due diligence before taking the Sunderland job. “I came back and made a poor choice in the club I chose” – David Moyes, November 8.

Well at least you’ve learned from your mista…

“I was not aware of the problems before I came, I was a bit surprised when I heard it [the board criticism]” – David Moyes, November 24.

Oh.

 

Thorn in his side
Martin Samuel has seen Antonio Conte’s complaints about the Premier League’s fixture schedule, and raises the stakes in his Daily Mail column: If you don’t like it, go and manage West Brom.

‘If Antonio Conte does not want to play in the Champions League, he has options. West Brom, for instance,’ Samuel writes. See, we weren’t joking.

‘There is a club whose schedule is very rarely complicated by European commitments, and they’re in the market for a manager.’

Let us stop you there, Martin. Antonio Conte does want to play in the Champions League, he just aired legitimate grievances over travelling 5,000 miles to play a game in Azerbaijan on Wednesday before facing Liverpool in the Premier League less than 72 hours later. That seems fair enough.

Not so. ‘Conte is unhappy because Chelsea played in Baku on Wednesday and must now travel to Liverpool on Saturday,’ Samuel continues. ‘It was an exhausting journey with precious little turnaround time; but it did not have to be this way.’

Samuel goes on to suggest that Chelsea should not have dropped five points in two games to Roma, making their game against Qarabag important in terms of finishing top of the group. ‘Conte could have sent a different team east, and kept key players in reserve for Liverpool,’ he adds, in this alternative scenario.

Because he definitely would not have been criticised by the media for resting players in the Champions League. He might as well pack his bags and head for The Hawthorns now.

 

Trust fall
Atop every article on the Daily Mirror‘s website reads the words, ‘We are part of the Trust Project’. It links to an ‘About Us’ section, the third line of which states: ‘We are committed to reporting the news accurately and with energy and vigour.’

Mediawatch decided to bear that in mind when scouring the website on Friday morning, before stumbling across one particular story. Considering the headline – ‘”Tottenham are s***!” Arsenal and Cologne fans “join forces to troll Spurs” during Europa League tie’ – it is unlikely anyone would miss it.

By the first line, ‘join forces to troll Spurs’ becomes ‘seemingly joined forces to troll Tottenham Hotspur’. Quite the climbdown, and we are but a few words in.

As we reach the third paragraph, even ‘seemingly joined forces’ suffers a demotion: ‘In the video above captured by Arsenal Fan TV’s @MrDtAFC, he claims that Arsenal and Cologne supporters can be heard chanting “Tottenham are s***!” to each other across the pitch.’

So someone from ArsenalFanTV has taken a video and it is he who ‘claims’ that Cologne joined in with the Tottenham-baiting chants? Someone from ArsenalFanTV is literally your source?

Within seconds of the story being tweeted, onlookers who knew better were more than happy to correct the Mirror.

So how did the Mirror respond? Well, they didn’t. A story they based on a slightly biased account – ‘Arsenal Fan TV’s @MrDtAFC’ was your first clue – was publicly called out for being false, and yet they have just ignored it. The headline still states (not even suggests or claims) that Cologne fans ‘joined in with Arsenal’ in chanting “Tottenham are s***!”.

And no, you don’t get away with it just because you put “join forces to troll Spurs” in quotation marks, despite you not actually quoting anyone.

‘We are committed to reporting the news accurately and with energy and vigour.’ But boy, aren’t those clicks delicious?

 

Set-piece of p*ss
Paul Merson is here with his Sky Sports Premier League predictions and, in a relatively straightforward week, there is little to pick at.

Until…

“I’m going to go for Palace in this one. They’ve been knocking on the door recently, and have been unlucky. I thought Stoke were quite fortunate on Monday, so I’m going 2-1 to Palace. They’re dangerous at set plays.”

Crystal Palace have scored zero goals from set-pieces this season.

 

Magic
Merson has also been speaking to The Debate on Sky Sports, and had some choice words with regards to Mesut Ozil.

“Ozil was head and shoulders above all of the Tottenham players,” he said. “On his day, he’s better than all of them. If Dele Alli plays his best-ever game, and so does Ozil, you’d take Ozil all day long.”

Mediawatch is reluctant to ever reference a north London derby combined XI again for fear of breaking the internet, but needs must. For Merson was obviously asked to choose one before last week’s game, and duly did as such.

Selections for Dele Alli: One.

Selections for Mesut ‘better than all of the Tottenham players’ Ozil: Zero.

“On his day” or not, that’s still a bit silly.

 

Get your Phil
Said Phil Neville on Match of the Day on November 18:

“It was a dive, 100 per cent a dive. He goes down trying to win the penalty, I think it was a soft penalty and I think Crystal Palace are really unlucky.”

Said Phil Neville on Sky Sports‘ The Debate on November 23:

“I feel sorry for Niasse. I think it’s an absolute disgrace.”

Make your mind up.

 

Cutts above the rest
‘Henrikh is facing fight for future’ – Daily Mirror, November 24.

‘Henrikh Mkhitaryan faces serious battle to hold down Man Utd place’ – Daily Telegraph, November 23.

‘Henrikh Mkhitaryan fighting for Manchester United career just 16-months after arriving at Old Trafford’ – The Sun, November 20.

Weirdly-placed hyphens aside, it turns out Daniel ‘online gubbins’ Cutts really does have the inside track on Manchester United, despite his exclusive being only online and not in the newspaper. Everyone else is just playing catch-up.

 

Play the game

‘Isn’t Sonic that fella I signed for West Ham?’

 

Questionable headline of the day
‘No ‘L’ in Gabriel’ – The Sun.

Yes there is.

 

Recommended reading of the day
Oliver Kay reunites trio who scored hat-tricks in the same game.

Jonathan Wilson on Liverpool’s defence.

Hugo Greenhalgh interviews Giles Barnes.